The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vitoria Guimaraes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$3.1M settles it between the clubs for Wesley Pomba
Veres have accepted the money. What Vitoria Guimaraes do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Vitoria Guimaraes had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cortulua, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jose Barbosa 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Patrick Ouotro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torreense have kept their man, and Vitoria Guimaraes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $19.5M — a club that wants Pau Víctor enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vitoria Guimaraes have done the hard part with Cortulua, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Óscar Rivas and Vitoria Guimaraes agree another 3 years.
João Mendes 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Vitoria Guimaraes will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer went to Braga this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gustavo Silva wants continental football; whether Vitoria Guimaraes can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitoria Guimaraes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lohann Doucet 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Samu’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Vitoria Guimaraes 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.