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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Chaves until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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 The request is on a desk at Chaves, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chaves can pretend not to have heard.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Chaves did not have in the autumn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
João Valido 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.
Menezes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriel Souza has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Gabriel Souza was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Myrto Uzuni was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The goal that put Farense ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Chaves equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
21 goals and a season average of 7.60 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Myrto Uzuni takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myrto Uzuni provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
João Valido 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues 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 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kevin Chacón has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Sporting CP B spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Chaves will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miguel Pinto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A brace, and Myrto Uzuni takes the afternoon — 9.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myrto Uzuni provided it, and the 9.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
17 goals and a season average of 7.53 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues 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.
Menezes 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The goal that put Feirense ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Chaves equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Marked 6.99 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Rafael Barbosa was at the centre of it, Vizela were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
João Valido was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 3‑2 win over Vizela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues 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 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Paulo Victor and Chaves agree another 3 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Valido is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Paulo Victor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.57. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Leixões had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Menezes 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Myrto Uzuni was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Position 9, 26 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chaves have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chaves told Myrto Uzuni something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.73 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rodrigo Borges on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Benfica B had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Chaves did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Gabriel Souza, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.61
A mark of 8.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The 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 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.
Marked 8.59 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rodrigo Borges after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gabriel Souza did not need any: 8.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Chaves know it.
Stiven Rentería 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Myrto Uzuni. 2‑0 against Pacos de Ferreira, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
João Valido 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Chaves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Rodrigues 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 games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the Chaves support went home talking about one name.
Squad26 Oct 2026
27 new faces, and Chaves 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rodrigo Borges after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutKennedy Rocha dropped after a run of poor form
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Chaves rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Lusitânia Lourosa had no answer to any of it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Myrto Uzuni takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myrto Uzuni provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gabriel Souza did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
João Valido 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriel Souza 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.
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.
Stiven Rentería 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
João Valido 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.
Minute 90, against Oliveirense, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Portimonense scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Chaves prefer.
A brace, and Myrto Uzuni takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myrto Uzuni provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Titi 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 Ibson Melo 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting João Valido's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
6 goals in one match, Myrto Uzuni on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Chaves and Farense.
Squad21 Sep 2026
João Valido 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chaves lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Otávio is living that version at Chaves, and it tends to show in the first month.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Pedro Pelágio reports back to Chaves with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Chaves had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Albion, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Chaves asked and Cortulua 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriel Souza has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ricardo Lopes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chaves lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 34 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at Chaves until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Pedro Pelágio again, and this time the name on the line is Rio Ave. Chaves are listening politely and promising nothing.
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. FC Metz have kept their man, and Chaves go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chaves lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $8.5M has been paid because Myrto Uzuni is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Željko Vitorović has just signed for Chaves, and for once the answer mattered.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Myrto Uzuni from Austin FC for $8.5M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
João Valido 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 Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
$8.5M on the table at Austin FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Chaves asked and Académico de Viseu 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chaves can pretend not to have heard.
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.
João Valido 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 Bruno Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chaves asked and Rio Ave 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 Bruno Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Chaves are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. André Rodrigues has just signed for Chaves, and for once the answer mattered.
Titi 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.
Alverca paid $490.0K and Chaves took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Chaves asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel Tavares has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Almeida has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Carlos Monteiro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Valido knocks on the manager's door
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rafael Barbosa has, at Chaves, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 Chaves, 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 Chaves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
João Teixeira 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.
A loan enquiry to Gimnasia La Plata: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.