Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oskar Pietuszewski provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Gonçalo Sousa, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Porto can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑2 against Bayern Munich, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marlon Gomes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.59, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A mark of 7.91 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marlon Gomes wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Oskar Pietuszewski 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Porto, and 1 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Martim Fernandes'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.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
4‑0 against Utrecht, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Famalicao spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Porto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tomás Pérez wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
0‑3 against Red Bull Salzburg. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Porto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Jakub Kiwior 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.
Marked 7.04 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
12 combined actions and 7.02. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Martim Fernandes has his answer from Porto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Porto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Luis Suárez takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Suárez provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$5.2M was the most the club would pay and Académico de Viseu were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Porto heard it as anything else.
OGC Nice paid $55.1M and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto 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 Porto can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Porto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Casa Pia for Iván Jaime 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.
Porto have gone to Académico de Viseu with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estoril Praia have kept their man, and Porto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Victor Froholdt has gone, the accounts have $55.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 36 gone
That is the business done at Porto 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.
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.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Porto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Al Ain this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luis Suárez wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 132 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Estrela da Amadora will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Porto were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Luis Suárez takes the afternoon — 8.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Suárez provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Luis Suárez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Porto and Estrela da Amadora.
6 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.
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.
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.
Porto had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ittihad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer from Torreense for Marcel Ruiz 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Porto can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The name of Martim Fernandes has come up in conversations Porto were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eder Hermoza is living that version at Porto, and it tends to show in the first month.
Hwang In-Beom 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 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Porto is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Al-Ittihad this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cláudio Ramos commits to Porto for another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
9 new faces, and Porto 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.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Porto than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Harold Preciado has his answer from Porto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Porto had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Parma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Position 2, 89 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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.
“I watch every Porto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Amarante runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Parma; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about João Costa again, and this time the name on the line is Vitoria Guimaraes. Porto are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hwang In-Beom has written the date down.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Porto has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Pepê has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Juan Cruz de los Santos comes from Nacional for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Juan Cruz de los Santos has, at Porto, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Luis Suárez 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 name of Martim Fernandes has come up in conversations Porto were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rafinha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Porto and Nacional have settled on $16.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Stade Rennais pay $71.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
He is going to Stade Rennais, the club has $71.8M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Rafinha was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Vonić 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luis Suárez wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Porto offered $37.1M; Shakhtar said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Borja Sainz 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 no worse way to lose a footballer. Salvador Ribeiro 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.
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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Porto can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
There are signings and there are signings that come with a second helping of satisfaction. Porto have taken Luis Suárez from a club they measure themselves against, and the pleasure of that will outlast the transfer window.
The offer went to Shakhtar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$23.2M was the most the club would pay and Torreense were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer from OGC Nice for Victor Froholdt 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitoria Guimaraes have kept their man, and Porto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dominik Prpić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luis Suárez is living that version at Porto, and it tends to show in the first month.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Porto have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Borja Sainz 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 offer went to Torreense this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $26.0M — a club that wants Manu Pozo enough to be asked twice.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rayan Demirci has agreed terms with Sporting da Covilhã for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
At 19 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
34 games and 20 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
The dugout31 May 2027
Borja Sainz is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Victor Froholdt is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Porto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Porto had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Cláudio Ramos 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Porto, and 0 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jakub Kiwior is on it.
9 goals in 35 games at Ceuta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Porto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
4 goals in 7 games at Farul Constanța — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Borja Sainz 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Porto pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Porto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gabri Veiga is on it.
8 goals in 34 games at Ceuta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Borja Sainz signs something — a contract at Porto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
20 goals in 33 games at AJ Auxerre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Porto know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Porto 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. Porto told Jakub Kiwior something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutBorja Sainz is still paying for one afternoon at Porto
Borja Sainz 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 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Pablo Rosario will call it something else in private.
“I watch every Porto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Varzim runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Borja Sainz 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.
Benfica next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“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 Porto know it.
“I did not go to Amarante to sit and watch. I want to come back to Porto and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jorge Sousa to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutPepê has become a man the manager trusts
15 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
24 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Derby days make names, and Santiago Giménez made his against Sporting CP. 5‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Porto supporters have already started telling 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julián Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Porto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
14 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
23 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Porto can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
16 goals in 29 games at AJ Auxerre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alan Varela'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.
