Marked for Nicolás Pérez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Parnahyba, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Adilson Bahia has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Parnahyba is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Parnahyba
Tiaguinho 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Parnahyba is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Parnahyba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernardo Jacob 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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Imperador is 18, and Parnahyba have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Danilo Carvalho after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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 Maycol Hidalgo is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adilson Bahia
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parnahyba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Danilo Carvalho has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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 targets3 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Portuguesa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Parnahyba now.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Parnahyba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Fabrício Moura 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parnahyba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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
Squad29 Nov 2027
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parnahyba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match29 Nov 2027
Full time on the season at Parnahyba
Position 8 on 39 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the Parnahyba boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Wesley Lima: 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.” Parnahyba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match27 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Parnahyba's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parnahyba has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Nov 2027
Whatever happens, Parnahyba do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Parnahyba
Tiaguinho 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Parnahyba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrício Moura 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Wages swallow 160% of the Parnahyba income
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.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Renato Pitbull
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Adilson Bahia knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Nicolás Pérez damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Marked 7.75 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tiaguinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Nov 2027
Still nobody has beaten Parnahyba
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Parnahyba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrício Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabrício Moura, and the manager let it.
Match20 Nov 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market22 Nov 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Felipe Cantes has his answer from Parnahyba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
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The dugout
When it matters, Tiaguinho plays
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Lukas Zuccarello, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parnahyba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Nov 2027
“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 Parnahyba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The medical room confirms 39 days on the sidelines for Guilherme Givigi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Parnahyba
Guilherme Givigi 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Parnahyba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernardo Jacob was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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 Lukas Zuccarello is on it.
Market15 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Maykol Méndez knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maykol Méndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
Tiaguinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Jun 2027
The goals have deserted Parnahyba
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Parnahyba can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Ronny Taperaçu 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matheus Anunciação, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Nicolás Pérez is 19, and Parnahyba have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nicolás Pérez commits to Parnahyba for another 3 years.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.