It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑3 to Retrô, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Lionel Jatón 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 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Imperatriz is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Imperatriz can pretend not to have heard.
This is not rotation. Juan Pablo Presentado has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Imperatriz is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Lionel Jatón 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
181% of the income goes out in wages at Imperatriz
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Maílson 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.
Matías Fuentes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Guilherme Borech trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Guilherme Borech 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 Lionel Jatón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Falcão, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Marcos Guimarães to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dadinha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Imperatriz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Imperatriz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Imperatriz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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 Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Guilherme Borech 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Jatón 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ASA have kept their man, and Imperatriz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Minute 92, against Independência, 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.
Matías Fuentes 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.
A 2‑2 draw with Independência leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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.” Marcos Guimarães chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Guilherme Borech 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Imperatriz is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lionel Jatón 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. ASA have kept their man, and Imperatriz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Monsalve was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 João Tavares is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 4 points down on what he was, and the question for Imperatriz is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Imperatriz, another week without a signature from Alejandro Monsalve.
“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 Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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 Imperatriz know it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lionel Jatón 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 Guilherme Borech signs something — a contract at Imperatriz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Imperatriz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alejandro Monsalve 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.
Everybody at Imperatriz saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Imperatriz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Alejandro Monsalve 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 Lionel Jatón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Imperatriz, another week without a signature from Alejandro Monsalve.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Imperatriz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Imperatriz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Imperatriz is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Monsalve 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. ASA have kept their man, and Imperatriz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Imperatriz had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Pedro Venaque has, at Imperatriz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Lionel Jatón 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.
Imperatriz asked and Nova Iguaçu said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Imperatriz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A season-long audition: Londrina still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Imperatriz's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Imperatriz 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. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Sampaio Corrêa next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
The dugoutPaulo Roberto knocks on the manager's door
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Imperatriz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Guilherme Borech 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.
Everybody at Imperatriz saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Imperatriz can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcos Guimarães after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Imperatriz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matheus Nunes 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Manauara tried to reorganise, Imperatriz did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Guilherme Borech 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Imperatriz were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Imperatriz know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Imperatriz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.35 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maílson provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Neto has, at Imperatriz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.