8 goals in 29 games at Ceuta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Santiago Giménez has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
In brief
The dugoutAlan Varela asks for a word with the manager
12 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
4‑1 against Anderlecht, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Borja Sainz 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.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Pepê at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Borja Sainz at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Porto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Porto know it.
21 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Estoril Praia will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Porto were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
3‑1 against Anderlecht, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Pepê was at the centre of the description.
73 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Hwang In-Beom takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hwang In-Beom provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Porto heard it as anything else.
Borja Sainz 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.
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Borja Sainz 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 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.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
A brace, and Marcel Ruiz takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcel Ruiz provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Porto 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Porto ran out of time with West Ham United. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Porto have gone to West Ham United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and 1º Dezembro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Porto is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and Porto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Borja Sainz 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.
Marked 6.62. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Porto have paid $28.0M for Marlon Gomes, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The offer from Braga for João 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.
Farense paid $14.0M and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marlon Gomes has just signed for Porto, and for once the answer mattered.
Jakub Kiwior 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Porto people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$28.0M on the table at Shakhtar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
$16.8M on the table at Al-Hilal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
First, on 51 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A brace, and Gabri Veiga takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabri Veiga provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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. Porto will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Borja Sainz 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 helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Gil Vicente tried to reorganise, Porto did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
A 2‑1 win over Penafiel, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match16 Dec 2026
Luuk de Jong wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Luuk de Jong found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Penafiel went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Porto supporters have already started telling it.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5‑0 against Unirea Slobozia, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Gabri Veiga takes the afternoon — 8.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabri Veiga provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 19 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Borja Sainz 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Porto can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Porto have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jorge Sousa left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Porto has been clear about where Francisco Moura stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutPepê has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutAlan Varela is still paying for one afternoon at Porto
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Jakub Kiwior
19 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
1‑0 against IFK Goteborg, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
9 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Porto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pepê wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Borja Sainz 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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
17 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
8 on the bounce on the road for Porto. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Victor Froholdt, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Victor Froholdt has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Borja Sainz signs something — a contract at Porto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
6 goals in 10 games at AJ Auxerre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Porto updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
7 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
William Gomes, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Porto heard it as anything else.
14 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and William Gomes takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. William Gomes provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Borja Sainz 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.
6 goals in one match, Luuk de Jong on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Porto and Felgueiras.
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.
12 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
8‑0 against MFK Michalovce, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
“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 Porto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Victor Froholdt, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.33
A mark of 8.33 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
MatchLuuk de Jong among the goals in a wild afternoon
10 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Trofim Melnichenko is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luuk de Jong. 1‑0 against Famalicao, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Veron wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Borja Sainz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gonçalo Ribeiro is 20, 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 Porto know it.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Porto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Porto know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Famalicao in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
1‑0 against Unirea Slobozia, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Luuk de Jong was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Gabri Veiga takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabri Veiga provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Victor Froholdt, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. William Gomes is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Borja Sainz 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Porto. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Porto can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pepê wants continental football; whether Porto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
6‑2 against IFK Goteborg, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santiago Giménez provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pepê provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Borja Sainz takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Borja Sainz provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Gabri Veiga 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.
Santa Clara will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Porto were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Borja Sainz takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Borja Sainz provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Borja Sainz 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.
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Porto.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jorge Sousa kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The offer went to Palmeiras this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Porto ran out of time with Alverca. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Borja Sainz 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Borja Sainz
RB Leipzig paid $35.2M and Porto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$20.7M on the table at Alverca. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Marcel Ruiz takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcel Ruiz provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Porto have gone to Nacional with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Everything agreed with Sarpsborg 08, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. William Gomes did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$32.7M was the most the club would pay and Zenit were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Estrela da Amadora will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Porto were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Victor Froholdt, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The phone has started ringing about Gabri Veiga again, and this time the name on the line is Sunderland. Porto are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Porto have gone to Zenit with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Unirea Slobozia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Porto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nehuén Pérez has left for Tondela in a $12.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Marcel Ruiz takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcel Ruiz provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Porto have lost him in all but the paperwork.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $9.7M has been paid because Marcel Ruiz is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Porto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marcel Ruiz is living that version at Porto, 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rafinha is living that version at Porto, and it tends to show in the first month.
The phone has started ringing about Diogo Costa again, and this time the name on the line is Tottenham. Porto are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Porto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Porto can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Porto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Porto asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.