15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marco 09 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rúben Gonçalves 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pedro Oliveira after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marco 09 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Pedro Ribeiro 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.
Jaime Simões 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.
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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad2 Nov 2026
29 new faces, and Marco 09 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Frederico Namora 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Ribeiro 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marco 09 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Marco 09 has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Pedro Costa has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marco 09 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathieu Oliveira 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Juankar 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Ribeiro 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Marco 09 told Beni Souza something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vitória Guimarães B in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes David Vinhas a promise
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marco 09 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marco 09 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 22 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.
Everybody at Marco 09 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.
He is 23 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Frederico Namora 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathieu Oliveira 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pedro Ribeiro 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.
Dinis Oliveira 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for João Castro
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marco 09 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Ribeiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jaime Simões 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Marco 09, another week without a signature from Bura.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marco 09 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Mafra; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 39 signed and 23 gone
That is the business done at Marco 09 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 deal with Rio Ave 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Braga is saying, and nobody at Marco 09 is enjoying the guessing.
Marco 09 asked and Grêmio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathieu Oliveira 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.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marco 09 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Marco 09 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Ribeiro 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.
Diogo Gomes 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.
0‑1 to Varzim, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 Pedro Oliveira left the room before anybody could ask which.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marco 09 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Frederico Namora 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 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Marco 09 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Ribeiro 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.
“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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Marco 09 are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for David Vinhas
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Marco 09 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nacional keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marco 09 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético CP have kept their man, and Marco 09 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.