“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 The request is on a desk at Moreirense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
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 Rodrigão has written the date down.
The language is arriving, the jokes are landing, and there is somebody at the next peg to talk to. None of it appears in a scouting report and all of it shows up on the pitch.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Moreirense the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dinis Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Moreirense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fábio Martins 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: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Dinis Pinto 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.
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.
Nobody at Moreirense 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Gil Vicente will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Moreirense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
17 combined actions and 7.57. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francisco Domingues and Moreirense agree another 4 years.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Rio Ave, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match31 Mar 2027
Magno Cruz wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Magno Cruz found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Rio Ave went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dinis Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Moreirense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Moreirense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tiago Andrade is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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.
Rodrigo Alonso 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.
“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 dugout29 Mar 2027
Kaíque Rocha is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dinis Pinto’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Moreirense needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
“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; Moreirense are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dinis Pinto 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
João Veloso 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Vitoria Guimaraes scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Kiko Bondoso
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Manuel Mendonça is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigão 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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 Andreas Schjelderup is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dinis Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Moreirense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
13 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.
Fábio Martins 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: 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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.
At 22 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Moreirense can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
12 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.
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Dinis Pinto 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.
Moreirense asked and Portimonense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 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.
11 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moreirense can tell you which week it ends in.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Moreirense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clock did what Feirense would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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 Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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.
“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.
Everything agreed with Feirense, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Moreirense 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Moreirense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Dinis Pinto 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Moreirense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Moreirense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moreirense can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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.
Magno Cruz 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Moreirense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The chase for Andreas Schjelderup ended with $11.3M changing hands and Benfica out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
7 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: 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.
Nacional pay $1.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Dinis Pinto 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. Matías Lacava has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Moreirense have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
$11.3M on the table at Benfica. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moreirense can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Académico de Viseu have kept their man, and Moreirense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Manuel Mendonça is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
5 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moreirense can tell you which week it ends in.
Fábio Martins 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateja Stjepanović and Moreirense agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Miranda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Simao Almeida is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lucas Nascimento has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Fábio Martins 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 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 Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Manuel Mendonça and Moreirense agree another 5 years.
21 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout28 Dec 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 Francisco Pacheco left the room before anybody could ask which.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Mika: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moreirense can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Manuel Mendonça is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Maracás and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. João Veloso did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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.
Rodrigo Alonso 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexandre Duville-Parsemain has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Francisco Pacheco could afford to be generous.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Moreirense 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 Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. João Veloso 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.
The goal that put Vitoria Guimaraes ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Moreirense equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Fábio Martins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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 Moreirense 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.
“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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Moreirense did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dinis Pinto 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.
Rodrigo Alonso 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
João Veloso is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Moreirense will try very hard not to make too much of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Moreirense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Moreirense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Veloso is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Dinis Pinto 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fábio Martins 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. João Veloso 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fábio Martins. 1‑0 against Arouca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Francisco Pacheco, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting João Veloso's mistake
5 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.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dinis Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Maracás may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Francisco Pacheco was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Moreirense dressing room was either.
Nobody at Moreirense is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Moreirense can pretend not to have heard.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Moreirense are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dinis Pinto 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.
Moreirense asked and Universidad Catolica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Rodrigo Alonso 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: 17. 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.
“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.
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.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Moreirense have done the hard part with Flamengo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Dinis Pinto 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitoria Guimaraes have kept their man, and Moreirense go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jalal Abdullai is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Moreirense can pretend not to have heard.
Leonardo Vonić 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dinis Pinto 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.
Moreirense asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Landerson again, and this time the name on the line is Tondela. Moreirense are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Francisco Pacheco to a room that had heard them before.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Moreirense have done the hard part with Académico de Viseu, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kiko Bondoso 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Vonić 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.
Moreirense asked and America de Cali said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gustavo Silva is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jose Borges is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nuno Miranda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Maracás wants continental football; whether Moreirense can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fábio Martins 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandre Duville-Parsemain was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Moreirense 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.
“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.