Mario Sandoval 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.
Pedrinho was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $83.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Muñoz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. São Luiz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. São Luiz have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The clubs have shaken hands with Coritiba; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$11.4M on the table at Corinthians. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Botafogo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Botafogo offered $6.9M; Kawasaki Frontale said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The chase for Richard ended with $1.4M changing hands and Água Santa out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Richard has, at Botafogo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Álvaro Montoro 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.
São Luiz and Atlético Mineiro have settled on $83.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Luiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Mendes'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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and São Luiz know which stage they are at.
1 for Danilo, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
At 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danilo. 2‑0 against Bahia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Marçal