22 Oct 2027
Friday
Process
64 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

18 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Roméo Beney scores twice — 8.63

Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

7 saves: Lucas Cañizares was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Vagiannidis 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.

Match

Tondela rescue it on 95 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Braga had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

Loan watch

Carlão wants to come home

“I did not go to El Masry to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tondela and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.

Match

Roméo Beney rescues a point for Tondela

It needed Roméo Beney to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Braga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

When it matters, Giorgos Vagiannidis plays

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 dugout

No hiding place for Xabier Huarte

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Xabier Huarte, and the manager let it.

In brief

Back issues
63 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

11 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Vagiannidis 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Tondela against Vitoria Guimaraes

0‑1 to Vitoria Guimaraes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes answers for it

“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.

The dugout

When it matters, Lucas Cañizares plays

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.

Market

Talks stall between Tondela and Bebeto

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

The dugout

Lucas Cañizares knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tondela, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

No place for Raúl Silva in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Raúl Silva has his answer from Tondela; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

62 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Makan Aïko hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tondela can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

João Lima is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tondela is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares 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 dugout

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The dugout

Rômulo gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Tondela and Mattheus Oliveira are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

Squad

Tondela are still strangers to each other

5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

In brief

61 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Carraça damages knee ligaments — 17 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 17 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 ratings

A brace, and Fotis Ioannidis takes the afternoon — 8.91

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fotis Ioannidis provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

The dugout

Bebeto: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Luis Quintero asks to leave Tondela

“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.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Vagiannidis 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.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis the difference as Tondela beat Estoril Praia

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fotis Ioannidis. 2‑1 against Estoril Praia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Roméo Beney

At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

The dugout

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In brief

60 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Carraça out for 25 days

25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Giorgos Vagiannidis has improved at 26, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Squad

Real improvement from Italo Cabelinho at Tondela

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Italo Cabelinho is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

Tondela come up short against Famalicao

Famalicao left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mattheus Oliveira

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattheus Oliveira, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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Player ratings

Nobody could get near Rémy Vita

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Loan watch

Carlão has seen enough of El Masry

“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 Tondela, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.

In brief

59 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Carraça damages knee ligaments — 34 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares stands alone

10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

A hiding for Tondela

Beaten 0‑3 by Porto, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

The dugout

Carraça says Tondela went back on their word

“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.

Squad

A move Jonathan de Donno would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jonathan de Donno is living that version at Tondela, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Rômulo is a better footballer than he was

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.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Jay Enem rejects the move

Tondela had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sassuolo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Transfer targets

Shakhtar tell Tondela: Lassina Traoré is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

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In brief

58 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Carraça

44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

João Lima has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tondela they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Arjen van der Heide asks to leave Tondela

“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.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 26 signed and 5 gone

That is the business done at Tondela 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.

Squad

The step up is real for Roméo Beney

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Lassina Traoré rejects the move

Tondela had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Rony Lopes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A late step up for Lucas Cañizares

At 25 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.

Transfer targets

Benfica tell Tondela: Alessandro Circati is not for sale

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.

In brief

57 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Carraça

53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Makan Aïko asks to leave Tondela

“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.

The dugout

Makan Aïko says Tondela went back on their word

“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.

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Rony Lopes for 14 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Tondela will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Transfer targets

Lassina Traoré due for a Tondela medical

Everything agreed with Shakhtar, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets

Skye Vink turns down Tondela

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cambuur keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Bernardo Valim at Tondela

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bernardo Valim is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Alexandre Guedes

Tondela asked and Moreirense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

56 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Carraça out for 60 days

60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares keeps Tondela in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

João Afonso asks to leave Tondela

“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.

Match

No end in sight to Tondela's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tondela has to find a result from somewhere.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Skye Vink

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tondela have done the hard part with Cambuur, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

As if he never left: Hélder Tavares returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Hélder Tavares is a Tondela player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for Tondela

5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Squad

Late improvement for Brayan Medina

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

In brief

55 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Carraça

68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Raúl Silva asks to leave Tondela

“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.

