A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ituano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Hapoel Kiryat Shmona for Gabriel Razera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zé Carlos provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ituano, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ituano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucca 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: Zé Carlos. 3‑1 against Ypiranga, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ituano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ituano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fluminense, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Rúben Ismael 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.
Operário Ferroviário pay $100.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Xavier 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.
Ituano asked and Internacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pouso Alegre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ituano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Avaí for Matheus Maia was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ituano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marlon Yan 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ituano can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucca 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.
Guilherme Dal Pian 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.
“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 Ituano, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Ituano 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ituano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Zé Carlos 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.
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 Víctor Berrio is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ituano, 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 Ituano can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Vitoria Guimaraes for Gabriel Razera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastián Corda and Ituano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucca 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 Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marlon Yan 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 Lucca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Ituano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chapecoense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Miranda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ituano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
John Kennedy 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.
7 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.
“I watch every Ituano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pouso Alegre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Fernando Canesin will call it something else in private.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tiago Braga after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Alason Carioca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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 Marthã is on it.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Bruno Alves'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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Santa Cruz kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Ituano will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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 Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Ituano lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tiago Braga was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Ituano dressing room was either.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CRB moved on, Alason Carioca reports back to Ituano, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sebastián Corda has, at Ituano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Alason Carioca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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.
Ituano asked and Pouso Alegre said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The offer from Avaí for Gabriel Razera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Franco Auyanet has just signed for Ituano, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Jul 2027
John Kennedy 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.
At 20 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ituano can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bragantino keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ituano have gone to Atlético Mineiro 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.
Ituano and Avaí have settled on $61.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Amazonas paid $220.0K and Ituano took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad28 Jun 2027
John Kennedy 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 offer went to Bragantino this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$3.0M was the most the club would pay and Palmeiras 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.
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. ABC drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Itabirito have kept their man, and Ituano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodi Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I watch every Ituano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Iguatu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Fernando Viana 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Rodi Ferreira 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 name of Kauan Richard has come up in conversations Ituano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Ituano, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ituano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Bruno Alves is 34, with 210 appearances behind him, and Ituano will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ituano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ituano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Santa Cruz for Gabriel Razera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 Ituano, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Ituano have had the benefit of it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ituano can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Matheus Mancini 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 John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Monte Azul waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ituano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Fluminense, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rodi Ferreira is living that version at Ituano, and it tends to show in the first month.
Horizonte have accepted the money. What Ituano do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ituano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ituano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neto Berola 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tiago Braga after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ituano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Neto Berola 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Gabriel Razera has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Neto Berola’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ituano needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ituano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ituano, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ituano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ituano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Neto Berola 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 easiest signature of my career.” Marthã and Ituano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Xavier 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. 38 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Razera provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Neto Berola takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Neto Berola provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Eduardo Moura has agreed terms with Azuriz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ituano and Retrô, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guilherme Xavier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.