The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Farense can pretend not to have heard.
Nehuén Pérez 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Farense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Iván Jaime 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Farense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nehuén Pérez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Léo Alaba has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Farense have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sarpreet Singh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lucas Velásquez is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Vialle trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Sporting CP B next, and one man in the Farense dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Farense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Farense are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Farense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estoril Praia have kept their man, and Farense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pedro Maranhão and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Reisinho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergio Goncalves has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pedro Simoes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andre Dias has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Reis has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Leonel Pérez is in the works