Successful dribbles: 43. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Martinelli scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Martinelli 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Acosta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense 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 Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guilherme Arana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Fluminense had all but put away. Atlético Mineiro will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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 Thiago Silva is on it.
9 goals in 11 games at Pafos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fluminense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Acosta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Martinelli 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Fluminense dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
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.
The dugout9 Nov 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 0‑3 José Soares left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fluminense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Martinelli 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
8.81. 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 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.
Minute 95, against Sport Recife, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Lourenço will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Acosta 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.
Germán Cano 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.
13 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 Thiago Silva is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Fluminense. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luciano Acosta. 1‑0 against Ceará, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Martinelli 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Arana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Oct 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.” José Soares chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yeferson Soteldo provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
10.00. 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.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fluminense and Botafogo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Corinthians; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Lourenço will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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 Sep 2026
14 new faces, and Fluminense 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” José Soares after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
2‑1 against Flamengo, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Martinelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Arana 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 Thiago Silva is on it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” José Soares, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Renê has agreed terms with Grêmio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Acosta 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Flamengo on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Martinelli 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 Luciano Acosta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Julián Millán
SquadVoices raised on the Fluminense training ground
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Vizela have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Isack. The answer from Fluminense has not changed — yet.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Santos had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. João Lourenço 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Lourenço will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
William Lopes 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Acosta 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hulk has agreed terms with Flamengo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Martinelli 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Acosta 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Enzo 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense 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 Thiago Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rodrigo Assis 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. Sérgio Costa 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. Antônio Ribeiro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Fluminense 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 Fluminense 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 Thiago Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fluminense, another week without a signature from Thiago Silva.
12 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.