The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Sanjoanense moved on, Dario Špikić reports back to Rio Ave, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 29 gone
That is the business done at Rio Ave 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.
Rio Ave asked and Trofense 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 name of Gustavo Nescau has come up in conversations Rio Ave were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental 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.
“I watch every Rio Ave game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Trofense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Thiaguinho 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Rio Ave will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The mood at Rio Ave has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adriano Firmino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rio Ave, another week without a signature from Ennio van der Gouw.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rio Ave have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at Rio Ave, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Sporting CP for Andreas Ndoj 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giorgos Liavas and Rio Ave agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Thiaguinho 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. Porto have kept their man, and Rio Ave go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marcos Vinícius 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.
“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.
Ole Pohlmann 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiaguinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Rio Ave can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
17 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Rio Ave now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Rio Ave training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adriano Firmino 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Rio Ave training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiaguinho 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 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.
Marcos Vinícius 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rio Ave are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I watch every Rio Ave game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Amarante runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rio Ave know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Thiaguinho 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 Rio Ave 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 Rio Ave can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rio Ave can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Thiaguinho 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rio Ave, and 2 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Dec 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Rafael Pinto to a room that had heard them before.
Thiaguinho 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.
Giorgos Liavas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ole Pohlmann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Porto.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rio Ave told Andreas Ndoj something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amine Rehmi, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nelson Abbey 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cezary Miszta signs something — a contract at Rio Ave or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Porto in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rio Ave lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Penafiel go through and Rio Ave go home, 3‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Samuel Alves will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Rio Ave escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thiaguinho 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rio Ave, and 0 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estoril Praia have kept their man, and Rio Ave 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 Rio Ave people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adriano Firmino has just signed for Rio Ave, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Rio Ave 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.
$1.4M on the table at Portimonense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Thauan Lara enough to be asked twice.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gustavo Nescau
SquadAdriano Firmino falls out with a teammate over standards
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rio Ave people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: La Equidad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.