“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 The request is on a desk at Itabirito, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pedro Rodrigues 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dadá Belmonte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Márcio Neves on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Morbeck provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Itabirito they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luís Araujo 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 Pedro Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Monte Azul had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Márcio Neves after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Itabirito will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutAxel Ledesma knocks on the manager's door
Itabirito interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Márcio Neves keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Pedro Rodrigues 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Eduardo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 May 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Vinícius Dias
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Vinícius Dias has come out of that comparison in the side, and Itabirito have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Itabirito this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Márcio Neves after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.66, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabirito 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Morbeck. 1‑0 against Retrô, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Itabirito, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Itabirito can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Itabirito can pretend not to have heard.
Pedro Rodrigues 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gabriel Menezes has, at Itabirito, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Itabirito training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dadá Belmonte 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Marcelo Mendes was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Itabirito will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Roberto Souza has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Itabirito can pretend not to have heard.
Itabirito had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Atlético Mineiro, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Athletico Paranaense wanted more than $310.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Itabirito this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Davit Motskobili has, at Itabirito, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsThe window shuts on the Italo Mota deal