Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Goiás they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Diego Caito 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.
15 combined actions and 7.24. 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.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baldória was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Goiás have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Goiás offered $6.9M; Mirassol said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Goiás is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.82. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Goiás asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Goiás will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market22 May 2028
Goiás may not be able to give Pedrinho what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pedrinho wants continental football; whether Goiás can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Diego Caito 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 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Pochettino 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Goiás will try again when the window opens; Newell's Old Boys may not be selling by then.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Getúlio signs something — a contract at Goiás or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Goiás would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Diego Caito 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Goiás will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 Goiás, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Vasco da Gama have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody at Goiás 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.
Diego Caito 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 2‑0 win over Athletic Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Wellington Rato.
“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 Goiás, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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. 145 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Vaprus had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vaprus they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaprus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vaprus lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
40 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Vaprus scored in the 106th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 9.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Goiás scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Diego Caito 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Esli García. 1‑0 against Fortaleza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Goiás, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Matheus Oliveira on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Baldória 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Vaprus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artjom Dmitrijev 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Vaprus are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Enrique Esono
The dugoutJoonas Sild knocks on the manager's door
Diego Caito 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 Tomás Pochettino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Goiás can tell you which week it ends in.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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 Goiás, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matheus Oliveira after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Baldória and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Vaprus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artjom Dmitrijev 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 Tristan Pajo is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vaprus. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutEnrique Esono knocks on the manager’s door
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vaprus have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Enrique Esono will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vaprus 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 Vaprus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Vaprus is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artjom Dmitrijev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Goiás will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Diego Caito 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Pochettino 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 watch every Goiás game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vaprus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
40 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vaprus will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matthias Limberg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vaprus the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monte Azul keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Baldória 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Vaprus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artjom Dmitrijev 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.
Flora arrived with $180.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vaprus will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ott Nõmm has gone, the accounts have $180.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Maksim Gussev 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with CSA; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Goiás, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Getúlio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vaprus will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vaprus is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Vaprus, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaprus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kevin Aloe 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vaprus can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Henri Välja
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Goiás lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Goiás they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. João Dalla Corte has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Goiás have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Goiás asked and Cruzeiro 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 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nicolas Careca obliged against Brasil de Pelotas. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Goiás.
The offer from Penafiel for Matheus Cadorini 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 cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.0M has been paid because Tomás Pochettino is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Gabriel Pec 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 offer went to Santa Cruz 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.
Tomás Pochettino was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $4.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Getúlio 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything agreed with Novorizontino, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luisão 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Goiás have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
The offer from Iberia 1999 for Thiago Beltrame 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Goiás may not be able to give Getúlio what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Getúlio wants continental football; whether Goiás can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Lucas Ribeiro 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 Luisão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hygor Souza and Goiás agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Matheus Oliveira to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moraes signs something — a contract at Goiás or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luisão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Moraes signs something — a contract at Goiás or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Goiás the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Lucas Ribeiro 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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Goiás. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Goiás lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Diego Caito 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.
Nobody at Goiás 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Goiás has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Goiás have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lucas Ribeiro 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedrinho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Diego Caito is on it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Pedrinho reports back to Goiás with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Goiás have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lucas Ribeiro 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Goiás go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nobody at Goiás 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Moraes’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Portuguesa have accepted the money. What Goiás do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Everything agreed with Corinthians, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiás this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Machado. 1‑0 against Athletic Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Machado was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Marked 7.80. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Matheus Oliveira kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Diego Caito 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 Goiás, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Getúlio 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.
Something was said to Machado and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Pedrinho is on it.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.