“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Floresta can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felipinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Igor Toledo has his answer from Floresta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Floresta 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Floresta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Toledo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Gabriel Rojas
Cedric and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Gabriel Rojas 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.
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 Coxa is on it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Igor Toledo has moved up it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cedric signs something — a contract at Floresta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Toledo knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Floresta can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Iberia 1999 for Tiepo 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Floresta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Pacheco 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.
Danilo Guimarães 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Floresta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Bruno Arrabal is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Floresta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Floresta can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Floresta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Floresta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Pacheco 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.
Floresta asked and Atlético Mineiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Matheus Martins is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Antônio signs something — a contract at Floresta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Floresta has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
“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 Floresta, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Floresta heard it as anything else.
Felipinho 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Bruno Pacheco 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Floresta are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have shaken hands with Paysandu; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Floresta have gone to Paysandu 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.
Capella 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cássio Miranda and Floresta agree another 3 years.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Felipe Ribeiro to a room that had heard them before.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jeremías Suarez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Tiepo is on it.