The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Luis Eduardo enough to be asked twice.
Juventude asked and Água Santa 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 Rafael Rech again, and this time the name on the line is Anápolis. Juventude are listening politely and promising nothing.
Caíque 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 Gabriel Taliari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Botafogo-SP for Alisson Safira 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cuiabá waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Juventude is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 18 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.
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 Caíque is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vasco da Gama in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Alan Kardec has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Caíque trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Vasco da Gama
SquadThe selectors could not leave Luiz Mandaca out
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Juventude have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sasso has agreed terms with Retrô for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Juventude will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Juventude, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gabriel Taliari 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.
19 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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.
Nobody at Juventude 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Mineiro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Juventude will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 to Vitória, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mafra waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Juventude is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Beto has agreed terms with Santa Cruz 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 Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Gabriel Taliari 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Juventude and Parnahyba, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Caíque 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.