Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rio Ave will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Rio Ave, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Rafael Lobato 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Ole Pohlmann was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.64. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rio Ave this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Jakub Brabec 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.
Yann Karamoh 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7.74, 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.
Tomás Pérez 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 Feb 2028
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yann Karamoh 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 5.28. 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Yann Karamoh 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.
Martim Cunha 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Yann Karamoh.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto B will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tomás Pérez 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” João Teixeira and Porto B agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Brás 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.
Position 1, 50 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Leixões had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Porto B did not stop to explain themselves.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Yann Karamoh 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tomás Pérez 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.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto B know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Martim Cunha 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 8.49 — 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Zaidu Sanusi in the middle of it, and Maritimo unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Gabriel Brás 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.69 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Yann Karamoh 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.
Martim Cunha 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Pacos de Ferreira spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cardoso Varela did not need any: 8.58, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Up for the corner, and Zaidu Sanusi delivers — 7.88
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zaidu Sanusi scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Tomás Pérez 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 2‑1 win over Pacos de Ferreira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Brás 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.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Yann Karamoh 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.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yann Karamoh 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.83 — 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.
Oliveirense will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Porto B were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cardoso Varela provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto B know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
26 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cardoso Varela did not need any: 8.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Teixeira is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Porto B and Felgueiras in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yann Karamoh 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tomás Pérez 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. João Abreu did not need any: 8.38, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Teixeira is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Tomás Pérez 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.
At 19 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.
Three points for Porto B, 2‑0 the final word against Torreense in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Yann Karamoh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.67. 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Yann Karamoh
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Porto B have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto B know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto B can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto B know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Yann Karamoh 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.
Add another name to the list: Penafiel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Diogo Fernandes. The answer from Porto B has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yann Karamoh 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yann Karamoh 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Jan Bednarek 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 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 Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Pérez 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.
Gabriel Brás 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Porto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Gabri Veiga 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.86 beside his name.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tomás Pérez did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Yann Karamoh 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Pérez 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kauê Rodrigues 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Porto B told João Teixeira something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
2‑1 against Benfica B, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
The deal that would have taken Yann Karamoh to Braga has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Porto B with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Position 3, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Gabriel Brás 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.
At 18 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 name of Gonçalo Ribeiro has come up in conversations Porto B were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bryan Caicedo did not need any: 8.52, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Porto B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Brás 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 Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Veron. 2‑0 against Leiria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Gabriel Veron in the middle of it, and Leiria unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bryan Caicedo did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Gabriel Veron 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 Dec 2026
Yann Karamoh 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.
At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Gabriel Brás 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.