200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Bassi 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.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Botafogo-PB 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 Botafogo-PB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom4 Oct 2032
189% of the income goes out in wages at Botafogo-PB
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
6 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nelson Eliseche scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nahuel Fernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botafogo-PB the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Oliver Almvik has agreed terms with Maringá for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Philippe provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Botafogo-PB, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at Botafogo-PB 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Philippe. 3‑2 against Lagarto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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, wages agreed, and Parnahyba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Botafogo-PB is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
“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 Botafogo-PB, and it is not being withdrawn.
Thalys 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.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. William 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-PB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Philippe scored in the 89th minute, Goiânia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Botafogo-PB took the lot.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Botafogo-PB is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Guillermo Bassi 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.
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Botafogo-PB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Botafogo-PB, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-PB they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kauan Firmino 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 8.25 — 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $52.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Botafogo-PB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botafogo-PB can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Botafogo-PB is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $52.4M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Botafogo-PB, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Philippe signs something — a contract at Botafogo-PB or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Botafogo-PB are no longer polite ones.
The terraces1 Dec 2031
The mood at Botafogo-PB has turned into something else
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.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-PB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Botafogo-PB
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Botafogo-PB will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Botafogo-PB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Botafogo-PB, 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 Botafogo-PB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Guillermo Bassi
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Danilo Cunha
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botafogo-PB can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-PB will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Guillermo Bassi 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 William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Botafogo-PB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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 8.17 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Botafogo-PB have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matheus Dias. 1‑0 against Maringá, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 6.73 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Thalys and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Bassi 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.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
161% of the income goes out in wages at Botafogo-PB
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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-PB will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal with Coritiba is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Caxias is saying, and nobody at Botafogo-PB is enjoying the guessing.
Guillermo Bassi 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. Guarani have kept their man, and Botafogo-PB go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Janderson 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.
Add another name to the list: Criciúma have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rodrigo Amorim. The answer from Botafogo-PB has not changed — yet.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-PB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-PB will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botafogo-PB can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Guilherme Kabbaz, marked 6.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristhyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botafogo-PB the goodbyes have quietly begun.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Botafogo-PB lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-PB will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A 3‑2 win over Anápolis, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings26 May 2031
Marcos Costa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.96
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Guillermo Bassi 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.
He is 20 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.