Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Criciúma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
JP Chermont 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 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.
Marked 7.74 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Criciúma had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
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.” Danilo Nogueira, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Criciúma will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
JP Chermont 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 Lucão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Criciúma has been clear about where Pedro stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
JP Chermont 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.
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.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at Criciúma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucão 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Criciúma can pretend not to have heard.
JP Chermont 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Criciúma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nuno Moreira 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.
Criciúma asked and Botafogo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Criciúma will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
MarketCriciúma and Enzo are talking past each other
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SJK have done the hard part with LASK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
8 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; SJK are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SJK is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and IF Gnistan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Julius Körkkö 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Markus Arsalo 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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.” Daniel Valakari kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ilves were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Julius Körkkö 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Markus Arsalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Julius Körkkö was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SJK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KäPa had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Haka have accepted the money. What SJK do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SJK this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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.
In brief
SquadWords at SJK training over how hard people work
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SJK have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Position 3, 39 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.
“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 SJK, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SJK they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $710.0K for Eemeli Honkola, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosenborg have kept their man, and SJK go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Markus Arsalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.