Marked for Danilo Monteiro
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2032
Danilo Monteiro damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Match1 Mar 2032
Every point is an argument now for Parana
Position 9 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Perninha breaks a bone — 28 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Mar 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Parana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Mar 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
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Squad1 Mar 2032
Tempers go at Parana
Vinicius Kauê 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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
A row about effort at Parana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Da Conceição was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
Cacá loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Cacá's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Feb 2032
The mood at Parana has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad23 Feb 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danilo Monteiro
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Feb 2032
“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 Parana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Feb 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Parana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Da Conceição 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 dugout23 Feb 2032
Sérgio Moura 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.
Squad23 Feb 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Parana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos De Las Salas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Parana
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danilo Monteiro
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Feb 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Parana can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Feb 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A falling-out at Parana
Vinicius Kauê and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Parana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Melo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Feb 2032
61 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
The manager makes an example of Adrielson
“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.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
Uriel Ojeda asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Feb 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danilo Monteiro
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Feb 2032
“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 Parana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Feb 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Parana
Vinicius Kauê 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Parana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Da Conceição was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
95% of the income goes out in wages at Parana
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“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 dugout9 Feb 2032
Uriel Ojeda 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 Uriel Ojeda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market9 Feb 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.