Marked for João Guerra
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Mar 2036
A falling-out at Sousa
João Guerra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Sousa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Araujo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Mar 2036
48 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Mar 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sousa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market24 Mar 2036
The Tiago Massa story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tiago Massa signs something — a contract at Sousa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
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 Claudiu Cristea has written the date down.
In brief
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The dugout
Vladimir Markovic asks for a word with the manager
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Boardroom
The Sousa production line keeps running
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Richard Pearson has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad4 Feb 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucas Malacize commits to Sousa for another 4 years.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
The owner puts $443.1K into Sousa
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Ignacio Sarzynski 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.
Squad4 Feb 2036
João Guerra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sousa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
Sousa cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout4 Feb 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to André Xavier, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Feb 2036
Athos Thawan loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Athos Thawan's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad4 Feb 2036
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2035
The knee: Birger Riise out for 29 days
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sousa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Nov 2035
84 days out for Agustín Araujo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sousa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom26 Nov 2035
Pressure builds in the Sousa boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match24 Nov 2035
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sousa scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Age has not caught Zé Vitor yet — 7.92
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Victor Hugo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sousa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Nov 2035
It finished 2‑1, and it was Zé Vitor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sousa.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
The manager makes an example of Cristiano Souza
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
João Guerra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Sousa
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
Victor Hugo runs his contract down
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
The dugout6 Aug 2035
Mauricio Vargas: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sousa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Ivan Abdulov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Abdulov has just signed for Sousa, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
$374.2K from the owner keeps Sousa afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad6 Aug 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” João Guerra and Sousa agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grêmio have kept their man, and Sousa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Words exchanged at Sousa
Zé Vitor 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.
Match4 Aug 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Porto. 2‑0 against Central, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market6 Aug 2035
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jul 2035
A fracture rules Rodrygo Carvalho out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sousa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 Jul 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
The deal with Juventude 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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Sousa
Victor Hugo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
Sousa asked and Ypiranga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jul 2035
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Agustín Araujo 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.
Market9 Jul 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sousa, another week without a signature from Victor Hugo.
Match7 Jul 2035
A 2‑2 draw with Lagarto leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Mar 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Mar 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Tempers go at Sousa
Zé Vitor 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Sousa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Araujo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
The manager makes an example of Victor Hugo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom12 Mar 2035
The Sousa debt reaches $12.1M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market12 Mar 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market12 Mar 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Athos Thawan’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match12 Mar 2035
Sousa have something to play for
Position 5 on 52 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jan 2035
Ashley Charles damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
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.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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 Sousa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words exchanged at Sousa
Rodrygo Carvalho 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.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
The owner puts $272.8K into Sousa
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2035
Sousa asked and Confiança said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Jan 2035
A row about effort at Sousa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Araujo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Ignacio Sarzynski has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sousa 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
João Guerra has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sousa know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market8 Jan 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.