16 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Three points for ASA, 3‑1 the final word against Goiânia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Alex Aguado 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Renato Viana 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.
14 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sergipe will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. ASA were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
A brace, and Sergio Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergio Núñez provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Sergio Núñez 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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Alex Aguado 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Keliton provided it, and the 6.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
In brief
SquadAlex Aguado falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Aguado 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
1 for Jair, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Palhares has, at ASA, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Keliton. 2‑0 against Central, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Keliton provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Keliton 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.
In brief
SquadA move Joseph Ruiz would have made for nothing
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ASA lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Santa Cruz de Natal, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Aug 2032
A brace, and Sergio Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergio Núñez provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Sergio Núñez 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.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Henrique will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ASA the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 ASA, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Flamengo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Pedro Henrique has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Keliton 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Cauê Raphael 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.
6 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ASA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Tomás Cantera 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
7 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 Sergio Núñez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ASA, another week without a signature from Jerall Astudillo.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. ASA will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ASA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Horizonte is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. ASA had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
ASA asked and Ponte Preta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 65 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Tuna Luso had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and ASA did not stop to explain themselves.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jupi provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ASA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ASA can pretend not to have heard.
Keliton 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.
In brief
SquadHiago Alves falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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 ASA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Cantera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.20 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
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.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ASA lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jerall Astudillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around ASA the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Keliton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Hiago Alves 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $27.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“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; ASA are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro das Neves, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Agustín Mouro's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee ASA could ask drops and the wages Jerall Astudillo can ask rise.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
Up for the corner, and Pablo Maldini delivers — 7.59
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pablo Maldini scored, was marked 7.59, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hiago Alves 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for ASA is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Carlos Villalba has his answer from ASA; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at ASA can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Cantera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hiago Alves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
14 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Hiago Alves 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.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ASA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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.
Natalício 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.
8 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Agustín Mouro's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Two goals and a mark of 8.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hiago Alves 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hiago Alves 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Barcelona de Ilhéus spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between ASA and Ferroviário, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hiago Alves 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Gabriel Werner’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 ASA, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jerall Astudillo has agreed terms with Sport Recife for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Arthur Queiroz is a ASA player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at ASA, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 ASA, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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.
Natalício 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $26.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
ASA asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Cantera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
30 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ASA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Guilherme Pacheco again, and this time the name on the line is Syunik. ASA are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ASA have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.41 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ASA have done the hard part with Coritiba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
7 goals in one match, Jerall Astudillo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of ASA and Barcelona de Ilhéus.
Beaten 0‑3 by Goiânia, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The terraces26 May 2031
A cup hiding at CSA leaves ASA explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ASA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $24.4M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
ASA interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jerall Astudillo provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Talisca 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ASA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Cantera 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. ASA will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pablo Maldini signs something — a contract at ASA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and ASA know which stage they are at.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thiago Mendes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ASA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Talisca 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jerall Astudillo is living that version at ASA, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. ASA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.