At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Lusitânia Lourosa found something the first half had given no notice of, and Oliveirense could not hold what they had.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aymen Leghrib has just signed for Lusitânia Lourosa, and for once the answer mattered.
Vando Félix 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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Dylan Collard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Romário Cunha has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lusitânia Lourosa is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Portimonense for Vitor Hugo 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lusitânia Lourosa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rúben Alves 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Dylan Collard 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.
Famalicao will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Athos Sousa has pre-agreed a move to Lusitânia Lourosa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lusitânia Lourosa has been clear about where Aly Palacios stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lusitânia Lourosa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mika 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Vando Félix 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.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Vitor Hugo 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lusitânia Lourosa has to find a result from somewhere.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Rúben Alves 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. Vando Félix 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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Philippe van Arnhem is living that version at Lusitânia Lourosa, and it tends to show in the first month.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lusitânia Lourosa has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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 Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Dylan Collard 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lusitânia Lourosa has been clear about where Fabinho stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
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.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Farense for Paulité 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.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
Add another name to the list: Gil Vicente have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rodrigo Macedo. The answer from Lusitânia Lourosa has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
Vitor Hugo 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
At 23 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.
Rúben Alves 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Dylan Collard 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lusitânia Lourosa will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Maritimo will make the call about Silvério Júnio this week. Lusitânia Lourosa have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
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.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Leixões have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vitor Hugo. The answer from Lusitânia Lourosa has not changed — yet.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lusitânia Lourosa will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lusitânia Lourosa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Vando Félix 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.
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.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Dylan Collard 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lusitânia Lourosa can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Josué Sá will want back
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lusitânia Lourosa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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 was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
Rúben Alves 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Dylan Collard 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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lusitânia Lourosa is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Dylan Collard 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 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.
AVS left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Josué Sá'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.
Naïs Djouahra 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Vando Félix 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.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Lusitânia Lourosa scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Fabien Quéré, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miguel Teixeira and Lusitânia Lourosa agree another 4 years.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Vitor Hugo 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lusitânia Lourosa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal that would have taken Aly Palacios to Arouca has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Lusitânia Lourosa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxence Metayer is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Naïs Djouahra and Lusitânia Lourosa agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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; Lusitânia Lourosa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rúben Alves. 1‑0 against Tondela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lusitânia Lourosa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadDylan Collard falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lusitânia Lourosa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Lusitânia Lourosa know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Lusitânia Lourosa signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Lusitânia Lourosa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $210.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Oliveirense drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
In brief
SquadDylan Collard has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lusitânia Lourosa can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 16 and 35 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
Rúben Alves 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Dylan Collard 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mathéo Chaigne has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lusitânia Lourosa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lusitânia Lourosa can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Lusitânia Lourosa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Rúben Alves 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.52 — 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.90, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad8 Mar 2027
André Sousa 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.
0‑3 to Benfica B, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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 Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Lusitânia Lourosa will not try tonight.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lusitânia Lourosa is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Dylan Collard 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lusitânia Lourosa pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lusitânia Lourosa has to find a result from somewhere.
Rúben Alves 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. André Sousa 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.
Nobody at Lusitânia Lourosa 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Rúben Alves 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it 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 Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lusitânia Lourosa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lusitânia Lourosa has to find a result from somewhere.
“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; Lusitânia Lourosa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Collard 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 Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lusitânia Lourosa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dylan Collard 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.
8 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.