It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Cruzeiro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bahia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Beaten 0‑1 by Atlético Mineiro in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
The offer from Corinthians for Gérson 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 Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Bahia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kauã Moraes. The answer from Cruzeiro has not changed — yet.
Shots: 13. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Shots: 11. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Lucas Romero 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.
Marked 8.74 — 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
The offer from Las Palmas for Chico da Costa 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 Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.18 — 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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.