Marked for David Miranda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Sep 2026
Alverca ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Miranda breaks a bone — 16 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Diogo Clemente was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedro Soares. 1‑0 against Sanjoanense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Diogo Pinto knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.48 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Marco 09 had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
André Lopes dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jorge Costa kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jair Tavares has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Marco 09 will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
23 days out for David Miranda after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marco 09 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Renato Santos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match19 Sep 2026
São João de Ver left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ricardo Ribeiro, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Diogo Pinto in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marco 09 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Jorge Costa left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A Marco 09 teenager takes the young player award
Gonzalo Pastor is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
33 days out for David Miranda after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marco 09 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Pedro Soares takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Soares provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Paredes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Marco 09
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renato Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Marco 09 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Vasco Rocha
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marco 09 are still strangers to each other
27 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
41 days out for David Miranda after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marco 09 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 40 in, 23 out at Marco 09
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 40 arrived, 23 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Marco 09
Flávio Ramos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Marco 09 asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Fogaça, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Vító asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
48 days out for David Miranda after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Marco 09 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Tomás Silva
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Marco 09 have done the hard part with Académico de Viseu, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match29 Aug 2026
Varzim left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Marco 09
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renato Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
João Miguel gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Marco 09
Nicolas Dâmaso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Jorge Costa to a room that had heard them before.