“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Willian José will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Parana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Willian José was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Alexsandro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Parana would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Maxwell is 34, with 37 appearances behind him, and Parana will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
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 Diego Cabrera has written the date down.
19 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Igor Cariús 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Willian José 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.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Parana asked and Mirassol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Igor Cariús 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.
In brief
SquadSamuel Santos falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
“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 Parana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mouscron is saying, and nobody at Parana is enjoying the guessing.
Igor Cariús 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Parana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Willian José 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 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Parana can tell you which week it ends in.
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Parana have done the hard part with Mirassol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alexsandro has just signed for Parana, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Parana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Parana asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Igor Cariús and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Parana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Santos 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.
37 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Grêmio heard it as anything else.
The offer from FF Jaro for Alexsandro 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Grêmio people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Grêmio until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabián Balbuena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Estudiantes de Caracas for Harlley 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo 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: Tetê. 2‑0 against Botafogo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Paysandu go through and Grêmio go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Boa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grêmio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yuri Alberto 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.
$540.0K was the most the club would pay and Santos 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.
In brief
SquadDanilo falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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, terms agreed, medical booked. Gustavo Ferrareis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from FF Jaro for Alexsandro 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.
Yuri Alberto 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hyoran 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo 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.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grêmio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Fabián Balbuena 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danilo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Grêmio, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grêmio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alexsandro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo 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.
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 Tetê is on it.
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 Rômulo has written the date down.
“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 Grêmio, 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.” Grêmio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yuri Alberto 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danilo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Grêmio told Carlos Vinícius something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grêmio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Grêmio has been clear about where Dodi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Grêmio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio 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.