14 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.
Ramom 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Porto Velho training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Cerón 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Douglas Fonseca has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Ramom 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
Words at Porto Velho training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Cerón 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 mood at Porto Velho 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.
Ramom 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Diego Cerón 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
96% of the income goes out in wages at Porto Velho
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Porto Velho, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Douglas Fonseca has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Porto Velho training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Cerón 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Pedro Bezerra 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Porto Velho, another week without a signature from Wendel.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Diego Cerón's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Porto Velho, and both men came out saying it was fine.