Marked for Roberto Lima
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Match10 Jul 2028
Humaitá are in real trouble now
Position 14, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The deal with Bahia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Victtor Chaves 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bahia have kept their man, and Humaitá go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
Wages eat 173% of everything Humaitá earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match8 Jul 2028
0‑1 to Águia de Marabá, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Edílson
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
In brief
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Squad
Manuel Bouvet falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Cleiton Thiesen knocks on the manager's door
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Victtor Chaves 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.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
The numbers do not look good at Humaitá
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Humaitá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Bouvet 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Edílson 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 Edílson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Roberto Lima 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Humaitá
9 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Humaitá
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Bouvet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Rivaldo 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Roni has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Humaitá is pretending otherwise.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Wesley Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match21 Aug 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Maracanã defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead23 Aug 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rivaldo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Humaitá needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Alex Santos 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Apr 2027
4 matches without a win for Humaitá
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Humaitá are no longer polite ones.
Match24 Apr 2027
4 matches without a goal for Humaitá
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Humaitá
Edílson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Humaitá
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Bouvet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucas Hulk
“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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 7.29. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Belts tighten at Humaitá
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Wesley Araujo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Humaitá dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Humaitá
Lucas Hulk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Humaitá
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Bouvet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
This is not rotation. Roni has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Humaitá is pretending otherwise.
Market5 Apr 2027
The name of Tomas Valdecantos keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Humaitá say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Roberto Lima 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager plants his flag on Jean Santos
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jean Santos’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Humaitá is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom15 Mar 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alex Santos has agreed terms with Jequié for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Humaitá
Edílson 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Rivaldo 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Manuel Bouvet 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
Ykaro 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
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Manuel Bouvet 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages swallow 133% of the Humaitá income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roberto Lima, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Humaitá
Manuel Bouvet and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market8 Feb 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roberto 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Humaitá
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.