“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Itabirito can pretend not to have heard.
Luan Freitas 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.
He is 20 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Itabirito training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hebert 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 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 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Erick Belé did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabirito this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Itabirito training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Pureza 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.
“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 Itabirito will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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 The request is on a desk at Itabirito, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Volta Redonda is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabirito this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 from Cruzeiro for Jhon Arias 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botafogo have kept their man, and Palmeiras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Porto Vitória waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Palmeiras is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Erick Belé had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer went to Athletico Paranaense 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Palmeiras have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
3‑0 against Talleres, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Marked 8.16 — 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 Palmeiras game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at GAS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Gómez is on it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Luiz Freitas kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Raphael Veiga’s exile
“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 Palmeiras, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Gustavo Gómez again, and this time the name on the line is São Paulo. Palmeiras are listening politely and promising nothing.
Palmeiras asked and Grêmio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bruno Fuchs 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.
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.
7 goals in 19 games at Club America — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Palmeiras updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Palmeiras know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.