Juan Cruz de los Santos 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 Talles Costa 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.” Rodrigo Pinto after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
9 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.
0‑4 against Santa Clara, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Casa Pia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
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 0‑4 Rodrigo Pinto left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is going to Zenit, the club has $10.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Marked 6.80 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.
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.
Henrique Araújo scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Sporting CP, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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. Atlético CP have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The goal that put Rio Ave ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Casa Pia equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The name of Abdu Conté has come up in conversations Casa Pia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Casa Pia 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.
“I did not go to Operário Ferroviário to sit and watch. I want to come back to Casa Pia and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 28 matches say the rest.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Inter had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Real Sociedad is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Casa Pia 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.
Juan Cruz de los Santos 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.
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
Billy Mitchell 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.
Casa Pia 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑4 to Porto, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The phone has started ringing about Jérémy Livolant again, and this time the name on the line is 1º Dezembro. Casa Pia are listening politely and promising nothing.
1 for Billy Mitchell, marked 7.85, 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.
The chase for André Picornell ended with $1.0M changing hands and Tondela out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Billy Mitchell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casa Pia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Billy Mitchell scored, was marked 7.60, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I watch every Casa Pia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Racing Ferrol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Talles Costa 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.
Half the programme played, position 12, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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.
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 Abdu Conté is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casa Pia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.97, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Something was said to Vitor Barreto 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.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Feirense had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Casa Pia did not stop to explain themselves.
Emerson Ruíz 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Rodrigo Pinto could afford to be generous.
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 André Gomes is on it.
2‑5 to Estoril Praia, 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7 goals in one match, Henrique Araújo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Casa Pia and Estoril Praia.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Talles Costa 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.
Billy Mitchell 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodrigo Pinto after 2‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Beaten 5 times, with 2 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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.” Rodrigo Pinto chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Casa Pia have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emerson Ruíz wants continental football; whether Casa Pia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Famalicao in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
4 goals in 6 games at Racing Ferrol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Casa Pia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Nico Mantl has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutMoussa Diarra asks for a word with the manager
BoardroomThe Casa Pia production line keeps running
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casa Pia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Talles Costa. 2‑1 against Santa Clara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Evertow 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 dugout6 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rodrigo Pinto, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Something was said to Luis Quintero and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Evertow’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Casa Pia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Emerson Ruíz 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It 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 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.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Donatto Larrosa has his answer from Casa Pia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until André Gomes signs something — a contract at Casa Pia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Billy Mitchell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casa Pia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Billy Mitchell has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.40, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
Moussa Diarra 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Rodrigo Pinto could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdu Conté’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Casa Pia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emerson Ruíz wants continental football; whether Casa Pia 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.” Rodrigo Pinto after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luis Quintero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Casa Pia scored in the 104th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hugo Gomes did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wallace will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casa Pia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casa Pia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Casa Pia will try again when the window opens; Penafiel may not be selling by then.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez 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 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Casa Pia close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Add another name to the list: Tondela have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Duarte. The answer from Casa Pia has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Casa Pia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout4 Sep 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 1‑2 Rodrigo Pinto left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Casa Pia have gone to Tondela 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.
Everything agreed with Sporting CP, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oscar Martinez provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Casa Pia and Benfica have settled on $1.3M. 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.
1 for Kaíque Rocha, marked 7.92, 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $700.0K — a club that wants Francisco França enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Henrique Araújo provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Casa Pia have gone to Tondela 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.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Penafiel 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.
The chase for Nico Mantl ended with $1.1M changing hands and Arouca out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$610.0K on the table at Felgueiras. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Henrique Araújo 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.
In brief
Boardroom5 academy players handed senior numbers at Casa Pia
SquadWords at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
The offer went to Penafiel 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. David Sousa is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Henrique Araújo is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casa Pia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kélian Nsona has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Casa Pia asked and Caldas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
Rory Finneran 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.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henrique Araújo signs something — a contract at Casa Pia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Casa Pia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Paysandu for Raul Steffens 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Billy Mitchell was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casa Pia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad17 Jul 2028
6 new faces, and Casa Pia 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.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez 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.
Billy Mitchell 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.
Casa Pia asked and Palmeiras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Raul Steffens again, and this time the name on the line is Paysandu. Casa Pia are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 André Gomes is on it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Valencia for André Gomes 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.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Casa Pia asked and Trofense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Casa Pia, another week without a signature from Billy Mitchell.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Add another name to the list: FC Nantes have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about André Gomes. The answer from Casa Pia has not changed — yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The fee is $700.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Académica drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer went to Académica 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Benfica 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 Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lusitânia Lourosa have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez 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.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Belenenses waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Casa Pia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Casa Pia asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jérémy Livolant and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casa Pia know it.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Vitoria Guimaraes 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.
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 phone has started ringing about Wallace again, and this time the name on the line is Belenenses. Casa Pia are listening politely and promising nothing.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casa Pia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Iker Fimbres 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 Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khaly trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutNesta Elphege knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Moussa Diarra
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 34 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Talles Costa 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodrigo Pinto after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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.
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.” Rodrigo Pinto after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Abdu Conté is on it.
146 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Estoril Praia will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Oscar Martinez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Casa Pia.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez 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.
154 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Getting past André Gomes has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Fimbres 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.
163 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Araújo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Araújo 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casa Pia know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casa Pia told Oscar Martinez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
7 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casa Pia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iker Fimbres 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 Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casa Pia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Getting past André Gomes has become the hardest job in the division
12 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
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 Henrique Araújo.
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 Henrique Araújo is on it.
Jérémy Livolant 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. Tomás Altamirano is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Casa Pia is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Vasco Sousa
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.