Squad

6 saves: Lucas Cañizares was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

The step up is real for Rômulo

At 23 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.

Transfer targets

Matheus Corrêa due for a Tondela medical

Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Match

The wait goes on for Tondela

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Tondela

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.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Oliwier Zych

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aston Villa have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

54 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Carraça damages knee ligaments — 75 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.

Market

Arjen van der Heide puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

João Lima has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tondela they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

The step up is real for Roméo Beney

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Brayan Medina signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Medina commits to Tondela for another 5 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Market

As if he never left: Rafael Tresaco returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Rafael Tresaco is a Tondela player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

Market

Tomané moves on

Vitoria Guimaraes pay $170.0K, 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Samy Merheg

Tondela asked and Braga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

53 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

2 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Carraça damages knee ligaments — 84 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.

Boardroom

Tondela spell it out for Samuel Gomes

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Samuel Gomes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

Makan Aïko puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Makan Aïko keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tondela may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from Bernardo Valim at Tondela

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bernardo Valim is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Transfer targets

Sporting CP tell Tondela: Diego Callai is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Henry Addo

“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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hélder Tavares 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.

In brief

52 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

26 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Carraça out for 92 days

92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Tondela

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Tondela is running low.

Market

Tomané puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Cícero Alves keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tondela may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Vagiannidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

João Afonso gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

Joe Hodge gets picked when it counts

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 Joe Hodge is on it.

The dugout

Carraça knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carraça trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

51 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Carraça

99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Terms done: João Lima is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ceará waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tondela is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Cristian Quiñónes puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Giorgos Vagiannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Hélder Tavares 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 dugout

Rony Lopes gets picked when it counts

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 Rony Lopes is on it.

The dugout

Christian Marques knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tondela, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Fotis Ioannidis question follows Tondela around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fotis Ioannidis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Market

Luka Veličković told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Luka Veličković has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Tondela.

In brief

50 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Tondela turn down AVS for Tomané

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Rony Lopes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

No hiding place for Brayan Medina

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brayan Medina, and the manager let it.

Market

Zé Ricardo has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Tondela can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hélder Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Still no ink between Tondela and Raúl Silva

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tondela, another week without a signature from Raúl Silva.

The dugout

Christian Marques asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The dugout

Rémy Vita has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Tondela 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.

Market

The Brayan Medina question follows Tondela around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Brayan Medina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

49 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Samuel Gomes has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Tondela can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

The dugout

Brayan Medina: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Carlão turns Portimonense down

“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.

Market

João Lima’s move to Oliveirense falls through

The deal that would have taken João Lima to Oliveirense has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Tondela with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Vagiannidis 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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Tondela

9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

Transfer targets

Tondela try to borrow Stefan Leković

Estrela da Amadora have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Jerónimo Domina is in the works

Tondela have made the call to Cádiz. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief

48 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

28 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Tondela

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Portimonense come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Tondela did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Cícero Alves puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

The step up is real for Rômulo

At 23 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.

Market

Penafiel watching Hugo Félix

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Tondela have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Brayan Medina has improved at 25, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Vagiannidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Hugo Félix gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

47 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Real improvement from Hugo Félix at Tondela

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hugo Félix is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

A late step up for Giorgos Vagiannidis

At 25 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.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Samy Merheg

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zé Ricardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Zé Ricardo

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zé Ricardo, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Rony Lopes gets picked when it counts

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 Rony Lopes is on it.

The dugout

Mattheus Oliveira asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Market

The Fotis Ioannidis question follows Tondela around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fotis Ioannidis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

46 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

João Lima has said yes to Lusitânia Lourosa

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tondela have lost him in all but the paperwork.

The dugout

Henry Addo: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Rômulo gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Rômulo has just signed for Tondela, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

No deal for Vinícius Lopes at that price

Tondela offered $3.5M; Santa Clara said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Market

Luka Veličković puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Matías Lacava comes home

The shirt still fits. Matías Lacava is back at Tondela, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

Christian Marques stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Marques and Tondela agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

The step up is real for Lodovico

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.

