“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 The request is on a desk at Confiança, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vanderlan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Confiança has been clear about where Derick stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I watch every Confiança game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shirak runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 The request is on a desk at Confiança, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Edison Negueba wants continental football; whether Confiança can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Confiança this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Carvalho 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tony Batista
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.45 for the rest of it.
Vinícius Paiva 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 Aug 2027
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vanderlan 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.67, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Confiança told Vanderlan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isack did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Confiança and ABC, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Confiança can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 6.66 for the rest of it.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
$840.0K was the most the club would pay and São Bernardo were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botafogo have kept their man, and Confiança go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Vinícius Paiva 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Zé Gabriel 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.
Vinícius Paiva 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 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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Isack 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout17 May 2027
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.” Tiago Mendes, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
SquadA Confiança teenager takes the young player award
Vinícius Paiva and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tássio 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Confiança, another week without a signature from Vitinho.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Confiança, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isack signs something — a contract at Confiança or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isack signs something — a contract at Confiança or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Vinícius Paiva 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Confiança, another week without a signature from Chicão.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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 Benjamín García has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tássio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Confiança, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Confiança. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
10 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 Confiança, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isack signs something — a contract at Confiança or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $320.0K — a club that wants Tiago enough to be asked twice.
Confiança have gone to Grêmio with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Confiança offered $290.0K; Grêmio said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernardo 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Confiança will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
18 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Chicão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Confiança this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lucas Mota 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.
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.
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 Andrey Quintino is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ypiranga in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Cristian Toledo has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Monsalve trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Confiança would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Floresta were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Caíke Duarte has just signed for Confiança, and for once the answer mattered.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tássio 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcelinho has just signed for Confiança, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
William Barbio 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.
7 goals in one match, Andrey Quintino on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Confiança and Londrina.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Leo Gomes has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Confiança have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Confiança are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Confiança, another week without a signature from Cleiton.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. David Terans had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Thiago Silva 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fluminense and Humaitá in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.