Gabriel Taliari 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
“I watch every Juventude game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Azuriz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Juventude, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventude can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yarlei 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Juventude can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gabriel Taliari 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Juventude, another week without a signature from Alan.
“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 Juventude, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos Paulo signs something — a contract at Juventude or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
The dugoutPablo Roberto knocks on the manager’s door
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Caíque did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Lucas Mineiro, marked 7.89, 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kauã Costa 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Rafael Rech 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.
The phone has started ringing about Caíque again, and this time the name on the line is Ararat. Juventude are listening politely and promising nothing.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Mineiro