Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz 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 Wagner Vidal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout29 May 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Pedro Machado to a room that had heard them before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Imperatriz can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Pedro Leonardo 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: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toró 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.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Pedro Leonardo 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
This is not rotation. Bruno Sampayo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Imperatriz is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Segovia 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.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Diego Silva 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. Douglas Nogueira 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Imperatriz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Pedro Leonardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toró 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.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Imperatriz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Imperatriz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz 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 Edgar Segovia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Eduardo Melo loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Eduardo Melo's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Nobody arrives at Imperatriz until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Imperatriz this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edgar Segovia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Imperatriz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Leonardo 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Edgar Segovia 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Position 16 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Pedro Leonardo 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Streit
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Segovia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Samuel Bastos 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Imperatriz can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Nobody arrives at Imperatriz until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Imperatriz this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Daniil Malkin was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Eduardo Melo exposed
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Imperatriz can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aparecidense have kept their man, and Imperatriz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar Segovia 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Imperatriz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Sampayo 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 Cássio signs something — a contract at Imperatriz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Imperatriz people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Pedro Leonardo 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. Central have kept their man, and Imperatriz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Vergara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Imperatriz have made the call to São Paulo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all 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 Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pedro Leonardo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Davi Schneider trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Imperatriz would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Cássio’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Questions about Lucas Streit on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Imperatriz 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 Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Imperatriz will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
168% of the income goes out in wages at Imperatriz
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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 Ypiranga.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Sampayo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Imperatriz could ask drops and the wages Santiago Vergara can ask rise.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pedro Machado has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Pedro Leonardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toró 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gabriel William has come out of that comparison in the side, and Imperatriz have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Gabriel William 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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 Pedro Machado to a room that had heard them before.
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.
10 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.
6 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.
Everything agreed with Monte Azul, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Gabriel William 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Toró 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.
The deal with São Paulo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Vergara 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout21 Jun 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 0‑2 Pedro Machado left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
6 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.
“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 Imperatriz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pedro Leonardo 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.
Imperatriz asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Vergara 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.
Gabriel William and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Vergara 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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tuna Luso in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
110% of the income goes out in wages at Imperatriz
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Imperatriz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Imperatriz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Imperatriz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Toró was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Imperatriz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A season's verdict on Nicolás Ibarra: the best of his age
Imperatriz have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luca Grazzini has just signed for Imperatriz, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vitória is saying, and nobody at Imperatriz is enjoying the guessing.
Imperatriz have gone to América Mineiro 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.
Imperatriz asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vinícius Teixeira 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz 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 Luís Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Imperatriz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Toró was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Pedro Machado after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 GAS.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
Pedro Leonardo 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.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Imperatriz had all but put away. Trem will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
12 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Imperatriz have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nicolás Ibarra is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Imperatriz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luís Rodrigues 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Iguatu? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 10 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Tuna Luso next, and one man in the Imperatriz dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.