0‑4 to Bragantino, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Wagner Leonardo 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 Jovane Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
30 appearances at Defensor Sporting and the goals have stopped going in. Grêmio lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wesley Oliveira after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
26 appearances at Itabaiana and the goals have stopped going in. Grêmio lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Victor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Jovane Cabral 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: André Henrique. 2‑1 against Flamengo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Cristian Olivera.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wesley Oliveira on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“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 Grêmio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Olivera 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Grêmio 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 Tetê 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 Carlos Vinícius signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 seasons and 316 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Weverton commits to Grêmio for another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Jovane Cabral 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.
At 19 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grêmio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Cristian Olivera 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.
30 appearances at Defensor Sporting and the goals have stopped going in. Grêmio lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wesley Oliveira after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Loan watchGabriel Menegon’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Position 19 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grêmio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Wagner Leonardo 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Grêmio and Santos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
0‑3 against Vasco da Gama, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Weverton'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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Weverton knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wesley Oliveira after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I watch every Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Feirense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Willian 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.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grêmio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Roger 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.
28 appearances at Defensor Sporting and the goals have stopped going in. Grêmio lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Victor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Cristian Olivera 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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 Tetê is on it.
The dugout23 Aug 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.” Wesley Oliveira chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Leonel Pérez is somebody else's player now, and $110.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
18 appearances at Itabaiana and the goals have stopped going in. Grêmio lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Vinícius signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Vitão'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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gustavo Ferrareis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Grêmio needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Lucca’s exile
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.43, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
10 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Defensor Sporting. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
In brief
The dugoutCarlos Vinícius has become a man the manager trusts
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovane Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 91, against Internacional, 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Grêmio scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Grêmio offered $3.9M; 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.
Grêmio asked and Goiás said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Grêmio 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grêmio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Jovane Cabral 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Position 18 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aparecidense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Flamengo paid $1.6M and Grêmio took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Grêmio people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erick Noriega and Grêmio agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and André Henrique decided nobody was going anywhere. Altos had no time left to answer.
The offer went to Corinthians 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.
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Grêmio heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.38, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovane Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Grêmio people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Grêmio can pretend not to have heard.
$3.9M was the most the club would pay and Corinthians 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 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.
Cristian Olivera 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aparecidense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Bahia 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletico Paranaense have kept their man, and Grêmio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout21 Jun 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 Wesley Oliveira left the room before anybody could ask which.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Grêmio people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Roger is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Jovane Cabral 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. Coritiba have kept their man, and Grêmio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The name of Leonel Pérez has come up in conversations Grêmio were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Cristian Olivera 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chapecoense have kept their man, and Grêmio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Santos scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I watch every Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Luverdense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Grêmio have made the call to Ferroviária. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Athletico Paranaense have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Willian 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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 Grêmio, and 7 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Wesley Oliveira after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
0‑3 to Goiás, 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Cristiano Guimarães could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.41
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.41, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Vinicius Tobias 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.
7 goals in one match, Roger on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Grêmio and União.
Squad24 May 2027
Jovane Cabral 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 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.52 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Grêmio and Botafogo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovane Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Vitão knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
0‑4 to Corinthians, 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.
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
297 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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.
Cristian Olivera 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Grêmio can tell you which week it ends in.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Grêmio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Grêmio, and 2 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Apr 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 Wesley Oliveira 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 Tetê is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Vinícius signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cruzeiro in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Grêmio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vinicius Tobias 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 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Jovane Cabral 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Luís Pereira 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Grêmio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Grêmio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Willian 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 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 Grêmio heard it as anything else.
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 Willian is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Grêmio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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 Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mixto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tetê trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 André Henrique is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Grêmio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Victor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovane Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Itabaiana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Grêmio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Grêmio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Cristian Olivera 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 Grêmio 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 Jovane Cabral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pouso Alegre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Grêmio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Willian and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Jovane Cabral 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.
Something was said to Willian and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Grêmio, and 0 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Grêmio 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. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Grêmio. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Grêmio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Victor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Grêmio, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Leonel Pérez is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Vinícius signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Victor knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Grêmio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Grêmio 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 Jovane Cabral 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 Carlos Vinícius is on it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leonel Pérez and Grêmio agree another 5 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jovane Cabral 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tetê trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Grêmio heard it as anything else.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Grêmio told Marlon something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pouso Alegre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Grêmio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Leonel Pérez has moved up it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Grêmio that is a harder question to answer.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Dodi reports back to Grêmio with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The bid was some way short and Grêmio did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Grêmio, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Dodi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Vinícius signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Grêmio. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torreense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Willian 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
Jovane Cabral 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. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Grêmio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Renato Pereira is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Diego Oliveira 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.
“I watch every Grêmio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Luverdense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Grêmio 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 dugoutAndré Henrique 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 Grêmio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Grêmio have done the hard part with Bahia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cristian Olivera commits to Grêmio for another 4 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovane Cabral 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Grêmio will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
Add another name to the list: Bragantino have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Francis Amuzu. The answer from Grêmio has not changed — yet.
Willian 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.
Grêmio asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Vinicius Tobias arrives from Shakhtar with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
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 Francis Amuzu has written the date down.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Grêmio people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Estudiantes, the club has $11.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Grêmio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Estudiantes waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. André Henrique had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Juan Ignacio Nardoni 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.
10 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dodi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tetê provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Wesley Oliveira on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Grêmio 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grêmio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Grêmio 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. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Francis Amuzu has written the date down.
They sit in position 17 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
In brief
SquadErick Noriega makes the division’s eleven — 6.72
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Martin Braithwaite 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: 15. 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
“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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Something was said to Martin Braithwaite and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Grêmio 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 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Grêmio has been clear about where Dodi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Grêmio 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“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 Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 Willian is on it.
The dugout19 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.” Wesley Oliveira chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Juan Ignacio Nardoni 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 Grêmio 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Grêmio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Grêmio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Atlético Mineiro next, and one man in the Grêmio dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Grêmio the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gustavo Ferrareis obliged against São Paulo. 5‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Grêmio.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Grêmio and São Paulo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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: 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.44, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Caio Paulista was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
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.
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.
Willian 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.
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Wagner Leonardo'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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wesley Oliveira after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.40 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
10 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 dugout21 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.” Wesley Oliveira kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Grêmio 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Grêmio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pablo provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Ignacio Nardoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Guarani spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Wesley Oliveira to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Farense for Gustavo Ferrareis 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 win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Grêmio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The phone has started ringing about Leonel Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is Académica. Grêmio are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Ignacio Nardoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cianorte are out and Grêmio go through, 9‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Alexsandro, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 9.90
A mark of 9.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Granada had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Grêmio can pretend not to have heard.
“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 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.
Pablo 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.
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.
The dugout24 Aug 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 Wesley Oliveira left the room before anybody could ask which.
A 11‑0 win over União, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Harlley, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 9.40
A mark of 9.40 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dodi provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Leonel Pérez delivers — 7.74
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Leonel Pérez scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Harlley 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.
Derby days make names, and Carlos Vinícius made his against Internacional. 3‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Grêmio and a story that will outlast his contract.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grêmio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Grêmio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Willian has just signed for Grêmio, and for once the answer mattered.
10 seasons and 286 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has 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 Grêmio heard it as anything else.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Internacional 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.