A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Izaque Belchior has, at CSA, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Guilherme Lira scored, was marked 7.54, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pietro Teixeira Falcetta. 2‑0 against Boavista, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arielson provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
$830.0K on the table at Santos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
CSA have gone to Bragantino 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.
CSA have gone to Corinthians 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Maranhão waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSA is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
CSA have gone to Santos 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.
CSA offered $330.0K; Cruzeiro 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.
Rodrigo Sosa 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Águia de Marabá waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSA is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
CSA and Amazonas have settled on $780.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Viny has agreed terms with Bahia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
CSA have gone to Cruzeiro 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Arielson 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.
Ypiranga will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Oliwier Kwiatkowski has pre-agreed a move to CSA, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad19 May 2036
Rodrigo Sosa 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout19 May 2036
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CSA 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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luciano Jr 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 David Souza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Adriano Bispo has written the date down.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Adriano Bispo 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.
Kauê Alves 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aparecidense have kept their man, and CSA go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Souza trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Risadinha has, at CSA, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kauê Alves and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jan 2036
David Souza 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. CSA will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Kauê Alves 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 had been thinking. Martín Pérez 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSA can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Marko Cukon reports back to Lokomotiva Zagreb with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiva Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Hamza el Dahri 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.
Orijent 1919 will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jan Drużbicki has pre-agreed a move to Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Budimir 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 Vilim Krušlin is on it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiva Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $164.4K of what Lokomotiva Zagreb paid for Luka Erceg is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Mateo Čupić 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb asked and Hajduk Split 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 name of Dino Erceg has come up in conversations Lokomotiva Zagreb were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb and Istra 1961 have settled on $6.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiva Zagreb people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viny will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiva Zagreb the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Filip Bokan 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.
Hamza el Dahri 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 4 on 29 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Davor Bistre. 2‑0 against Slaven Belupo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Budimir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivica Petkov and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
6 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Hamza el Dahri 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 had been thinking. Benjamin Budimir 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Lokomotiva Zagreb who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Viny has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lokomotiva Zagreb have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Goran Perisic is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiva Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Francis Chinedu Echue 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fernando Parra has just signed for Lokomotiva Zagreb, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Mate Pavlović 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fernando Parra and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 3 years.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiva Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Viny 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.
Vilim Krušlin 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 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.
5 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.
Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.