Zé Carlos 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.
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 Víctor Berrio is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ituano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guilherme Xavier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ituano, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Víctor Berrio is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
14 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.
Nobody at Ituano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Gustavo Miranda has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Vini Oliveira 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.
Nobody at Ituano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
John Kennedy 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.
7 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.
“I watch every Ituano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pouso Alegre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Fernando Canesin will call it something else in private.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tiago Braga after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CRB moved on, Alason Carioca reports back to Ituano, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sebastián Corda has, at Ituano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Alason Carioca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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.
Ituano asked and Pouso Alegre said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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 Ituano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 May 2027
Rodi Ferreira 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.
“I watch every Ituano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maracanã runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tiago Braga 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 Inter de Limeira? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ponte Preta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutMarthã left out for tactical reasons at Ituano
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.
Fernando Viana 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 Rodi Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
John Kennedy is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ituano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CRB moved on, Fernando Canesin reports back to Ituano, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Ituano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Colón, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodi Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Ituano 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ituano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Ituano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bruno Mezenga 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlão 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ituano told Zé Carlos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ituano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ituano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Neto Berola 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 easiest signature of my career.” Marthã and Ituano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Xavier 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.
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ituano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ituano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luan Souza has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Ituano 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 words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Razera provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Neto Berola takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Neto Berola provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Eduardo Moura has agreed terms with Azuriz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ituano and Retrô, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guilherme Xavier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Bruno Mezenga decided nobody was going anywhere. CSA had no time left to answer.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ituano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
0‑1 against Guarany de Bagé, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Bruno Mezenga takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Mezenga provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Neto Berola 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.
Add another name to the list: Kapaz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zé Carlos. The answer from Ituano has not changed — yet.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Razera provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Éder Silva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Caio Silva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.