Celta have gone to Burgos with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$15.8M on the table at Barcelona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Celta and Castellón have settled on $2.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Real Madrid 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.3M — a club that wants Seydouba Cissé enough to be asked twice.
Ilaix Moriba 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.
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Squad12 Jun 2028
André Luís 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Celta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Williot Swedberg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
40 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
8 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.
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 Celta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maximiliano Araújo signs something — a contract at Celta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Walter 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Neto Moura 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.
He is 19 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mirassol told Shaylon something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The mood at Mirassol has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $147.9K — a club that wants Raí enough to be asked twice.
Mirassol offered $770.0K; Bahia 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.
$140.0K on the table at Juventude. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Mirassol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Jun 2027
André Luís wins it after the whistle should have gone
111 minutes played. André Luís found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Ceará went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
1 for José Aldo, marked 7.88, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Maricá moved on, Chico Kim reports back to Mirassol, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Mirassol offered $180.0K; Avaí 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.
The phone has started ringing about Carlos Eduardo again, and this time the name on the line is Iberia 1999. Mirassol are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Mirassol asked and Toluca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Mirassol, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mirassol 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 Denilson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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 offer from Oliveirense for Negueba was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Mirassol will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
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.
Walter and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Neto Moura 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Neto Moura 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Mirassol 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mirassol are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.35 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.90, 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.
7 goals in one match, André Luís on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Mirassol and Maranhão.
Marked 9.74 — 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ceará the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Mirassol will enjoy reviewing.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Walter 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Mirassol and Vasco da Gama, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Perninha has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Paredes had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Vonić 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paulo Reis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jose Fernandes has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Duarte Castro 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Victor Luís delivers — 7.58
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Victor Luís scored, was marked 7.58, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mirassol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Mirassol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alesson 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.
49 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Carlos Eduardo
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Reinaldo
The dugoutJoão Victor asks for a word with the manager