1‑4 to Avaí, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ferroviária, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.7M on the table at Cruzeiro. 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 $2.0M — a club that wants Kaique Kenji enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferroviária this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferroviária have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ricardinho 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Vinícius 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arthur Schilling and Ferroviária agree another 5 years.
Something was said to Lucas Rodrigues and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Fábio Soares is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrés Macea has his answer from Ferroviária; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferroviária this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 Fábio Soares is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Remo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dênis Júnior signs something — a contract at Ferroviária 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 Danielzinho has written the date down.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ferroviária, another week without a signature from João Victor.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ferroviária has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferroviária they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edson Lucas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Fábio Soares is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Paulo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Andrés Salazar is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fábio Soares did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ricardinho 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Eduardo Silva to a room that had heard them before.
Athletic Club will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ferroviária were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Gustavo Medina 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateus Cantarelli 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.
Add another name to the list: Shukura have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denilson Goulart. The answer from Ferroviária has not changed — yet.
In brief
The terracesA long trip to Athletic Club worth making
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadWords at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferroviária can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gustavo Medina and Ferroviária agree another 4 years.
Gustavo Medina 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardinho 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.
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Ferroviária 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.