Marked for Wadson
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Dec 2035
Anger at Juventude spills outside the ground
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.
Match2 Dec 2035
0‑4 to São Paulo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Dec 2035
Bertelli puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Juventude, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Juventude
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Juventude is running low.
The dugout3 Dec 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Dec 2035
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Emerson Júnior and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Words at Juventude training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raí 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Oct 2035
The wait goes on for Juventude
20 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad8 Oct 2035
92 days out for Henrique Bezerra after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Juventude will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Oct 2035
Bertelli hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventude can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventude is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Emerson Júnior and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Oct 2035
Atlético Mineiro left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Rodrigo Biondi 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 dugout8 Oct 2035
The manager makes an example of Emerson Júnior
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
Juventude had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Internacional, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market16 Jul 2035
João Andrade has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Juventude they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market16 Jul 2035
Nikodem Całko hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventude can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout16 Jul 2035
Wadson: 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.” Juventude have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match14 Jul 2035
5 matches without a win for Juventude
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Juventude are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Juventude have done the hard part with Cuiabá, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad16 Jul 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
The offer went to Náutico this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jul 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gabriel Costa
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventude lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Jun 2035
Nowhere to hide for Juventude
1‑5 against Bragantino, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match26 Jun 2035
Beaten 0‑4 by Cruzeiro, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market2 Jul 2035
João Scatolin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Juventude they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market2 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.
Market2 Jul 2035
Juventude say no — this time
The offer from Retrô for Eduardo Batista 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.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Words exchanged at Juventude
Emerson Júnior 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.
Match30 Jun 2035
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Juventude and Bragantino, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2035
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Mar 2035
João Chagas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Juventude they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Emerson Júnior and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market5 Mar 2035
Juventude may not be able to give Kelvi what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kelvi wants continental football; whether Juventude can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Juventude
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
This is not rotation. Nikodem Całko has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Juventude is pretending otherwise.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
The manager makes an example of Kelvi
“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.
Market5 Mar 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Juventude, another week without a signature from Natã Felipe.
Market5 Mar 2035
The name of Rodrigo Biondi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Juventude say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
When it matters, Wadson plays
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.