José Bica had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Torreense were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Rafael Barbosa 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 Kévin Zohi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Leixões asked and Botafogo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Leixões can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Braga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joel Oliveira is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kévin Zohi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões 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 Rafael Barbosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Oliveirense spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Emanuel Moreira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Afonso Nascimento, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Rafael Barbosa 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Kévin Zohi 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.
Nobody at Leixões 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Oliveirense in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Leixões, and it is not being withdrawn.
Portimonense pay $400.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Leixões asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is going to Casa Pia, the club has $1.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 Leixões, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Raniel 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leandro is living that version at Leixões, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Rodrigo Guedes at that price
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Leixões asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Kanurić 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.