“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 The request is on a desk at Juazeirense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marcelo Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Douglas Souza 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.
“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 Juazeirense, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos Pedro signs something — a contract at Juazeirense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Juazeirense. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Thalyson has written the date down.
Position 6 on 49 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Juazeirense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Lorran, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Douglas Souza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juazeirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Douglas Souza falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Juazeirense told Lorran something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Juazeirense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 dugout27 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 Fernando Monteiro left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Renan Cosenza has his answer from Juazeirense; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
ASA next, and one man in the Juazeirense dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutMarcelo Duarte asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Juazeirense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juazeirense can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The phone has started ringing about Rafael Porfírio again, and this time the name on the line is Persijap. Juazeirense are listening politely and promising nothing.
Georgemy 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Adauto Júnior 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
João Grilo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Operário Ferroviário have kept their man, and Juazeirense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Juazeirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Cauã 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Juazeirense have made the call to Nova Iguaçu. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
5 new faces, and Juazeirense 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 registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Juazeirense know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
22 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.
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.
João Grilo 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.
Everybody at Juazeirense saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Juazeirense 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.
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. Juazeirense will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, 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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutThalyson asks for a word with the manager
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Caio Cunha 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 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.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Juazeirense man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Derlis Ortiz was the best thing in any of them.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Derlis Ortiz has just signed for Juazeirense, and for once the answer mattered.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Marcelo Duarte is a Juazeirense player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Léo Godo and Juazeirense agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
João Vitor 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.
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fernando Monteiro was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Juazeirense dressing room was either.