In brief

45 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lucas Cañizares damages knee ligaments — 15 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.

Boardroom

Tondela spell it out for Samuel Gomes

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Samuel Gomes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

Roméo Beney agrees terms with Audace Cerignola

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tondela people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Arjen van der Heide hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tondela can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

João Lima says Tondela went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Carlão is a better footballer than he was

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Mattheus Oliveira

“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.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carraça was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

44 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Cañizares

22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

The dugout

Christian Marques says Tondela went back on their word

“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.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Tondela

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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 dugout

No hiding place for Bebeto

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bebeto, and the manager let it.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zé Ricardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

5 new faces, and Tondela 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.

The dugout

When it matters, Joe Hodge plays

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.

Market

Brayan Medina linked with a move away

The name of Brayan Medina keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tondela say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

  • The dugout Tomané has been promised minutes
  • Market Tondela shop where it costs nothing
43 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lucas Cañizares damages knee ligaments — 30 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Mattheus Oliveira 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Espen van Ee was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Tomané

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomané, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Rony Lopes plays

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 dugout

Christian Marques knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tondela, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

42 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

17 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Luis Quintero stands alone

14 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Fotis Ioannidis

35 goals and a season average of 7.71 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares damages knee ligaments — 38 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.

Match

Tondela bow out of the cup

Porto go through and Tondela go home, 1‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

The terraces

A cup hiding at Porto leaves Tondela explaining themselves

1-5, 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Tondela and Porto in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

The dugout

Mattheus Oliveira left out for the big one

A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mattheus Oliveira will call it something else in private.

The dugout

Carraça gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Hugo Félix ran the middle of the pitch — 6.71
  • Boardroom Nobody left the Tondela dressing room in a hurry
  • The dugout Samuel Gomes answers for it
41 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Lucas Cañizares out for 46 days

46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Mattheus Oliveira: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Vita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

The formation has left Carlos Hernández behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tondela will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

The dugout

Giorgos Vagiannidis gets picked when it counts

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 Giorgos Vagiannidis is on it.

The dugout

Raúl Silva asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Market

The Makan Aïko talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tondela know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Hugo Félix has been promised minutes

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 Hugo Félix has written the date down.

In brief

  • Market Tondela shop where it costs nothing
  • Match Nothing left to play for but pride at Tondela
40 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Cañizares

57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Tondela boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Henry Addo signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Henry Addo and Tondela agree another 3 years.

Boardroom

Tondela beat the market to Waldson from Alverca

Alverca will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Waldson has pre-agreed a move to Tondela, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Squad

Espen van Ee 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 dugout

Joe Hodge gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Tondela

Something was said to Rony Lopes and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

The dugout

Mattheus Oliveira knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tondela, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

  • The dugout When it matters, Rémy Vita plays
  • Market Experience through the door at Tondela
  • Boardroom $16.2M taken back off the Tondela table
39 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Cañizares

66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

The dugout

Juan Manuel Cruz keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tondela may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Vita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Anderson Carvalho

“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.

The dugout

Joe Hodge gets picked when it counts

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 Joe Hodge is on it.

In brief

  • The dugout Hugo Félix asks for a word with the manager
  • Market The Brayan Medina talk will not go away
  • Squad Word from the training ground: Bruma
38 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

19 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lucas Cañizares damages knee ligaments — 74 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Boardroom

Tondela agree a free transfer for Douglas Friedrich

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Vita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Rony Lopes plays

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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Luis Quintero

“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.

In brief

37 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

12 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Cañizares

81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tondela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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 dugout

Christian Marques gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Espen van Ee 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.

Squad

8 new faces, and Tondela 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.

The dugout

Giorgos Vagiannidis gets picked when it counts

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 Giorgos Vagiannidis is on it.

