Marked for Anthony Carter
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Bruno Menezes breaks a bone — 54 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Vizela's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vizela has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Vizela
Antonio Gomis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Vizela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Lacava 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Vizela cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Vizela will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Miguel Tavares 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Bruno Menezes out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vizela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The game went through Angel Bastunov — 6.94
Marked 6.94 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match7 Nov 2026
Vizela cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Luís Rocha 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 Vizela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jean-Pierre Rhyner 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Dieguinho
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vizela, another week without a signature from Andrea Hristov.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Anthony Carter
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
108 days out for Bruno Menezes after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vizela will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vizela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Porto B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Vizela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Pierre Rhyner 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Oct 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Rodrigo Ramos shuts the door
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The dugout
No place in the plan for Luís Rocha
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Vizela have gone to Braga with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market10 Aug 2026
Vizela say no — this time
The offer from Estoril Praia for Manu Garrido 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$4.1M on the table at Santa Clara. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets10 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.0M — a club that wants Vitor Carvalho enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anthony Carter commits to Vizela for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vizela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dieguinho gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dieguinho has just signed for Vizela, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Antonio Gomis and Vizela agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Vizela
Antonio Gomis 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Vizela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Vizela
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean-Pierre Rhyner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Vizela 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.