The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Getúlio 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vicu Bulmaga is living that version at Dinamo Minsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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 Leonard Chatelin Gweth is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elmir Nabiullin and Dinamo Minsk agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fawaz Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yauhen Chalavach on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Evgeniy Malashevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Minsk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“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.
Still no offer on the table, and Kirill Kaplenko’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Minsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 21 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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Minsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdoul Aziz Touré will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
6 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.
Nobody at Dinamo Minsk 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Slutsk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mikhail Kozakevich signs something — a contract at Dinamo Minsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Gerzino Nyamsi 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 Getúlio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Alexey Ivanov
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.
“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.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Minsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Fawaz Abdullahi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BATE waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Dinamo Minsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Kramarič 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladimir Ignatenko has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Minsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Minsk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Getúlio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Dinamo Minsk
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Mikita Dragun 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raman Nekhaichik 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. Viktar Martynovich 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.
In brief
The dugoutKirill Kaplenko is still being punished for one mistake
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Minsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BATE waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dinamo Minsk have paid $6.0M for Getúlio, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Minsk can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fawaz Abdullahi 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 terraces21 Feb 2028
Dinamo Minsk spend $6.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $6.0M for Getúlio, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
In brief
SquadWords at Dinamo Minsk training over how hard people work
He is going to Dinamo Minsk, the club has $6.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Diego Caito 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 had been thinking. Tomás Pochettino 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
11 new faces, and Goiás are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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 Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 5 on 57 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Minsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Isloch waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Goiás 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.
Dinamo Minsk asked and Torpedo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.9M — a club that wants Getúlio enough to be asked twice.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Minsk know it.
Vladimir Ignatenko 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 Fawaz Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Pochettino 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 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.
At 20 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.
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 Pedrinho is on it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luciano Guaycochea has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“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 Goiás, and it is not being withdrawn.
Diego Caito 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Edson Carioca wants continental football; whether Goiás can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 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 Matheus Cadorini is on it.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Goiás and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goiás can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Diego Caito 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 Tomás Pochettino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jan 2028
11 new faces, and Goiás are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Position 5, 57 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Goiás know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Goiás will try again when the window opens; Newell's Old Boys may not be selling by then.
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 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 Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Getúlio signs something — a contract at Goiás or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Goiás would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“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 Goiás, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luisão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Goiás 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Goiás will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
5 goals in 18 games at Ararat-Armenia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Goiás updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The terracesThe Getúlio rumours reach the terraces
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Goiás will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Figueirense drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luis Felipe is living that version at Goiás, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market13 Dec 2027
Goiás may not be able to give Getúlio what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Getúlio wants continental football; whether Goiás can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The chase for Luis Felipe ended with $310.0K changing hands and Maricá out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 57 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Goiás people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Maricá; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Goiás have gone to Figueirense 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.
Goiás asked and Al Wasl 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 crueller way to lose a football match. Goiás scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
Diego Caito 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.
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 Benjamín Garré is on it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Goiás will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Goiás has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Goiás scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Diego Caito 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Esli García. 1‑0 against Fortaleza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Goiás, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Matheus Oliveira on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Diego Caito 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Pochettino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Henrique Devens.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Pochettino 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. Goiás know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás 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 Luisão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Goiás, and 10 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
“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 Goiás, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Goiás have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Diego Caito 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bautista Pérez is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Cuiabá left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Sep 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 0‑1 Matheus Oliveira left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutNicolas Careca has become a man the manager trusts
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Goiás, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás 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 Tomás Pochettino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Zé Welison and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Goiás 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Goiás will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Diego Caito 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Pochettino 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.
“I watch every Goiás game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vaprus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Getúlio provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from FCI Levadia for Thiago Beltrame 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás 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 Tomás Pochettino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Vitória go through and Goiás go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Thiago Beltrame had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Goiás ran out of time with CSA. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Diego Caito 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 had been thinking. Getúlio 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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 shaken hands with CSA; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Goiás, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Getúlio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nicolas Careca obliged against Brasil de Pelotas. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Goiás.
The offer from Penafiel for Matheus Cadorini 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.0M has been paid because Tomás Pochettino is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Gabriel Pec 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 offer went to Santa Cruz 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.
Tomás Pochettino was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $4.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Getúlio 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Getúlio provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goiás can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Goiás asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.
The phone has started ringing about Hygor Souza again, and this time the name on the line is Independência. Goiás are listening politely and promising nothing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Goiás have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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 offer from Iberia 1999 for Thiago Beltrame 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Goiás may not be able to give Getúlio what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Getúlio wants continental football; whether Goiás can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Lucas Ribeiro 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 Luisão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hygor Souza and Goiás agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Jun 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 Matheus Oliveira to a room that had heard them before.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Goiás can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luisão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Diego Caito 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
He is 22 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.
Three points for Goiás, 1‑0 the final word against Coritiba in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Getúlio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goiás can pretend not to have heard.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás 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 Luisão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goiás can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Lucas Ribeiro 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.
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 Diego Caito is on 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 Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luisão 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 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.
Lucas Ribeiro 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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Goiás. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goiás can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luciano Guaycochea has just signed for Goiás, and for once the answer mattered.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Goiás are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Luciano Guaycochea is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moraes signs something — a contract at Goiás or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Goiás have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lucas Ribeiro 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedrinho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Diego Caito is on it.
At 17 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.
Diego Caito 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.
Add another name to the list: Itabaiana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Danilo Cunha. The answer from Goiás has not changed — yet.
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.
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 Diego Caito is on it.
Portuguesa have accepted the money. What Goiás do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Everything agreed with Corinthians, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Machado. 1‑0 against Athletic Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Machado was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goiás can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Matheus Oliveira, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Cadu is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedrinho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Marked 7.80. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Matheus Oliveira kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Diego Caito is on 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 Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Getúlio 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.
Something was said to Machado and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Pedrinho is on it.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goiás and América Mineiro in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Goiás.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 3‑4 Matheus Oliveira left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Lucas Ribeiro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Volta Redonda had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Goiás did not stop to explain themselves.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wellington Rato. 2‑1 against Volta Redonda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
2-1, and a corner of somebody else's ground that made more noise than the rest of it put together. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them ever mentions 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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
At 22 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.
Getúlio 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.
7 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brayann, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Matheus Oliveira was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Goiás dressing room was either.
Nobody at Goiás 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.
Something was said to Brayann and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Chapecoense defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goiás can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goiás can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 Brayann is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Getúlio’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Goiás needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brayann trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goiás can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Goiás can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zé Welison scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Lucas Ribeiro 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: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Goiás are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thiago Beltrame has, at Goiás, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 Pedrinho is on it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ramon has moved up it.
Remo next, and one man in the Goiás dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 44. 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 122th minute. Santa Cruz will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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 7.38 for the rest of it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer from Atlético CP for Jefferson 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Vila Nova spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Getúlio 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alan Gobetti has just signed for Goiás, and for once the answer mattered.
A mark of 7.75, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad24 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Goiás are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 1‑3 Matheus Oliveira left the room before anybody could ask which.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 38 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.71, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Hygor Souza takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hygor Souza provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 goals in one match, Cadu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Goiás and Maracanã.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Zé Welison is living that version at Goiás, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Éder Moreira 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. Felipe Carvalho 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.
In brief
MarketOne of our own: Trator joins the Goiás first team
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Henrique Devens has, at Goiás, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 Goiás hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Ribeiro wants continental football; whether Goiás can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The phone has started ringing about Pedrinho again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Tbilisi. Goiás 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Tombense, 1‑0 the final word against Anápolis in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Tombense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Vitor 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tombense, and both men came out saying it was fine.