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Talles Costa 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.
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 Cassiano.
8 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodrigo Pinto after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Billy Mitchell 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. 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.
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 André Gomes is on it.
Iker Fimbres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Martinez 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 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rodrigo Pinto on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutHenrique Araújo has become a man the manager trusts
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” 1º Dezembro had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Jérémy Livolant 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 Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
The offer from Gijón for André Gomes 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: 1º Dezembro will make the call about Khaly this week. Casa Pia have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan 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.
Iker Fimbres 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.
Casa Pia asked and Braga 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 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chase for Moussa Diarra ended with $920.0K changing hands and Penafiel out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The deal with Tigres is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Jérémy Livolant and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
Casa Pia asked and Sporting CP said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Casa Pia will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The chase for Raul Steffens ended with $860.0K changing hands and AVS out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
100 games in 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
$860.0K settles it between the clubs for Raul Steffens
AVS have accepted the money. What Casa Pia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Jérémy Livolant 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 Nathan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trofense have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdu Conté has his answer from Casa Pia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 13, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Rafael Melo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Casa Pia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
At 22 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Talles Costa 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.
Mathis Jangeal 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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vasco Sousa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vasco Sousa did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Rafael Melo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa 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. André Gomes 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.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Rodrigo Pinto 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 André Geraldes is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Evertow’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Casa Pia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Casa Pia scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Amir Hossein Mahmoudi did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathis Jangeal 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.
0‑1 to Estrela da Amadora, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Rafael Melo 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Something was said to Nesta Elphege and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Sporting CP the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Casa Pia will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and João Goulart delivers — 7.68
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. João Goulart scored, was marked 7.68, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Talles Costa 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.
Mathis Jangeal 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.
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.
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.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Melo 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
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 Rodrigo Pinto left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Evertow has, at Casa Pia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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 André Geraldes is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Henrique Araújo signs something — a contract at Casa Pia 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 Rochinha has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Henrique Araújo. 2‑0 against Moreirense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.00, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
7.90, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Casa Pia had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rodrigo Pinto, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some 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.
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Melo 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casa Pia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
7 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Donatto Larrosa obliged against Oliveirense. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Casa Pia.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Torreense spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mathis Jangeal is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talles Costa 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Jérémy Livolant 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 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Khaly reports back to Casa Pia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Casa Pia close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
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.
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 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Melo 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 Dominik Prpić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Add another name to the list: 1º Dezembro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Khaly. The answer from Casa Pia has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casa Pia have done the hard part with Famalicao, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Prpić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sebastián Pérez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Farense have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
9 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 17 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casa Pia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Medeama for Lawrence Ofori 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Sochaux have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Duarte. The answer from Casa Pia has not changed — yet.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Prpić 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.
Casa Pia asked and Gil Vicente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. André Gomes 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casa Pia know it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jérémy Livolant and Casa Pia agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Prpić 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. Porto have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pedro Rosas 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 make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casa Pia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes João Goulart a promise
The bid was some way short and Casa Pia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Dominik Prpić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casa Pia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Henrique Araújo is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raúl Blanco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The fee is $2.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Penafiel drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Raúl Alcaina has just signed for Casa Pia, and for once the answer mattered.
The name of Raúl Blanco has come up in conversations Casa Pia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Rafael Melo 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.
14 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.
Casa Pia have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer from Amora for Khaly 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.
Jérémy Livolant 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.
Casa Pia offered $390.0K; Santa Clara 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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Casa Pia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Prpić 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.
Casa Pia 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casa Pia know it.
The chase for Lucas Duarte ended with $5.1M changing hands and Felgueiras out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Casa Pia, and it is not being withdrawn.
$390.0K on the table at Santa Clara. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Prpić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casa Pia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Casa Pia asked and Porto 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 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. Vizela have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Nobody at Casa Pia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutAndré Gomes asks for a word with the manager
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Talles Costa 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.
Sebastián Pérez 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.
Casa Pia asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Casa Pia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 João Rego is on it.
In brief
The dugoutAndré Gomes knocks on the manager’s door
The offer from Oliveirense for Khaly 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talles Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crystal Palace have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kaíque Rocha wants continental football; whether Casa Pia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Pedro Rosas 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casa Pia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Casa Pia have gone to Shakhtar 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bahia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Casa Pia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Casa Pia asked and Bahia 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 Selvi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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 offer from Arouca for Kélian Nsona 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casa Pia have done the hard part with Bahia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Donatto Larrosa has just signed for Casa Pia, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Talles Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Casa Pia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sebastián Pérez has his answer from Casa Pia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casa Pia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casa Pia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Prieto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and Casa Pia 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.
10 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casa Pia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Jérémy Livolant 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 Selvi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 João Rego is on it.
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.
A new face in his position, and David Sousa suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Casa Pia have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Nicolas Riveros arrives at Casa Pia with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until André Gomes signs something — a contract at Casa Pia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casa Pia can pretend not to have heard.
Gianluca Prestianni 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casa Pia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Henrique Araújo is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casa Pia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Selvi has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Casa Pia the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“I want to stay in the game when I stop, and I am not going to wait until I stop to prepare for it.” At 37 the badges have begun, and every manager in the division remembers doing the same.
Position 9 on 42 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Gianluca Prestianni 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.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Casa Pia will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gianluca Prestianni has come out of that comparison in the side, and Casa Pia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rodrigo Pinto after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Estoril Praia will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cassiano. 2‑1 against Estoril Praia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Casa Pia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Selvi 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 dugout26 Apr 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.” Rodrigo Pinto kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Rego has become a man the manager trusts