The dugout

Bruma knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tondela, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

Tondela and Carraça are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

Market

Cícero Alves told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Cícero Alves has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Tondela.

In brief

36 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lucas Cañizares damages knee ligaments — 89 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.

Match

Tondela finish in position 12

39 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.

Squad

Luis Quintero keeps Tondela in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

The dugout

Danilo Regali: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Makan Aïko

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira 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 dugout

Mattheus Oliveira gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Tondela against Estoril Praia

0‑2 to Estoril Praia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

35 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Lucas Cañizares out for 97 days

97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Cup progress for Tondela

A 1‑0 win over Casa Pia, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Match

Nowhere to hide for Tondela

1‑4 against Famalicao, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Squad

Luis Quintero keeps Tondela in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira 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 terraces

One of their own: Roméo Beney

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

The dugout

No hiding place for Anderson Carvalho

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anderson Carvalho, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Tondela

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Player ratings Juan Manuel Cruz stands above it all
  • The dugout A promise honoured for Khaly
34 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Makan Aïko

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Luis Quintero keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tondela may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Carlão at Tondela

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Carlão is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

Tondela find a way past Nacional

Nacional made Tondela work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces

One of their own: Hugo Félix

He is 23 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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Espen van Ee 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Henry Addo

“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.

The dugout

No place for Christian Marques on the big day

He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Tondela pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.

In brief

33 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Fotis Ioannidis

35 goals and a season average of 7.73 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

A brace, and Fotis Ioannidis takes the afternoon — 9.31

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fotis Ioannidis provided it, and the 9.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Hugo Félix signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hugo Félix and Tondela agree another 4 years.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira 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.

Match

Tondela find a way past Santa Clara

Santa Clara made Tondela work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Match

Tondela end the wait against Santa Clara

It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Player ratings

Bruma was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.27. 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.

In brief

  • Player ratings A masterclass from Rony Lopes
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Raúl Silva
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
32 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is carrying Tondela

33 goals and a season average of 7.68. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Player ratings

A brace, and Fotis Ioannidis takes the afternoon — 9.18

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fotis Ioannidis provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Tondela turn down FC Lahti for Roméo Beney

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Match

The wait goes on for Tondela

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.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattheus Oliveira and Tondela agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Tondela leaking at the back

5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattheus Oliveira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

31 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Ibo Djebate damages knee ligaments — 21 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.

Market

Tomané puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

No end in sight to Tondela's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tondela has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Makan Aïko

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

No clean sheets in sight for Tondela

4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

Match

A bad afternoon for Tondela against Gil Vicente

0‑2 to Gil Vicente, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Espen van Ee was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Hugo Félix

“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.

In brief

30 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is carrying Tondela

31 goals and a season average of 7.66. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

The knee: Ibo Djebate out for 28 days

28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

3 goals for Fotis Ioannidis

The match ball belongs to Fotis Ioannidis, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

The dugout

João Lima keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tondela may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Mattheus Oliveira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Fotis Ioannidis at his very best

Marked 9.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tondela.

Match

Late, late show earns Tondela a point

Minute 92, against Braga, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

The dugout

Khaly gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis rescues a point for Tondela

It needed Fotis Ioannidis to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Braga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

29 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.61 with 28 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

The knee: Ibo Djebate out for 38 days

38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tondela lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo tell Tondela: Luciano Arriagada is not for sale

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.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis’s goal not enough for Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Vitoria Guimaraes, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Vita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Espen van Ee gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

Giorgos Vagiannidis has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Tondela will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

  • The dugout Bruma knocks on the manager's door
  • Market The Fotis Ioannidis story refuses to die
  • Looking ahead A reunion for Bruma
28 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Tondela march on in the cup

Estrela da Amadora are out and Tondela go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Market

João Afonso hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tondela can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Alan Pinheiro yet — 8.13

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucas Cañizares commits to Tondela for another 4 years.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Axel Camblan

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estoril Praia have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Roméo Beney

At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Moreirense take the points off Tondela

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

27 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Fotis Ioannidis

27 goals and a season average of 7.62 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Anderson Carvalho puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

João Afonso says Tondela went back on their word

“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.

