$28.6M on the table at Cruzeiro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Juventude 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Internacional can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Internacional hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
$460.0K on the table at Sport Recife. 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Alexandro Bernabei 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nobody at Internacional 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Internacional know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 May 2027
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 1‑2 Douglas Santos left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Paulinho has his answer from Internacional; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Internacional 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.
Internacional offered $7.8M; Palmeiras 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.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Internacional would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Internacional. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The offer went to Palmeiras 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Mercado, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Internacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
$15.0M on the table at Toluca. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$14.3M on the table at Shakhtar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Internacional go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kauan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Internacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Niclas Eliasson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Internacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Maripán 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.
Minute 89, against Bragantino, 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.
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 Alexandro Bernabei is on it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Internacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Minute 86, against Cruzeiro, 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.
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.
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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Douglas Santos chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutKayky has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Internacional have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Internacional heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kauan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Internacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexandro Bernabei 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Igor Figueiredo and Internacional agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Internacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Douglas Santos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Corinthians defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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 Kayky is on it.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Esser will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Internacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Grêmio on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Internacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
9 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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandro Bernabei and Internacional agree another 4 years.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Internacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcelo Farias 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. Júnior Neves 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.