The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Penafiel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Joan Femenías 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.
Sondre Auklend 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 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.
João Gonçalves 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.
A 1‑0 win over Portimonense, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Iano Simão 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.
Sondre Auklend 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iano Simão 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 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. João Pinto has just signed for Penafiel, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Penafiel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Joan Femenías 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raúl Alcaina, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Iano Simão 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 Penafiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Penafiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raúl Alcaina 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.