Market

Feirense come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Tondela did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 8 signed and 1 gone

That is the business done at Tondela 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Player ratings

Rony Lopes was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Gabriele Gori

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ascoli have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Tondela come up short against Alverca

Alverca left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

  • Squad A row about effort at Tondela
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Bebeto
  • Squad No place for Khaly in the new shape
26 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Chastening afternoon for Tondela

A 3‑10 beating by Porto was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is carrying Tondela

26 goals and a season average of 7.61. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares keeps Tondela in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Rémy Vita puts it in writing

“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 Tondela, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Transfer targets

Beto turns down Tondela

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis among the goals in a wild afternoon

13 goals in one match, Fotis Ioannidis on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Tondela and Porto.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mésaque Djú

Tondela asked and Portimonense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

25 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Fotis Ioannidis

23 goals and a season average of 7.55 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

Fotis Ioannidis scores twice — 8.92

Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Tondela get their man

The chase for Roméo Beney ended with $4.4M changing hands and Famalicao out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Match

Tondela make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tondela have 3 straight wins of it.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A move Cristian Quiñónes would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cristian Quiñónes is living that version at Tondela, and it tends to show in the first month.

Boardroom

Tondela agree a free transfer for Jelani Trevisan

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Junior Arias

Tondela asked and Penarol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

24 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Transfer targets

$4.4M settles it between the clubs for Roméo Beney

Famalicao have accepted the money. What Tondela do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Mattheus Oliveira yet — 7.96

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

AEK tell Tondela: Kervin Arriaga is not for sale

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.

Squad

A late step up for Lucas Cañizares

At 25 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.

Match

Tondela find a way past Arouca

Arouca made Tondela work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rémy Vita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Hugo Félix gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

23 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares keeps Tondela in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Transfer targets

An offer of $3.8M for Roméo Beney

Tondela have gone to Famalicao 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.

Squad

Rony Lopes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

The step up is real for Carlão

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattheus Oliveira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Transfer targets

Benfica tell Tondela: Leonardo Realpe is not for sale

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.

Match

Tondela find a way past AVS

AVS made Tondela work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

One of those days for Rony Lopes

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

22 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

6 saves: Lucas Cañizares was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Brayan Medina 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattheus Oliveira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Benfica take the points off Tondela

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Anderson Carvalho

“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.

The dugout

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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Samuel Gomes to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

The form table has caught Luis Quintero

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

Market

The Fotis Ioannidis question follows Tondela around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fotis Ioannidis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

21 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Lucas Cañizares

There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match

Tondela march on in the cup

Maritimo are out and Tondela go through, 4‑3 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Match

Arjen van der Heide wins it after the whistle should have gone

120 minutes played. Arjen van der Heide found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Maritimo went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is carrying Tondela

21 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Arjen van der Heide takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

The dugout

Alan Pinheiro: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Match

Sporting CP take the points off Tondela

Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

In brief

20 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattheus Oliveira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Tomané gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Samuel Gomes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.

The dugout

Luis Quintero dropped after a run of poor form

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.

Player ratings

Fotis Ioannidis keeps on missing

Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

Match

Tondela draw a blank against Rio Ave

The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Rio Ave defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.

The dugout

Joe Hodge has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Tondela will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

19 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

A brace, and Fotis Ioannidis takes the afternoon — 8.64

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fotis Ioannidis provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Fotis Ioannidis

20 goals and a season average of 7.51 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis’s goal not enough for Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Estoril Praia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Henry Addo stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Henry Addo and Tondela agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Carvalho 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.

Match

The half-term report on Tondela

Position 10, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Hélder Tavares

“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.

In brief

18 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Tondela run riot against Famalicao

5‑2, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis takes the match ball home

4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.46 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Match

7 goals as Tondela and Famalicao go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Tondela and Famalicao, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

The terraces

One of their own: Henry Addo

He is 23 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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carraça 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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Makan Aïko

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Rony Lopes

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.

