It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pouso Alegre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Pouso Alegre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitor Feijão 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sidimar has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Nobody left the Pouso Alegre dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pouso Alegre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Pouso Alegre
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitor Feijão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pouso Alegre is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. André Correia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luiz Farias after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patric trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomPouso Alegre say no to the training-ground money
Looking aheadPouso Alegre take on the side everybody is chasing
Sidimar 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Pouso Alegre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitor Feijão 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Sidimar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Pouso Alegre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitor Feijão 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.
Sidimar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
SquadPouso Alegre are still strangers to each other
The dugoutJean Pierre knocks on the manager's door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitor Feijão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pouso Alegre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Pouso Alegre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mailson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Fassetta Argüello signs something — a contract at Pouso Alegre or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Sidimar 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Vitor Feijão 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Perneta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alex Cunha is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
12 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pouso Alegre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutWang Xiaofeng knocks on the manager’s door
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pouso Alegre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sidimar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Pouso Alegre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mailson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pouso Alegre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Vitor Feijão 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pouso Alegre is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pouso Alegre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadVitor Feijão falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutJean Pierre asks for a word with the manager
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pouso Alegre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$270.0K was the most the club would pay and Botafogo-SP were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Pouso Alegre asked and São Bernardo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pouso Alegre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pouso Alegre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$270.0K on the table at Botafogo-SP. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deal with Mixto is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $340.0K has been paid because Mailson is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Sidimar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mailson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Operário Ferroviário have kept their man, and Pouso Alegre go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pouso Alegre will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pouso Alegre can pretend not to have heard.
Emiliano Larrouy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pouso Alegre, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pouso Alegre, another week without a signature from Jean Pierre.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ceilândia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Néstor Caicedo will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Athletic Club escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Kauan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gian Franco Cabezas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 3‑3, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Criciúma in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.