A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Itabaiana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jhonnatha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Itabaiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Add another name to the list: Semen Padang have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Álvaro Cabrera. The answer from Itabaiana has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ben-Hur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Itabaiana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every Itabaiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Manaus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Dodô 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Itabaiana know it.
“I watch every Itabaiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Manaus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Itabaiana, another week without a signature from Kauã Costa.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Itabaiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Bernard signs something — a contract at Itabaiana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Itabaiana 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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, terms agreed, medical booked. Jhonnatha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Itabaiana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jhonnatha has agreed terms with Ypiranga for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Dodô and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben-Hur 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 watch every Itabaiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Manaus runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Itabaiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 138 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.
“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 Itabaiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dodô 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.
Itabaiana asked and Deportivo Pasto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ben-Hur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Itabaiana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Itabaiana, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Itabaiana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Itabaiana asked and Remo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben-Hur 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Itabaiana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Itabaiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Itabaiana asked and Grêmio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben-Hur 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 name of Jean Zevallos has come up in conversations Itabaiana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Itabaiana know it.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Itabaiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Itabaiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Itabaiana can tell you which week it ends in.
Everybody at Itabaiana saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ben-Hur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ben-Hur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Itabaiana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Dodô 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Pucheta 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Maricá? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Itabaiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Itabaiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dodô and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Felipe Micael 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.
“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.
“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 Itabaiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Itabaiana have done the hard part with Vitória, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Solomon Bukunmi is living that version at Itabaiana, and it tends to show in the first month.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Ghigliazza and Itabaiana agree another 4 years.
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.