“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.
“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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Meneses and Uberlândia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Uberlândia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abner 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.
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.
The offer went to Guarani 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.
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.
The offer went to Vitória 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Uberlândia will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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 Guarany de Bagé? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Guarany de Bagé in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 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 Wellerson has written the date down.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Uberlândia know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Paulo Peixoto to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Inter de Limeira.
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.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Yaider Mena talk too
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Márcio Ribeiro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Uberlândia than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Uberlândia will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 0‑1 Paulo Peixoto left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jhonatan Almeida has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Uberlândia have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
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.