From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Gustaf Lagerbielke joins from Braga in a deal worth $10.6M. Now comes the harder part.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$5.9M on the table at Estrela da Amadora. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Manuel Baldé arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Manuel Baldé has, at Casa Pia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Casa Pia
Abdu Conté and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Casa Pia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Livolant was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Moreirense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Mandić. The answer from Casa Pia has not changed — yet.
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$10.6M on the table at Braga. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Ricardo Ryller would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ricardo Ryller is living that version at Casa Pia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Casa Pia
Jérémy Livolant 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdu Conté, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Casa Pia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lawrence Ofori was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$13.7M on the table at Braga. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Zé Leite arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zé Leite has, at Casa Pia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” David Sousa commits to Casa Pia for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Sousa 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of David Sousa
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andre Gomes 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leonardo Martins 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jérémy Livolant commits to Casa Pia for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Abdu Conté 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Casa Pia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
Casa Pia and Cassiano are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Santa Clara: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
RC Strasbourg have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
David Sousa knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Sousa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.