Marked for Fabio Marques
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
Fabio Marques breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market20 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for João Costa
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Costa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arouca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Arouca
Lee Hyun-Ju and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Arouca
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jose Fontán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A defender's afternoon for Javi Sánchez
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Serginho 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Goncalo Dias after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
Fabio Marques breaks a bone — 27 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arouca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Arouca
Javi 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
At last: Arouca win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Estrela da Amadora. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Arouca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Veron 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Dylan Nandín’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arouca.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Arouca
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Arouca is running low.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Goncalo Dias has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Arouca can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Fabio Marques out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arouca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match4 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Arouca's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arouca has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arouca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Arouca
Lee Hyun-Ju 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Arouca
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Veron was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adebola Oluwo and Arouca agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Feb 2028
Supporters organise against the Arouca board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match28 Feb 2028
Arouca are in real trouble now
Position 18, 16 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match26 Feb 2028
0‑3 to Braga, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Fabio Marques out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arouca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match26 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Arouca's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arouca has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arouca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Lee Hyun-Ju 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 Arouca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Jose Fontán 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.
Market28 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
49 days out for Fabio Marques after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arouca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Batata says Arouca went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market21 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for João Costa
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Costa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arouca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match19 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Arouca's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arouca has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Arouca
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Veron was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Gabriel Veron at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arouca.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Arouca are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Kostas Kostoulas will call it something else in private.