The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 64 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 The request is on a desk at Atlético Mineiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro 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 Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
33 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Santos did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $25.9M for Eguinaldo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Atlético Mineiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlético Mineiro can pretend not to have heard.
Atlético Mineiro offered $330.0K; Corinthians said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Eguinaldo from Santos for $25.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlético Mineiro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Ceará said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Sport Recife were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Lucas Moura 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 had been thinking. Renan Lodi 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
$25.9M on the table at Santos. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to Sport Recife this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
1 for Alexsander, marked 7.34, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atlético Mineiro heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Moura 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Tomás Cuello scored in the 89th minute, Cruzeiro had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Atlético Mineiro took the lot.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renan Lodi 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 Victor Hugo, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 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.” Antônio Assis kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alan is on it.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Moura 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Atlético Mineiro will be judged on one thing only.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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 0‑3 Antônio Assis left the room before anybody could ask which.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Mineiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fred 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Lucas Moura 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renan Lodi 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.
“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.
The dugout8 Nov 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Antônio Assis to a room that had heard them before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mateo Cassierra is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atlético Mineiro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fluminense in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Franco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Atlético Mineiro had all but put away. Internacional will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atlético Mineiro and Nautico in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Nathan Silva
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Mineiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lucas Moura 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 Renan Lodi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fred. 1‑0 against Palmeiras, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro 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 Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexsander and Atlético Mineiro agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Santos left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 0‑2 Antônio Assis left the room before anybody could ask which.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
He is 19, he is averaging 6.56, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Something was said to Mateo Cassierra and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Nobody at Atlético 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Nathan Silva
Lucas Moura 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 Renan Lodi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renan Lodi is on it.
The dugout27 Sep 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.” Antônio Assis chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alan Franco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mateo Cassierra signs something — a contract at Atlético Mineiro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.82 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Mineiro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro 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 Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over Vasco da Gama, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atlético Mineiro heard it as anything else.
Gustavo Scarpa 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 Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Antônio Assis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mateo Cassierra is on it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlético Mineiro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atlético Mineiro heard it as anything else.
Gustavo Scarpa 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 Renan Lodi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: JP Murilo. 1‑0 against America Mineiro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched JP Murilo
Player ratingsTomás Cuello beats them one at a time
Renan Lodi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Lucas Moura 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 name of Cauã Soares has come up in conversations Atlético Mineiro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atlético Mineiro told Gustavo Scarpa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Alexsander, marked 7.58, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Mineiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fred 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. Lucas Moura 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.
Bahia held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Atlético Mineiro answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with 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 Atlético Mineiro 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 Renan Lodi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout16 Aug 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Antônio Assis to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Atlético 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Urartu waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atlético Mineiro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
1 for Alexsander, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Veneno and Atlético Mineiro agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Moura 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Fred 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Lucas Moura 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Dudu 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atlético Mineiro have paid $5.0M for Alan, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.84, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Atlético Mineiro 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Magrão has just signed for Atlético Mineiro, and for once the answer mattered.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cauã Soares will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Corinthians paid $1.7M and Atlético Mineiro took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Lucas Moura 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.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Magrão has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renan Lodi 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.
Everything agreed with Corinthians, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer from Santos for Alexsander 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.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Birmingham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The chase for Luan Freitas ended with $1.7M changing hands and Fortaleza out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luan Freitas has just signed for Atlético Mineiro, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlético Mineiro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and Atlético Mineiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.70 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee is $1.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Juventude drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Atlético Mineiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Sport Recife 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The chase for Lucas Barbosa ended with $3.3M changing hands and Bragantino out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$1.8M on the table at Juventude. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Mineiro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Palmeiras for Lucas Moura 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.
