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 Vitoria Guimaraes 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Vitoria Guimaraes are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arnel Jakupović signs something — a contract at Vitoria Guimaraes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 The request is on a desk at Vitoria Guimaraes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Benfica for Telmo Arcanjo 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marco 09 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vitoria Guimaraes is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Porto were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Ciurria and Vitoria Guimaraes agree another 2 years.
The offer from São João de Ver for Tony Strata 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Caldas moved on, Miguel Nóbrega reports back to Vitoria Guimaraes, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The phone has started ringing about Mateja Stjepanović again, and this time the name on the line is Amarante. Vitoria Guimaraes are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Vitoria Guimaraes can give him that is a question about the club, 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 Vitoria Guimaraes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Vitoria Guimaraes asked and RWDM 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of 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 Vitoria Guimaraes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Telmo Arcanjo. 2‑0 against Gil Vicente, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Kiyani Zeggen now has 25 of them across 66 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Gustavo Silva scored in the 86th minute, Académico de Viseu had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Vitoria Guimaraes took the lot.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Silva. 1‑0 against Académico de Viseu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The deal that would have taken Fabio Blanco to Porto has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Vitoria Guimaraes with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
7.50, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Telmo Arcanjo wants continental football; whether Vitoria Guimaraes can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Telmo Arcanjo. 3‑1 against Casa Pia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Gustavo Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
“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 Vitoria Guimaraes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 25 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Simao Barbosa kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
AVS will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vitoria Guimaraes were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Vitoria Guimaraes, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vitoria Guimaraes heard it as anything else.
Miguel Maga 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Simao Barbosa could afford to be generous.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He is 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Telmo Arcanjo. 2‑0 against Penafiel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“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 Vitoria Guimaraes, and 4 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Vitoria Guimaraes 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.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vitoria Guimaraes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
6 goals in one match, Gustavo Silva on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Vitoria Guimaraes and Famalicao.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Silva. 4‑2 against Famalicao, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Miguel Maga 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Iván Fresneda 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitoria Guimaraes can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vitoria Guimaraes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tony Strata and Vitoria Guimaraes agree another 5 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simao Barbosa after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Farense have kept their man, and Vitoria Guimaraes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Alioune Ndoye has come up in conversations Vitoria Guimaraes were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I watch every Vitoria Guimaraes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Racing Ferrol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gustavo Silva has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vitoria Guimaraes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitoria Guimaraes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Vitoria Guimaraes 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miguel Maga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arnel Jakupović signs something — a contract at Vitoria Guimaraes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Vitoria Guimaraes have no good answer.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 39 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leonai Souza wants continental football; whether Vitoria Guimaraes can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Samu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Vitoria Guimaraes pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simao Barbosa after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1 for Mateja Stjepanović, marked 7.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonai Souza and Vitoria Guimaraes agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Tondela were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Óscar Rivas 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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.
“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; Vitoria Guimaraes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitoria Guimaraes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matija Mitrović 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vitoria Guimaraes, and 2 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Samu is on it.
In brief
The dugoutTelmo Arcanjo knocks on the manager's door
3‑1 against Turan Tovuz, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitoria Guimaraes 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.” Alioune Ndoye and Vitoria Guimaraes agree another 3 years.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Matija Mitrović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
2‑0 against Turan Tovuz, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Gustavo Silva takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo Silva provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Óscar Rivas 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. Tony Strata 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 watch every Vitoria Guimaraes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Académica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.