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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Portimonense will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Leonardo Marcano has pre-agreed a move to Chaves, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues 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 doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Chaves will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Moreirense, and it is not being withdrawn.
André Ferreira 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Moreirense, another week without a signature from Dinis Pinto.
Marked 4.40. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Kiko Bondoso 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.
3 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabiano Souza 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Moreirense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moreirense 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Moreirense scored in the 119th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Afonso Assis did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Kiko Bondoso 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Michael Dacosta González 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dinis Pinto, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Landinho 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.
14 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.
1 for Mateja Stjepanović, marked 7.97, 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.
Kiko Bondoso 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maracás 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Landinho is living that version at Moreirense, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moreirense 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 offer from Arouca for Gilberto Batista 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.
Kiko Bondoso 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 Moreirense, another week without a signature from Dinis Pinto.
Still no offer on the table, and Kiko Bondoso’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dinis Pinto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadJimi Gower falls out with a teammate over standards