Marked for Wesley Borges
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Márcio Farias commits to GAS for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at GAS
Carioca 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at GAS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Rangel 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
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Wesley Borges out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Carioca 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 GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at GAS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Rangel 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Too much change too quickly at GAS
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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
André Neves 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 André Neves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Pedrinho
“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
Upbeat
Match22 Feb 2027
GAS are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 39 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
21 days out for Wesley Borges after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 Feb 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 GAS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at GAS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danillo Ribeiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
André Neves 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 André Neves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2027
28 days out for Wesley Borges after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at GAS
Carioca 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 Feb 2027
Matheus Rangel 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I watch every GAS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Itabirito runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sérgio Queiroz's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Alex Gomes gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Wesley Borges out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
GAS told to sell
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at GAS
Carioca 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at GAS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pichi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sérgio Queiroz signs something — a contract at GAS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Pichi remains an outsider
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at GAS would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
42 days out for Wesley Borges after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Carioca 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 GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at GAS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danillo Ribeiro 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at GAS
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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Diego Gomes
“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.
Market1 Feb 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Danillo Ribeiro may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Éder Oliveira
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. GAS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Wesley Borges breaks a bone — 49 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Jan 2027
GAS up to position 2
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
In brief
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Squad
A falling-out at GAS
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Squad
Words at GAS training over how hard people work
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The dugout
Sérgio Queiroz asks for a word with the manager
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Market
The Matheus Rangel question follows GAS around
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. GAS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Wesley Borges breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at GAS
Carioca 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
GAS asked and Brasil de Pelotas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at GAS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Rangel 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
Sérgio Queiroz is still paying for one afternoon at GAS
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Éder Oliveira
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. GAS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Wesley Borges out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” GAS may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at GAS
Carioca 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
GAS 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 Jan 2027
Matheus Rangel 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to André Neves, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jan 2027
The shop window has André Neves in it
GAS have let the market know André Neves can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market11 Jan 2027
At 33, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Dec 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Joinville had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad14 Dec 2026
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. GAS will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market14 Dec 2026
Floresta paid $2.1M and GAS took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market14 Dec 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. GAS have done the hard part with Ponte Preta, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market14 Dec 2026
Business is business: Mateus Araujo goes
Retrô paid $1.1M and GAS took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at GAS
Carioca 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.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. São Bernardo have kept their man, and GAS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Nov 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match30 Nov 2026
GAS up to position 2
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Mateus Araujo
24 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” GAS may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at GAS
Rodrygo Rodrigues 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at GAS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Rangel 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 175% of the GAS 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.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
At 22 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Mateus Araujo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at GAS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Rangel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Pedro Peixoto
“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.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sérgio Queiroz signs something — a contract at GAS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. GAS know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at GAS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against Imperatriz, and it could have been more.
Squad2 Nov 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match31 Oct 2026
GAS make it 8 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now GAS have 8 straight wins of it.
Match2 Nov 2026
GAS are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mateus Araujo is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.20 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The GAS board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Match31 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between GAS and Imperatriz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 175% of the GAS income
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Squad
Tempers go at GAS
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The terraces
GAS supporters have found a favourite in Arthur Rangel
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match3 Oct 2026
4‑1, and Rodrygo Rodrigues took the headlines on an afternoon when everything GAS tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match5 Oct 2026
GAS up to position 2
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Rodrygo Rodrigues takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrygo Rodrigues provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match3 Oct 2026
GAS make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now GAS have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at GAS
Rodrygo Rodrigues 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matheus Rangel 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 158% of the GAS 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.