It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bernardo wants continental football; whether Londrina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Alan Franco 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.
This is not rotation. Lucas Cavalcante has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Londrina is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Londrina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iago Teles 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Londrina pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Douglas Amaral to a room that had heard them before.
Gabriel Assis 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateus Bezerra signs something — a contract at Goiânia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goiânia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Operário Ferroviário; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Mateus Bezerra 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.
Goiânia asked and GAS 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 Franco Saucedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateus Bezerra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Vinícius Carvalho is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goiânia can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vinícius Carvalho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goiânia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Gabriel Ferreira 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Goiânia is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Gabriel Assis is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Goiânia 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.
10 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.
0‑4 to Maringá, 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.
Position 19 on 32 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.
Gabriel Assis 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Águia de Marabá have kept their man, and Goiânia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Felipe Moreno is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Júnior Oliveira, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Saucedo 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Felipe Cavalcante chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
8 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.
“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 Goiânia, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Cavalcante after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Goiânia has been clear about where Franco Saucedo stands, which is more than many ever get.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Goiânia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiânia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Goiânia told Isaac Prado something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Goiânia 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Assis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Amazonas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Goiânia, 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 Goiânia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Goiânia, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Felipe Cavalcante to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadFranco Saucedo falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Goiânia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Goiânia and Náutico, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
1‑3 to GAS, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Bezerra 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.
Gabriel Ferreira 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Cavalcante after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
In brief
The dugoutGabriel Assis is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Goiânia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Goiânia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Goiânia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Gabriel Assis 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Bezerra 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.
At 23 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Goiânia were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“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 Goiânia know it.
“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 Goiânia, and 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Fernando Neto's mistake
Mateus Bezerra 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Cavalcante after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Assis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Goiânia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.