6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Uberlândia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Jesús Molina 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jhonatan Kauan has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“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 The request is on a desk at Uberlândia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Jesús Molina was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paulo Peixoto after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Brasil de Pelotas? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Meneses trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uberlândia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
5 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uberlândia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Uberlândia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Jesús Molina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Uberlândia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Uberlândia can tell you which week it ends in.
Uberlândia will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Paulo Peixoto was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Uberlândia dressing room was either.
Kauê 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uberlândia know it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Uberlândia will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ryan Daniel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
8 new faces, and Uberlândia 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Uberlândia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Wellerson signs something — a contract at Uberlândia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uberlândia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Uberlândia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uberlândia know it.
Yang Zhanpeng is 20, and Uberlândia have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Jesús Molina 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.
Everybody at Uberlândia saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uberlândia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Uberlândia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abner was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uberlândia can pretend not to have heard.
Wellerson 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 Jonatas Paulista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jesús Molina 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 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Uberlândia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A new face in his position, and Jonathan suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Uberlândia have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Yoel Guirrimán arrives at Uberlândia with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Uberlândia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Wellerson signs something — a contract at Uberlândia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Uberlândia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Uberlândia have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Murilo Rian arrives at Uberlândia with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uberlândia, another week without a signature from Murilo Rian.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Uberlândia know which stage they are at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uberlândia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Luis Campero
Itabirito have accepted the money. What Botafogo-SP do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventude have kept their man, and Botafogo-SP go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Deportes Tolima keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Yuri Tanque 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.
Everything agreed with Botafogo-SP, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jesús Molina 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.
Uberlândia offered $42.0K; Vasco da Gama 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.
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.
Uberlândia have made the call to Água Santa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Uberlândia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Aranha arrives from Horizonte with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.