57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AVS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AVS can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Rodrigo Pinho 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Roberts Kukulis is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koba Koindredi 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.
AVS asked and Villarreal 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 words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AVS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Koba Koindredi 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Koba Koindredi 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Carlos León is living that version at AVS, and it tends to show in the first month.
Chaves will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Diaed de Alba has pre-agreed a move to AVS, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Brasido 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastian Jensen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AVS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rodrigo Pinho 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 had been thinking. Koba Koindredi 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mateus Anderson has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means AVS have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
7 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.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer went to Braga this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Henrique has just signed for AVS, and for once the answer mattered.
The fee is $220.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Académico de Viseu drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Rodrigo Pinho 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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
AVS and Oliveirense have settled on $300.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Koba Koindredi 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 had been thinking. Tiago Ferreira 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AVS, another week without a signature from Tiago Galletto.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Rivas asks for a word with the manager
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Koba Koindredi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Rivas asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AVS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Pedro Trigueira has agreed terms with Rio Ave for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Demir Ege Tıknaz 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 had been thinking. Pasquale Mazzocchi 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 words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pasquale Mazzocchi 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.
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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Duarte Ribeiro recited it perfectly.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bernardo Conde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AVS the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raul Steffens wants continental football; whether AVS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Koba Koindredi 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.
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Koba Koindredi 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 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AVS will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AVS has been clear about where Rúben Semedo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
155 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Pasquale Mazzocchi 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 had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at AVS has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The words a physio says slowly. 165 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Koba Koindredi 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 had been thinking. Pasquale Mazzocchi 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.
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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutDiogo Brasido knocks on the manager’s door
Koba Koindredi 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Louis Scherer has, at AVS, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pasquale Mazzocchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
“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 AVS, 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.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Pasquale Mazzocchi 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 Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AVS told Pasquale Mazzocchi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Rodrigo Pinho takes the afternoon — 8.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrigo Pinho provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fábio Cardoso 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 Pasquale Mazzocchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Aderllan Santos.
In brief
The dugoutRaul Steffens knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AVS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Koba Koindredi 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Felix Onana has, at AVS, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pasquale Mazzocchi 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.
16 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether AVS can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Koba Koindredi 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 had been thinking. Pasquale Mazzocchi 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad28 Feb 2028
5 new faces, and AVS 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.
0‑3 to Casa Pia, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pasquale Mazzocchi 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 0‑3 Ricardo Marques left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tiago Ferreira is living that version at AVS, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bernardo Conde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AVS the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.03 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
12 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Demir Ege Tıknaz 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and AVS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The goal that put Gil Vicente ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when AVS equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
AVS had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Osasuna, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Koba Koindredi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Fábio Cardoso 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: Farense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jean-Pierre Rhyner. The answer from AVS has not changed — yet.
Minute 90, against Braga, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Demir Ege Tıknaz 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Fábio Cardoso 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.
AVS asked and Osasuna 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jorge Aguirre will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at AVS escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Koba Koindredi 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Nilton Cardoso has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means AVS have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
AVS asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AVS can tell you which week it ends in.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stade Rennais is saying, and nobody at AVS is enjoying the guessing.
Koba Koindredi 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 Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 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.
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.
Koba Koindredi 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Fábio Cardoso 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.
AVS asked and Corinthians 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Koba Koindredi 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 Demir Ege Tıknaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Pinho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AVS can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso 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 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 Ricardo Marques to a room that had heard them before.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andre Green 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 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.
Position 10, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
Koba Koindredi 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 Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 6.70 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Eduardo Teixeira
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS 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 Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Rio Ave had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AVS has been clear about where André Ceitil stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Académico de Viseu had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and AVS did not stop to explain themselves.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Demir Ege Tıknaz 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Meireles 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.
7.70, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. AVS had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ricardo Marques kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutFábio Cardoso knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Koba Koindredi 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 had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso 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 was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Koba Koindredi 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 Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricardo Marques after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutRodrigo Pinho dropped after a run of poor form
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Casa Pia had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and AVS did not stop to explain themselves.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ricardo Marques on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AVS will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ricardo Marques after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Koba Koindredi 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 Fábio Cardoso 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Meireles 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Gil Vicente were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Ricardo Marques could afford to be generous.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.59 for the rest of it.
Koba Koindredi 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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AVS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 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 AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Fábio Cardoso 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Vitoria Guimaraes had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
5 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 23 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.
Koba Koindredi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Fábio Cardoso 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
AVS asked and Cremonese 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Francisco Goncalves has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sergio Soares is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leiria waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AVS is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Koba Koindredi 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davi Schuindt is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
AVS asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Moreirense had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Koba Koindredi 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 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Raul Steffens has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raul Steffens wants continental football; whether AVS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gustavo Daniel is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Fábio Cardoso 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.
AVS asked and Alianza Lima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Max Svensson takes the afternoon — 8.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Max Svensson provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Demir Ege Tıknaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Koba Koindredi 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 20 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Koba Koindredi has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
AVS offered $74.0K; Benfica said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
$890.0K on the table at Torreense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Koba Koindredi 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 20 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 had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso 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.
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nottingham Forest have kept their man, and AVS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sebastian Jensen is living that version at AVS, and it tends to show in the first month.
