4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Biel is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 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.
Kevin Chamorro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Leixões can tell you which week it ends in.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leixões told Kevin Chamorro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Luis Marques has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
Matheus Costa 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 Mar 2028
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera 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 mood at Leixões has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Leixões, 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.
Rúben Semedo 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 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Biel 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Marked 4.30. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Position 18 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thiago Helguera did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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 8.52 — 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.
12 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.
“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 Leixões will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Morufdeen Moshood reports back to Leixões with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
7.64, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões 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. Noam Strotz has just signed for Leixões, and for once the answer mattered.
Benfica B left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Biel 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.
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leixões has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
The mood at Leixões has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑3 to Felgueiras, 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.
The offer from Penafiel for Morufdeen Moshood 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.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
A first appearance Daniel Lopes will want to forget — 5.38
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.38, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alessandro Bagnaschi is living that version at Leixões, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Paulinho 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.
18 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 Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jason Markies has just signed for Leixões, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Position 18 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Paulinho 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.
Daniel Lopes is 20, and Leixões have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Leixões may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Leixões know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Kyanno Silva will want back
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Luis Marques recited it perfectly.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Werton 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Semeu Commey has his answer from Leixões; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
SquadWords at Leixões training over how hard people work
“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 Leixões, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leixões 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
13 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.
Werton 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Kyanno Silva 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 words a physio says slowly. 23 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Leixões can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Matheus Costa 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 Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera 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.
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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leixões, 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Position 18 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Werton 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyanno Silva 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 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.
Paulinho 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 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.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leixões has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
A cup hiding at Braga leaves Leixões explaining themselves
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leixões, another week without a signature from Fernando Fonseca.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leixões have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Leixões are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
8 new faces, and Leixões 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.
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 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Paulinho 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Costa wants continental football; whether Leixões can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Matheus Costa 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyanno Silva 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 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by 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.
Paulinho 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.
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.
Matheus Costa 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera 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 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Leixões.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Miguel Sousa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Behar Ismaili, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
12 new faces, and Leixões 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Behar Ismaili is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões 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.” Leixões have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thiago Helguera is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Matheus Costa 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
Player ratingsJulián Pérez could not find anything
Leixões interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: David Nascimento keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
The offer from Famalicao for Miguel Sousa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Rio Ave moved on, Werton reports back to Leixões, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fernando Silva is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Miguel Sousa 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jacopo Simonetta is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Matheus Costa 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.
13 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyanno Silva 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 is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Gonçalo Antunes is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Fernando Silva
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Behar Ismaili is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dedryck Chadli is living that version at Leixões, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Behar Ismaili is living that version at Leixões, and it tends to show in the first month.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thiago Helguera is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Helguera 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Reis 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francisco Rodrigues 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nuno Neves 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.
In brief
Player ratingsCláudio Araújo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fernando Silva is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Jose Araujo clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Matheus Costa 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. Santiago Fernandes is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 36 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
In brief
SquadWords at Leixões training over how hard people work
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.
Paulinho 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.
Werton 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.
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyanno Silva 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matheus Costa and Leixões agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Sousa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Gonzalo Groba 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leixões, another week without a signature from Rúben Semedo.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rafael Santos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
In brief
SquadMatheus Costa falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rúben Pina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Matheus Costa 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.
In brief
SquadRúben Pina has improved at 27, which nobody expected
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Costa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Leixões can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The offer from Penafiel for Rafael Santos 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.
Werton 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.
In brief
SquadSilas Bjerre is a better footballer than he was
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMiguel Sousa falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Fonseca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Silas Andersen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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.
Chaves will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alessandro Morlupo has pre-agreed a move to Leixões, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leixões, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Costa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWerton falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miguel Sousa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Silas Andersen 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Leixões training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Werton 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Leixões training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Rúben Semedo 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Silas Andersen 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leixões has been clear about where Miguel Sousa stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Bica. 1‑0 against Benfica B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsJosé Bica was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
The mood at Leixões has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leixões have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Paulinho has agreed terms with Vitoria Guimaraes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Silas Andersen 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 1‑0 win over Pacos de Ferreira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kevyn Vinícius is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 Leixões know it.
14 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Ricardo Lopes clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 17 and 26 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Silas Andersen 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
The mood at Leixões has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Miguel Sousa 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 words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Bica signs something — a contract at Leixões or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Costa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Felgueiras for Morufdeen Moshood 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Bica. 3‑2 against Porto B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Miguel Sousa 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leixões will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leixões they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Position 17, 22 points, and a crowd that arrives already braced. Relegation seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere, and everybody who has lived through one recognises it immediately.
The offer from Leiria for Luccas Paraízo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Matheus Costa has agreed terms with Vitoria Guimaraes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Silas Andersen 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Leixões training over how hard people work
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Fonseca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leixões the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Add another name to the list: Felgueiras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Morufdeen Moshood. The answer from Leixões has not changed — yet.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Tondela for Miguel Sousa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Leixões, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rafael Santos has agreed terms with Vitoria Guimaraes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Silas Andersen 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 Jan 2027
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Sousa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões 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 Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yanis Bourard has agreed terms with Arouca for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Felgueiras paid $63.0K and Leixões took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Vizela, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Felgueiras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Igor Stefanović. The answer from Leixões has not changed — yet.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ricardo Lopes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leixões is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Casa Pia for Matheus Costa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The name of Rafael Santos has come up in conversations Leixões were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Miguel Sousa 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.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leixões has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Cristian Carrara, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Silas Andersen 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
The words a physio says slowly. 132 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Cristian Carrara, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Silas Andersen 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Sousa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
140 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leixões lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Agustin De Armas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.37
A mark of 8.37 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Position 16 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leixões have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Silas Andersen 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Rúben Semedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Bica signs something — a contract at Leixões or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Miguel Sousa 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cláudio Araújo 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's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Leixões deserved better, and so did he.
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Leixões are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Igor Stefanović: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
A 0‑0 win over Vitoria Guimaraes, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
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.
Silas Andersen 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 Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Sousa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.41 — 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leixões, another week without a signature from Miguel Sousa.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Leixões are still learning each other
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Leixões can tell you which week it ends in.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Silas Andersen 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.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões 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. Kyanno Silva has just signed for Leixões, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Miguel Sousa 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.
Marked 5.06. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Leixões have gone and got theirs early.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Bica signs something — a contract at Leixões or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Cristian Carrara, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rodrigo Freitas is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rúben Semedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian Carrara did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Silas Andersen 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. Cristian Carrara is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 18 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 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cláudio 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Vizela? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Silas Andersen 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Leixões can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Silas Bjerre ended with $160.0K changing hands and Torreense out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Werton 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon José Bica will want back
“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 Leixões, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nacional paid $95.0K and Leixões took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leixões this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Werton 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leixões, another week without a signature from Rúben Semedo.
The offer from Sporting CP for Fernando Fonseca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Caio Secco 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Leixões
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Samuel Fernandes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Henrique Neves is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Henrique Araujo 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rúben Semedo is living that version at Leixões, and it tends to show in the first month.
Caio Secco 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Werton and Leixões agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Leixões training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rúben Semedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leixões, another week without a signature from Fernando Fonseca.
Caio Secco 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.
Matheus Costa 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Miguel Sousa has his answer from Leixões; what he does with it is the next window’s story.