The supervision ends, the embargo lifts, and a chairman may sign a cheque without asking anybody. It has taken a year and it has cost a squad, and this is still the best boardroom morning the club has had in that year.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Humaitá lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 15 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Humaitá and GAS, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Águia de Marabá have kept their man, and Humaitá go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Felipe Afonso 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Humaitá can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nicolás Rijo 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.
Águia de Marabá next, and one man in the Humaitá dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Humaitá, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at Humaitá 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Humaitá can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Humaitá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Silva 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Humaitá know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Words at Humaitá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Silva 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Humaitá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Bruno Figueiredo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“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 Humaitá, and it is not being withdrawn.
Felipe Afonso 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 Mar 2029
Words at Humaitá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Silva 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.
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Humaitá can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Pedro Silva 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Humaitá know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Pedro Silva 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tafinha signs something — a contract at Humaitá or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Humaitá have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletico Paranaense have kept their man, and Humaitá go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Humaitá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Silva 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Humaitá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fernando Alves is 16, and Humaitá have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Taisei Kawabe's mistake
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Humaitá can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Humaitá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Silva 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Humaitá are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonnathan Lima signs something — a contract at Humaitá or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.