Thiago Milanese 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
João Maranhão 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.
Nobody at Botafogo-PB 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Botafogo-PB will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Floresta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lauder trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Thiago Milanese 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and João Maranhão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Guarani; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Rafael Gomes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Dodô has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Confiança will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Botafogo-PB were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lawan did not need any: 9.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.62, and 2 involvements.
Éverton Alemão 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
João Maranhão 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Lawan 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Thiago Milanese 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Santos 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: João Maranhão. 1‑0 against Tombense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rafael Gomes on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-PB they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botafogo-PB 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.