The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boavista is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gabriel Delfim 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bahia have kept their man, and Boavista go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Boavista game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ituano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
16 appearances at Guarany de Bagé and the goals have stopped going in. Boavista lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boavista people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at Boavista, and it is not being withdrawn.
Arthur Dias 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 Tiago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boavista asked and Botafogo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guarany de Bagé lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Atlético Mineiro 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.
Guarany de Bagé have made the call to Criciúma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Guarany de Bagé will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Guarany de Bagé will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iago Santos has, at Boavista, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Boavista and Goiânia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.