The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Palmeiras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Palmeiras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Palmeiras will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
6 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.
Alexander Barboza 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vitor Roque signs something — a contract at Palmeiras or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Palmeiras 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 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.
They sit in position 20 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Jhon Arias plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gustavo Gómez is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Sport Recife leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Antônio Monteiro chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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 Paulinho is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bruno Fuchs’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Palmeiras needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The phone has started ringing about Murilo again, and this time the name on the line is Spartak Moscow. Palmeiras are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marcelo Lomba 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 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.
Derby days make names, and Vitor Roque made his against Corinthians. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Palmeiras and a story that will outlast his contract.
“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 Palmeiras hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Alexander Barboza 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Heittor 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Aug 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.” Antônio Monteiro kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.