“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francisco Fydriszewski provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Junior have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Guillermo Paiva wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francisco Fydriszewski. 3‑1 against Jaguares, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Position 2, 25 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior 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 Andrés Vombergar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Lucas 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bahia, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Ramos Mingo signs something — a contract at Bahia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Bahia 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.
5 clean sheets from 8 appearances at Atlético Tucumán. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Bahia that is a harder question to answer.
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 João Paulo has written the date down.
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.
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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Lucas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Francisco Fydriszewski 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 Erick and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
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 Cristian Barrios is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against America de Cali in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jannenson Sarmiento wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Vombergar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 97 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Bahia, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Aveiro 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Bahia 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Ramos Mingo signs something — a contract at Bahia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutDell has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Junior will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Real Cartagena, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Guillermo Paiva wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Déiber Caicedo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Junior asked and Dinamo 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.
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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Junior will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Junior 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.
In brief
The dugoutMauro Silveira asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kevin Pérez
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Junior will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Junior people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bahia 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 Bahia can pretend not to have heard.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bahia will try again when the window opens; Al-Nassr may not be selling by then.
Athletico Paranaense pay $1.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Bahia asked and Atlético Goianiense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Bahia have had the benefit of it.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior 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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Junior had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer from Patriotas for Kevin Pérez 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 phone has started ringing about Déiber Caicedo again, and this time the name on the line is Independiente Medellin. Junior are listening politely and promising nothing.
Luis Muriel 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$22.0M was the most the club would pay and Porto were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer from Corinthians for Jean Lucas 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.
Bahia asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bahia have gone to Al-Nassr 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cobresal had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 7.61 for the rest of it.
Caio Alexandre 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. Jean Lucas 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luís Amaral after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bahia has been clear about where Nicolás Acevedo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Bahia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jean Lucas 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Everton Ribeiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jean Lucas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Bahia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kanu had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Román Gómez, marked 7.90, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Haras El Hodoud for Mateo Sanabria 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.
Caio Alexandre 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jean Lucas 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
7 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.
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.