Marked for Alexandre Monteiro
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
Jordan Holsgrove 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Khayon Edwards’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Estoril Praia.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Khayon Edwards at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Estoril Praia.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Ferro
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market27 Sep 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” João Teixeira has his answer from Estoril Praia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Estoril Praia
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Simao Ribeiro could afford to be generous.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Alexandre Monteiro damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Gonçalo Costa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estoril Praia can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Olympiacos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Jordan Holsgrove and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Estoril Praia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright Arrey-Mbi 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Estoril Praia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Xavi Sintes knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Xavi Sintes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estoril Praia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Jul 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Estoril Praia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Grêmio is saying, and nobody at Estoril Praia is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Felgueiras wanted more than $880.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Bright Arrey-Mbi 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ricard Sánchez 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Estoril Praia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan move for Roman Yaremchuk is in the works
Estoril Praia have made the call to Olympiacos. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Alexandre Monteiro damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Pizzi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Estoril Praia is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Jordan Holsgrove 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The step up is real for Martim Dias
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Estoril Praia asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Fernando Medrano 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan move for Gabriel Grando is in the works
Estoril Praia have made the call to Grêmio. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estoril Praia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estoril Praia can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jun 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estoril Praia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Bright Arrey-Mbi 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 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santos have kept their man, and Estoril Praia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Cortulua have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estoril Praia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Estoril Praia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer from Casa Pia for Tiago Parente was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Jordan Holsgrove and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Khayon Edwards for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Estoril Praia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Estoril Praia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bright Arrey-Mbi 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
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 dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khayon Edwards, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 May 2027
51 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Alexandre Guedes, 33, rolls back the years — 8.51
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.51 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
This is not rotation. Pizzi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Estoril Praia is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 May 2027
Jordan Holsgrove 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on André Lacximicant
15 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match1 May 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Alexandre Guedes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Estoril Praia.
Market3 May 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandre Monteiro has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market3 May 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pedro Lopes has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.