“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 The request is on a desk at São Paulo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
$880.0K on the table at Santos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $66.8K — a club that wants Jordi enough to be asked twice.
Rodrigo Atencio 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Luiz Phellype at that price
Beaten 1‑2 by Corinthians in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
“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 The request is on a desk at São Paulo, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. São Paulo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Alan Franco 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Matheus Alves had São Paulo level again within 1 minutes, and Corinthians never got to play with a lead at all.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Henrique Martins after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at São Paulo 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. São Paulo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Metinho, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at São Paulo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Franco 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.
Fábio Matheus 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether São Paulo 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 Zé Roberto is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Murilo signs something — a contract at São Paulo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Rodrigo Atencio has written the date down.
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.
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Alan Franco 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.
Zé Gabriel 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 Giovanni Simeone signs something — a contract at São Paulo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. São Paulo would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“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.
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.
Zé Gabriel 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 Zé Roberto is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Murilo signs something — a contract at São Paulo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at São Paulo, another week without a signature from Isac.
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 Bruno Ferreira has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Isac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Manaus had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 São Paulo, and it is not being withdrawn.
$4.4M was the most the club would pay and Flamengo 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Paulo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
19 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Atencio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marcelo Benevenuto had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
São Paulo have gone to Flamengo 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.
The offer from Central for Isac 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Alan Franco 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Matheus Alves from Bahia for $12.7M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Paulo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have shaken hands with Bahia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sousa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at São Paulo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 São Paulo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Instituto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marcelo Benevenuto. The answer from São Paulo has not changed — yet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dell has, at São Paulo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Atlético Mineiro wanted more than $620.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Fábio Matheus 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Paulo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Franco 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.
São Paulo asked and Olympiacos 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around São Paulo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Torpedo Kutaisi for Zé Marcos 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at São Paulo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. São Paulo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Isac had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what São Paulo can pretend not to have heard.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Athletico Paranaense 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether São Paulo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Paulo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what São Paulo can pretend not to have heard.
Giovanni Simeone 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 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and São Paulo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nobody at São Paulo 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.
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 Ramon has written the date down.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. São Paulo have paid $8.7M for Giovanni Simeone, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
$12.6M was the most the club would pay and Fluminense 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
$830.0K settles it between the clubs for David Duarte
Bahia have accepted the money. What São Paulo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
São Paulo asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergio Rochet and São Paulo agree another 3 years.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
São Paulo spend $8.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $8.7M for Giovanni Simeone, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Paulo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. São Paulo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas André will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around São Paulo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
At 16 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Corinthians on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.