It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corinthians 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 Breno Bidon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Yuri Alberto is still being punished for one mistake
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.
“I watch every Corinthians game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Altos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and André Carrillo has written the date down.
The offer from Qingdao West Coast for Léo Maná 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.
Yuri Alberto 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.
“I watch every Corinthians game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Tocantinópolis runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Corinthians know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Corinthians has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Corinthians have no good answer.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part 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 Corinthians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Léo Maná again, and this time the name on the line is Qingdao West Coast. Corinthians are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitor Neves 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Baixinho is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Breno Bidon 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gui Negão had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Felgueiras for Vitinho 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Corinthians heard it as anything else.
Jesse Lingard 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Corinthians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Breno Bidon 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Corinthians, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raniele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from FC Argeș for Matheus Donelli 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.
Add another name to the list: Maritimo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gui Negão. The answer from Corinthians has not changed — yet.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corinthians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Corinthians game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Altos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Corinthians 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Corinthians have no good answer.
The phone has started ringing about Vitinho again, and this time the name on the line is Felgueiras. Corinthians are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chapecoense have kept their man, and Corinthians go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Breno Bidon 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Corinthians, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Corinthians 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Corinthians know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Instituto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Corinthians is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Corinthians offered $8.1M; Sport Recife 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.
Corinthians asked and Náutico said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Breno Bidon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luis Paulo 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Corinthians can pretend not to have heard.
$8.1M on the table at Sport Recife. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Corinthians will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The phone has started ringing about Rodrigo Garro again, and this time the name on the line is Grêmio. Corinthians are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ABC have kept their man, and Corinthians go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal that would have taken Charles to Athletico Paranaense has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Corinthians with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.7M — a club that wants Damián Bobadilla enough to be asked twice.
“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 Corinthians, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guarany de Bagé waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Corinthians is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corinthians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Matheus Bidu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecce have kept their man, and Corinthians go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Ramon has just signed for Corinthians, and for once the answer mattered.
At 18 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.
Allan 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Corinthians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Bidu 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.
“I watch every Corinthians game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nomme Kalju runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Position 2, 38 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Corinthians have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Flamengo paid $9.7M and Corinthians took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Corinthians had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The fee is $2.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Portuguesa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maceió has just signed for Corinthians, and for once the answer mattered.
$6.9M 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Corinthians have gone to Portuguesa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
7.99, 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yuri Alberto has his answer from Corinthians; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Léo Agostinho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Corinthians the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Bidu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jesse Lingard 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.
7.92, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Corinthians had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Yuri Alberto's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Player ratingsMemphis Depay beats them one at a time
The dugoutMatheuzinho has become a man the manager trusts
Yuri Alberto 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 Corinthians 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Danilo Silva chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Maná was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rodrigo Garro signs something — a contract at Corinthians or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Botafogo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Corinthians is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Jesse Lingard
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.
Yuri Alberto 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Corinthians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Breno Bidon 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Corinthians will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking 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 Memphis Depay is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Corinthians has been clear about where Matheus Donelli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Botafogo next, and one man in the Corinthians dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Yuri Alberto a promise
The dugoutAlex Santana knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Corinthians can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Breno Bidon, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Corinthians hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Breno Bidon 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Breno Bidon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Corinthians they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Memphis Depay 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 Allan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Danilo Silva after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Corinthians will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Gui Amorim 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alex Santana has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Corinthians.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Corinthians 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.
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 Corinthians, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Corinthians, and it is not being withdrawn.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Corinthians supporters have already started telling it.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dieguinho did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corinthians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Corinthians they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. João Pedro Tchoca is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Corinthians can pretend not to have heard.
Yuri Alberto 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Corinthians has been clear about where Gustavo Henrique stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Corinthians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allan 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.
São Paulo next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matheus Pereira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Danilo Silva on the draw
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Corinthians scored in the 112th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Memphis Depay 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.
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.
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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Memphis Depay’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Corinthians.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Kaio César was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.49, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Corinthians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allan 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.
In brief
MatchAfter 4 games, Corinthians finally taste it again
“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 Corinthians, and it is not being withdrawn.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part 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 Corinthians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Léo Agostinho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Corinthians the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Bidu 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 Fabrizio Angileri is on it.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Memphis Depay takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Memphis Depay provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.97, 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Enyimba for Léo Maná 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.
The phone has started ringing about André again, and this time the name on the line is Meizhou Hakka. Corinthians are listening politely and promising nothing.
At 18 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Memphis Depay’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Corinthians.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Matheus Bidu 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Raniele scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The offer from Shirak for Felipe Longo 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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Léo Agostinho has agreed terms with Santa Cruz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
A 1‑0 win over Internacional, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Corinthians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Bidu 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 has had enough of the noise. Whether Corinthians can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Corinthians 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gui Negão had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Corinthians heard it as anything else.
Yuri Alberto 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Memphis Depay. 2‑1 against Sport Recife, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 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.
Add another name to the list: Persib have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Felipe Longo. The answer from Corinthians has not changed — yet.
The offer from Leixões for Gui Negão 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.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Corinthians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“108 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 35 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Corinthians.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Bidu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Corinthians, and both men came out saying it was fine.