In brief

17 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Lucas Cañizares stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira 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.

Match

Tondela get the job done against Nacional

A 1‑0 win over Nacional, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Anderson Carvalho

“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.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

Squad

The first one for Makan Aïko

Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Tondela have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Luis Quintero

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

16 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Tondela taken apart

0‑4 to Santa Clara, 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattheus Oliveira 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.

Squad

Hugo Félix makes it 100

100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.

The dugout

Bebeto gets it from the manager

“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.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Tondela

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Fotis Ioannidis

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tondela told Fotis Ioannidis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Samuel Gomes after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Makan Aïko

Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

15 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

A brace, and Fotis Ioannidis takes the afternoon — 8.92

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fotis Ioannidis provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares stands alone

7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

Tondela cannot stop winning

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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Fotis Ioannidis

14 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Brayan Medina and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Joe Hodge was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis the difference as Tondela beat Estrela da Amadora

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fotis Ioannidis. 2‑1 against Estrela da Amadora, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Market

Tondela promote David Fernandes from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Fernandes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Squad

Joe Hodge signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joe Hodge and Tondela agree another 3 years.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Tomané
  • The dugout Samuel Gomes has his say
  • The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Hugo Félix's mistake
14 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Cup progress for Tondela

A 3‑0 win over Vizela, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Player ratings

Arjen van der Heide beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A day Fotis Ioannidis will not forget

3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Player ratings

A brace, and Xabier Huarte takes the afternoon — 8.32

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Xabier Huarte provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

The dugout

Tomané: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tondela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Vintage Hélder Tavares — 8.27

At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.27, and nobody on the pitch better.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Rony Lopes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Tondela and Gil Vicente in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Player ratings

Fotis Ioannidis in the eights

A performance of 9.80 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

13 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Lucas Cañizares stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

5 matches without a win for Tondela

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Tondela are no longer polite ones.

Match

Tondela are shipping goals every week

Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Tondela against Braga

1‑2 to Braga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Carvalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Anderson Carvalho

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anderson Carvalho, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Luis Quintero

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

12 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Lucas Cañizares keeps Tondela in it on his own

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Makan Aïko

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

4 matches without a win for Tondela

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Tondela are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Tondela are shipping goals every week

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.

Match

Vitoria Guimaraes take the points off Tondela

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Carraça 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 dugout

No hiding place for Raúl Silva

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raúl Silva, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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 0‑2 Samuel Gomes left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

11 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Makan Aïko was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira 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.

Match

Moreirense take the points off Tondela

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Market

Hugo Lopes steps up from the Tondela academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hugo Lopes 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.

Squad

13 new faces, and Tondela 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.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

Market

Luis Quintero told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Luis Quintero has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Tondela.

The dugout

No hiding place for Arjen van der Heide

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arjen van der Heide, and the manager let it.

In brief

10 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Lucas Cañizares

There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Both of them Fotis Ioannidis's — 8.37

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Boardroom

The numbers do not look good at Tondela

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis 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.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis’s goal not enough for Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑4 to Alverca, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Tondela and Alverca in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

A late step up for Lucas Cañizares

At 24 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Carvalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Hugo Félix in the eights

A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

9 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Tondela

A 0‑4 beating by Porto was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares keeps Tondela in it on his own

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.

Squad

The step up is real for Carlão

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

Bebeto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Carvalho 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Anderson Carvalho

“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.

Boardroom

Inquest at Tondela

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.

The dugout

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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Samuel Gomes to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Luis Quintero

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

8 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

A brace, and Fotis Ioannidis takes the afternoon — 9.24

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fotis Ioannidis provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Tondela — 7.86

1 for Mattheus Oliveira, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Christian Marques and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattheus Oliveira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Tondela find a way past Casa Pia

Casa Pia made Tondela work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces

One of their own: Hugo Félix

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Tomané

“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.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.