$3.3M on the table at Bragantino. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$3.5M was the most the club would pay and Bahia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“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 Atlético Mineiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Internacional will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atlético Mineiro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bragantino did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.1M for Bruninho, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The chase for Luan ended with $2.3M changing hands and Sport Recife out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Cassierra provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sport Recife; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Bragantino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Atlético Mineiro offered $3.0M; Fortaleza said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Grêmio; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Fluminense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlético Mineiro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to Bragantino this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Bahia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Mineiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Lucas Moura 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. Alan Franco 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renan Lodi is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Alan Minda obliged against Parana. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Atlético Mineiro.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Natanael, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fred 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Lucas Moura 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 easiest signature of my career.” Cauã Soares and Atlético Mineiro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Vitória will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Atlético Mineiro were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.49 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Kevin Castaño, marked 7.76, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Lucas Moura 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lucas Moura and Atlético Mineiro agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Moura 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renan Lodi is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Atletico Goianiense will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Atlético Mineiro were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético 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 Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Caio Neves has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristiano Machado has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Lucas Moura 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Diego Moura has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Éder Barbosa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Felipe Monteiro has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alex 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.
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 Atlético 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.
In brief
The dugoutNathan Silva asks for a word with the manager
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Lucas Moura and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lucas Moura and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Alan Franco 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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Mineiro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Renan Lodi 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. Igor Gomes 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 words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fred 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Lucas Moura 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lyanco is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lucas Moura 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Gomes 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.
11 goals in 20 games at Botafogo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atlético Mineiro updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Atlético 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nathan Silva trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atlético Mineiro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Moura 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Mineiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Lucas Moura 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutLyanco has become a man the manager trusts
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atlético Mineiro heard it as anything else.
Lucas Moura 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 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 Atlético 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Gomes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Renan Lodi signs something — a contract at Atlético Mineiro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Fred and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Lucas Moura 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.
11 goals in 20 games at Botafogo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atlético Mineiro updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Alan Franco 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renan Lodi is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Lucas Moura 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Igor Gomes 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.
6 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lyanco is on it.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Lucas Moura 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Nobody at Atlético 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.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Atlético Mineiro offered $7.8M; Flamengo said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fausto Vera and Atlético Mineiro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fausto Vera 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.
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro 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 Renan Lodi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atlético Mineiro are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The offer from Santos for Renan Lodi 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Nathan Silva is a Atlético Mineiro player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to Ceará this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Fred 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. Lucas Moura 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.
Lucas Moura is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atlético Mineiro have done the hard part with Pumas UNAM, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Thiago Borbas takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thiago Borbas provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Atlético Mineiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Sport Recife this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bragantino drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for JP Murilo ended with $1.2M changing hands and Vasco da Gama out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Flamengo ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Thiago Borbas takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thiago Borbas provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Wallace Yan
Bragantino have accepted the money. What Atlético Mineiro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Flamengo for Alexsander 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.
Atlético Mineiro asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Kevin Castaño delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kevin Castaño scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The offer went to Vasco da Gama this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud 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 Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Cruzeiro on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maycon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fred 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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Renan Lodi 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Mineiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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. Atlético Mineiro told Alan Franco something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Mineiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro 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.
Something was said to Gustavo Scarpa and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fred has come out of that comparison in the side, and Atlético Mineiro have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Atlético 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gabriel Delfim
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fred 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 Renan Lodi 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 Dudu, and the manager let it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Atlético Mineiro. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Victor Hugo 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1 for Kevin Castaño, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Gustavo Scarpa 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Thiago Borbas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Atlético Mineiro.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Mateo Cassierra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
4 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.
Gustavo Scarpa 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 Renan Lodi 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 Victor Hugo, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Atlético Mineiro are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Antônio Assis to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutMateo Cassierra has become a man the manager trusts
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Vasco da Gama, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Lyanco's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Natanael 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 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 0‑1 Antônio Assis left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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 no worse way to lose a footballer. Ryan Felipe 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renan Lodi 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 words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Thiago Borbas takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thiago Borbas provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Gustavo Scarpa 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maycon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.” Antônio Assis kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Mineiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 117th minute. São Paulo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cauã Soares did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Reinier obliged against Vasco da Gama. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Atlético Mineiro.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tomás Pérez did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Mateo Cassierra on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Atlético Mineiro and Bahia.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renan Lodi 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.
At 21 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.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
108 minutes played. Kawê found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and ABC went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Gustavo Scarpa 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 easiest signature of my career.” João Teixeira and Atlético Mineiro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Victor Hugo 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Victor Hugo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Richard has, at Atlético Mineiro, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Mineiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Renan Lodi and Atlético Mineiro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Natanael was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutRenan Lodi asks for a word with the manager
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Mineiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renan Lodi 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.
Minute 89, against Corinthians, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.