AVS have gone to Portimonense with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
AVS asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Brasido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Koba Koindredi 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.
$64.0K was the most the club would pay and Famalicao were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
AVS asked and Vizela said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Fábio Cardoso 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.
6 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Demir Ege Tıknaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andre Green 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Francisco 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. Rafael Simoes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The offer went to Felgueiras this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Felgueiras have kept their man, and AVS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Raúl Alcaina ended with $1.1M changing hands and Penafiel out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
AVS have gone to Famalicao with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 23 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.
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.
Koba Koindredi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Koba Koindredi has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AVS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
AVS and Leixões have settled on $3.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 AVS, 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.
Koba Koindredi 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonathan Silva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
133 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AVS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with Penafiel; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Koba Koindredi 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 18 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.
Pacos de Ferreira pay $490.0K, 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.
AVS asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rúben Semedo 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 words a physio says slowly. 140 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have shaken hands with Porto; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Max Svensson is living that version at AVS, and it tends to show in the first month.
The chase for Max Svensson ended with $600.0K changing hands and Penafiel out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AVS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Diego Duarte 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 Demir Ege Tıknaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AVS. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Simone Pontisso 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 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.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Roni has taken the hint, and AVS are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
AVS interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Samuel Reis keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Simone Pontisso 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 Rúben Semedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
Roni is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Roni is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates 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 AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AVS know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AVS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Demir Ege Tıknaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jorge Meireles signs something — a contract at AVS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Jean-Pierre Rhyner has written the date down.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raul Steffens wants continental football; whether AVS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Simone Pontisso 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 Rúben Semedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Simone Pontisso 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fernando Fernandes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Deandre Kerr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Demir Ege Tıknaz 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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AVS, another week without a signature from Jonathan Silva.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andre Green trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AVS has been clear about where Jonatan stands, which is more than many ever get.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Goncalo Castro clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 33 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Simone Pontisso 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.
Tunde scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sporting CP, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Diogo Brasido 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Tunde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AVS pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Simone Pontisso 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 Demir Ege Tıknaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Koba Koindredi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
“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
Diogo Brasido 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.
Something was said to Simone Pontisso and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Duarte. 2‑1 against Famalicao, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bruno Mendes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andre Dias has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Brasido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Simone Pontisso 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 had been thinking. Demir Ege Tıknaz 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ponck 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.10, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Rafael Lobato, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
6 goals in one match, Diego Duarte on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AVS and Santa Clara.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Duarte. 4‑2 against Santa Clara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Diogo Brasido 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.
Rafael Lobato, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Brasido 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.
Something was said to Daniel Rivas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutJonathan Silva dropped after a run of poor form
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Position 16 and 23 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AVS 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 AVS 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Duarte. 2‑0 against Gil Vicente, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at AVS 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.
Marked 6.76 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Simone Pontisso 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Central Córdoba SdE is saying, and nobody at AVS is enjoying the guessing.
AVS asked and River Plate 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Deandre Kerr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Jan 2027
8 new faces, and AVS 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Moreirense were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
1 for Simone Pontisso, marked 7.81, 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at AVS is enjoying the guessing.
Diego Duarte 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.
AVS asked and KAA Gent said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.
Moreirense made AVS work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Rúben Semedo 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Lucas Varaldo is in the works
10 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.
Position 16 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AVS have done the hard part with Sporting CP, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Diego Duarte 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pedro Kauã is living that version at AVS, 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 AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. João Gonçalves is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Goncalo Castro after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
7 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raul Steffens wants continental football; whether AVS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Diego Duarte 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: 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Position 16 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Diego Duarte 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Diogo Conceicao is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Corinthians paid $1.3M and AVS took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Gonçalves 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.
13 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 dugout7 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Goncalo Castro to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deandre Kerr 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.
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 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 1‑3 Goncalo Castro left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AVS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Diego Duarte 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: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout23 Nov 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 2‑3 Goncalo Castro left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 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.
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.
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 Rafael Lobato is on it.
“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 AVS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Diego Duarte 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 had been thinking. João Gonçalves 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AVS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Nascimento 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. David Teixeira 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.
Famalicao held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. AVS answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rafael Lobato did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-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.
4 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.
Diego Duarte 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 had been thinking. João Gonçalves 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AVS can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
20 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Diego Duarte 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 Jorge Meireles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raul Steffens wants continental football; whether AVS can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Goncalo Castro after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Lopes 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 had been thinking. João Gonçalves 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.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Jorge Meireles decided nobody was going anywhere. Vitoria Guimaraes had no time left to answer.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Diego Duarte 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 had been thinking. João Gonçalves 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Meireles 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.
Diego Duarte 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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tunde may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Goncalo Castro chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Gonçalves 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ricardo Pacheco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AVS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Goncalo Castro was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the AVS dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Rivas dropped after a run of poor form
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Portimonense for Bernardo Conde 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Independiente keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
AVS asked and Torreense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Meireles 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AVS can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Independiente, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Palmeiras keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Diego Duarte 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bragantino have kept their man, and AVS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
16 new faces, and AVS 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Goncalo Castro after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Diego Duarte 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Jean-Pierre Rhyner from Vizela for $3.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
AVS asked and Casa Pia 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Corinthians keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AVS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.