The clubs have shaken hands with Vasco da Gama; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Itabaiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Itabaiana asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Pucheta 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 at Itabaiana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Bernard trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Itabaiana told Lucas Sena something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Rio Branco next, and one man in the Itabaiana dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Itabaiana would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gabriel Bernard has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Itabaiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Álvaro Cabrera scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Luverdense, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Alex Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Itabaiana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Porto Vitória, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Caíque has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jhonnatha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jhonnatha, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Alex Araujo kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Itabaiana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ghigliazza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alex Araujo on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
That is the business done at Itabaiana until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Itabaiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rafael Rech 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ghigliazza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 9, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabaiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
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 dugout28 Jun 2027
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Alex Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Itabaiana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Pedro Lima 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.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dodô trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Itabaiana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Itabaiana will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Itabaiana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Itabaiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rafael Rech and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Ghigliazza 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.
“I watch every Itabaiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pouso Alegre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Itabaiana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dodô 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Itabaiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dodô 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Itabaiana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pouso Alegre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Itabaiana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Itabaiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Douglas Tavares 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Itabaiana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Itabaiana 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Itabaiana is running low.
Add another name to the list: Pouso Alegre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Juninho. The answer from Itabaiana has not changed — yet.
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.
Itabaiana have made the call to Rentistas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Jhonnatha 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.
13 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alex Araujo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Ponte Preta defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álvaro Cabrera provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Álvaro Cabrera has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The goal that put Figueirense ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Itabaiana equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Alex Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Álvaro Cabrera is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.