“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 The request is on a desk at Lagarto, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sergipe in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 The request is on a desk at Lagarto, and it is not being withdrawn.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” André Monteiro after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutMarcos Vinicius is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutThierry Henry has become a man the manager trusts
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Glaybson 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lagarto pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lagarto can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Kawê, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Glaybson 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.
“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 Lagarto, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lagarto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everybody at Lagarto saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Wallace's mistake
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. André Monteiro has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Lagarto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Glaybson 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.
Everybody at Lagarto saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. William Menezes is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
The dugoutThierry Henry has become a man the manager trusts
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. André Monteiro has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mauro Anabalón 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lagarto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 combined actions and 6.99. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThierry Henry has become a man the manager trusts
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. André Monteiro has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lagarto can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bahia is saying, and nobody at Lagarto is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lagarto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lagarto can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lagarto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everybody at Lagarto saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kattê provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Everything agreed with Atlético Mineiro, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Glaybson 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.
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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Gustavo Silva'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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Lagarto will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutThierry Henry has become a man the manager trusts
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lagarto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 17 combined actions and a mark of 6.59, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lagarto have done the hard part with Sport Recife, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Brayan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grêmio have kept their man, and Lagarto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
3 behind and going nowhere, until Kattê decided otherwise. Penedense had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
It finished 1-6. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Thierry Henry, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Reinaldo scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Glaybson 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
10 matches without a win, and then this, against Santa Cruz de Natal. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
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.
William Menezes 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.
Everybody at Lagarto saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsReinaldo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 154 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
William Menezes 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lagarto will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 André Monteiro left the room before anybody could ask which.