In brief

7 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattheus Oliveira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Rony Lopes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Ennio van der Gouw

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rio Ave have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Arouca take the points off Tondela

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Market

Alexandre Sousa steps up from the Tondela academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alexandre Sousa 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Raúl Silva

“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.

Squad

13 new faces, and Tondela 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.

The dugout

Samuel Gomes answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

In brief

6 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Tondela run riot against AVS

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

A day Hugo Félix will not forget

3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Player ratings

Makan Aïko runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

So close: Hugo Félix’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Nacional moved on, Hugo Félix reports back to Tondela, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Boardroom

Tondela close the window on a squad of their own making

23 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Tondela turn down AVS for Joe Hodge

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Hugo Félix at his very best

Marked 9.53. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tondela.

Transfer targets

Diogo Pinto stays at Estrela da Amadora as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Tondela will try again when the window opens; Estrela da Amadora may not be selling by then.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Rony Lopes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

5 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Tondela turn down Santa Clara for Brayan Medina

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Fotis Ioannidis scores twice — 8.87

Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Lucas Cañizares keeps Tondela in it on his own

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.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Diogo Pinto

Tondela and Estrela da Amadora have settled on $910.0K. 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.

Market

Hélder Tavares asks to leave Tondela

“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.

Transfer targets

No thanks: José Neto rejects the move

Tondela had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Benfica, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Market

Business is business: Yaya Sithole goes

Vizela paid $1.0M and Tondela took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Match

Fotis Ioannidis’s goal not enough for Tondela

Fotis Ioannidis scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑5 to Benfica, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

A falling-out at Tondela

Mattheus Oliveira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

4 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Nacional come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Tondela did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

Joaquín Freitas turns down Tondela

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Vizela join the queue for Yaya Sithole

Add another name to the list: Vizela have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yaya Sithole. The answer from Tondela has not changed — yet.

Match

Sporting CP take the points off Tondela

Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Tomás Chancalay

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Minnesota United FC have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Christian Marques

“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.

Squad

50 goals in the shirt for Fotis Ioannidis

50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.

Squad

Fotis Ioannidis is a square peg at Tondela

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

In brief

3 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Hugo Félix wins it after the whistle should have gone

90 minutes played. Hugo Félix found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Rio Ave went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Rémy Vita

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Mattheus Oliveira 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.

Market

Tondela bring in Fotis Ioannidis from Sporting CP for the long haul

A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Fotis Ioannidis arrives from Sporting CP to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.

The terraces

$14.5M for Fotis Ioannidis, and Tondela supporters approve

Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Fotis Ioannidis from Sporting CP for $14.5M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Danilo Veiga

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecce have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Hugo Félix sends Tondela past Rio Ave

It finished 2‑1, and it was Hugo Félix’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tondela.

The terraces

One of their own: Hugo Félix

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Fotis Ioannidis

Marked 8.38 — 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.

In brief

2 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Tondela make their move for Fotis Ioannidis

$14.5M on the table at Sporting CP. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Squad

Mattheus Oliveira gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mattheus Oliveira has just signed for Tondela, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Jalen Blesa

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rio Ave have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Makan Aïko stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Makan Aïko and Tondela agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Tondela

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Makan Aïko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Words exchanged at Tondela

Rony Lopes 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.

Market

Daniel Soares steps up from the Tondela academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Soares 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.

Market

Tondela promote Paulo Tavares from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Paulo Tavares has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

Tondela promote Miguel Fernandes from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miguel Fernandes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

In brief

1 Edition

The Tondela Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Tondela rebuffed over Sorriso

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Famalicao have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Tomané signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tomané commits to Tondela for another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Tondela

Brayan Medina 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.

Squad

Words at Tondela training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Marques 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.

Market

Talks stall between Tondela and Tomané

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Transfer targets

Tondela ask about Nathan Lowe

A loan enquiry to Stoke City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Jorthy Mokio is in the works

Tondela have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Squad

Tondela are still strangers to each other

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.

The dugout

Makan Aïko knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tondela, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief