It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ricardo Silva 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.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 The request is on a desk at America Mineiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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.
Santa Cruz paid $310.0K and America Mineiro took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Fluminense for Fernando Elizari was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Elizari 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at America Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Geovane has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Nathan 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Position 2, 11 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from ABC for Gustavo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 America Mineiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yago Santos has agreed terms with Nautico for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Val Soares wants continental football; whether America Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alê 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nathan wants continental football; whether America Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 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
Boardroom87% of the income goes out in wages at America Mineiro
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yarlen 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.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 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.
Nobody at America Mineiro 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alê 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.
Nathan 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” America Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alê 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.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 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.
Nobody at America Mineiro 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.
Position 2, 11 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Everton Brito wants continental football; whether America Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alê 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.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 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.
Nobody at America Mineiro 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.
7.35, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alê 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.
Nathan 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 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 had been thinking. Ricardo Silva 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.
91 minutes played. Gonzalo Mastriani found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Sampaio Correa went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alê 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at America Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Val Soares wants continental football; whether America Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It needed Willian Bigode to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Atletico Goianiense, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at America Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Still no offer on the table, and Rodrigo Piñeiro’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nathan wants continental football; whether America Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Gonzalo Mastriani 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 had been thinking. Ricardo Silva 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gonzalo Mastriani. 1‑0 against Oeste, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Still no offer on the table, and Emerson Santos’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.