Position 18 and 6 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.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Samuel Soares on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Igor Morais has, at Itabaiana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcos Fonseca has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antônio Xavier has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Itabaiana will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Itabaiana, another week without a signature from Igor Morais.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A new face in his position, and Leonan suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Itabaiana have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
In brief
The dugoutThiago Assis asks for a word with the manager
Leonan 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 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Samuel Soares after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gustavo Cintra is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
0‑3 against Figueirense, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Leonan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Itabaiana dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Samuel Soares to a room that had heard them before.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Itabaiana will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Kauã Costa is 20, and Itabaiana 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.
5 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Itabaiana and Náutico, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Bruno Moura has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Itabaiana have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑10 to ABC, 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.
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.57 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Match8 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Itabaiana and ABC in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Alves has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paulo Neves has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.