Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atletico Goianiense has to find a result from somewhere.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Junior Ajayi and Atletico Goianiense agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
SquadAdonis Frías asks for a word with the manager
The terracesThe press have found their man in Adonis Frías
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atletico Goianiense can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
One booking too many, and Guilherme Marques sits out. Atletico Goianiense lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atletico Goianiense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The name of Junior Ajayi has come up in conversations Atletico Goianiense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atletico Goianiense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atletico Goianiense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Atletico Goianiense have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
At 31 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Atletico Goianiense have a decision that made itself.
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.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Gustavo Coutinho keeps the shirt for now, at Atletico Goianiense's convenience rather than his own.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Junior Ajayi arrives at Atletico Goianiense with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Matheus Índio has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.