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.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Austria Salzburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
9 seasons and 423 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wilhelm Vorsager and Austria Salzburg agree another 2 years.
Austria Salzburg asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Austria Salzburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Salzburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sergio Bermejo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilhelm Vorsager 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dario Bijelić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Austria Salzburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Austria Salzburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Austria Salzburg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Sturm Graz, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dario Bijelić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 149 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.
Austria Salzburg asked and WSG Tirol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Parkadze 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Austria Salzburg saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Austria Salzburg, another week without a signature from Sergio Bermejo.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Austria Salzburg have made the call to Red Bull Salzburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Austria Salzburg can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sekou Diancoumba is living that version at Austria Salzburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Sergio Bermejo 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 had been thinking. Dario Bijelić 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.
Austria Salzburg asked and Grazer AK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Austria Salzburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Borja Galán has his answer from Austria Salzburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Austria Salzburg, another week without a signature from Ben Wilson.
In brief
Boardroom103% of the income goes out in wages at Austria Salzburg
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilhelm Vorsager 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.
Something was said to Dario Bijelić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matthias Theiner trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Austria Salzburg that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Austria Salzburg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A new face in his position, and Vinko Čolić suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Austria Salzburg have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Jack Lahne 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.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Austria Salzburg, and 13 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Austria Salzburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Jack Lahne 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.
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilhelm Vorsager 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Austria Salzburg, another week without a signature from Borja Galán.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Austria Salzburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marinko Sorda and Austria Salzburg agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Marko Lazaro leaves with $13.1K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout7 May 2029
Sergio Bermejo is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Sergio Bermejo is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Austria Salzburg, another week without a signature from Patrick Erras.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilhelm Vorsager 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Austria Salzburg is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Vinko Čolić has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Salzburg 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 Wilhelm Vorsager was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Austria Salzburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Position 16 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sergio Bermejo 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 Wilhelm Vorsager was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Austria Salzburg 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Adam Richardson's mistake
Position 16 on 16 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Austria Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.82 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dario Bijelić has his answer from Austria Salzburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilhelm Vorsager was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jack Lahne.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Austria Salzburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Sergio Bermejo 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.
Austria Salzburg asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Austria Salzburg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Miguel Almeida has just signed for Austria Salzburg, and for once the answer mattered.
6 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.
“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 Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Austria Salzburg until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Austria Salzburg now.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Daniel Nunoo 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.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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 Austria Salzburg can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Sergio Bermejo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Lahne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Austria Salzburg asked and Rapid Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody at Austria Salzburg saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Austria Salzburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Austria Salzburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yannic Fötschl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Austria Salzburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with Austria Lustenau, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rapid Wien keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Austria Salzburg can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Austria Salzburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Austria Salzburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
This is not rotation. Matthias Theiner has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Austria Salzburg is pretending otherwise.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Jack Lahne 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 Austria Salzburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Austria Salzburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Austria Salzburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marko Lazaro after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sergio Bermejo is living that version at Austria Salzburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Sergio Bermejo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Nunoo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Austria Salzburg, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Austria Salzburg know which stage they are at.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Olimpija Ljubljana had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jose Ferreira has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Sanjoanense drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Santi García 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bruno Marques has, at Gil Vicente, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Gil Vicente asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Martín Fernández had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Braga paid $1.8M and Gil Vicente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A loan enquiry to Athletico Paranaense: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gil Vicente are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gil Vicente told Sergio Bermejo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zé Carlos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Gil Vicente 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.
“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 Gil Vicente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andreas Lausen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gil Vicente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mohamed Bamba wants continental football; whether Gil Vicente can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Gil Vicente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fafe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Gil Vicente asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Gil Vicente have made the call to Cianorte. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
6 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andreas Lausen had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gil Vicente have done the hard part with Vitoria Guimaraes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jose Ferreira left the room before anybody could ask which.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Héctor Hernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Weverson 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Héctor Hernández trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Something was said to Agustín Moreira and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Vizela defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Santi García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Gil Vicente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Héctor Hernández 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.
Something was said to Tidjany Touré and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Gil Vicente will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Ricardo Esgaio is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Gil Vicente would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gil Vicente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gil Vicente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jose Ferreira could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Gil Vicente 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.