The mood at Tombense has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 The request is on a desk at Tombense, and it is not being withdrawn.
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.56 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Rafael Furlan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Tombense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hiago 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Miller Bacca 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.40, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Castillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tomás Cuello had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlético Mineiro can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Teixeira is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mateo Cassierra 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.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Sport Recife said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Gustavo Scarpa is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tombense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A loan enquiry to Independiente Medellin: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Tombense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeifer Herrera 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Vitor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tombense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Tombense 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.
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.
Tombense asked and Talleres said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tombense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tombense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
1‑1 against Penarol, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mateo Cassierra was at the centre of the description.
7 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atlético Mineiro heard it as anything else.
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.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Bragantino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Ruan Tressoldi again, and this time the name on the line is Huachipato. Atlético Mineiro are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexsander 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zé Phelipe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Renan Lodi signs something — a contract at Atlético Mineiro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tomás Cuello’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atlético Mineiro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
5 goals in 8 games at Sevlievo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atlético Mineiro updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zé Phelipe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alan Franco wants continental football; whether Atlético Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.12, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Atlético Mineiro had all but put away. Grêmio will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
In brief
SquadAlexsander falls out with a teammate over standards
0‑1 against Unión de Santa Fe. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zé Phelipe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 19 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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Thiago Assis to a room that had heard them before.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zé Phelipe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Louback has agreed terms with Náutico for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Victor Hugo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexsander was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Thiago Assis on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.