“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gadiel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adson signs something — a contract at Luverdense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Words at Luverdense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Heitor Silva 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 Adson signs something — a contract at Luverdense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Raphinha 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Londrina have kept their man, and Luverdense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adson signs something — a contract at Luverdense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Aparecidense scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Carlos Silva 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Antônio Fonseca after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Heitor Silva 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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lucas Werneck did not need any: 7.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Edson Kauã 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Antônio Fonseca after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
David Lucas 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.” Fernando Guimarães and Luverdense agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Esquerdinha is living that version at Luverdense, and it tends to show in the first month.
5 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Luverdense can tell you which week it ends in.
Raphinha 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Edson Kauã 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.
Every supporter in the ground could have named the hole in this team, and most of them did, loudly, for months. Esquerdinha has been signed to close it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Adson has, at Luverdense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
4 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 a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Luverdense know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Luverdense, another week without a signature from Raphinha.
5 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.