30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grêmio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Wesley Pomba wants continental football; whether Grêmio can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Grêmio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 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. 8.00 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcos Rocha 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.
90 minutes played. Marcos Leonardo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Fortaleza went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcos Leonardo provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.78 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Martin Braithwaite 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: Marcos Leonardo. 3‑2 against Fortaleza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Santa Cruz moved on, Dodi reports back to Grêmio, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Walter Kannemann will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grêmio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
The deal that would have taken Mathías Villasanti to Juventude has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Grêmio with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A brace, and Jovane Cabral takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jovane Cabral provided it, and the 8.20 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 Grêmio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 4 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcos Rocha 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Grêmio have lost him in all but the paperwork.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Boa tried to reorganise, Grêmio did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Grêmio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oeste waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. João Borne did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“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.
$120.0K was the most the club would pay and Ceará 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Caio Paulista 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oeste 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. Harlley had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.57 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 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 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Grêmio have paid $21.7M for Marcos Leonardo, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Carlos Vinícius provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Grêmio asked and Al Jazira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer went to Ajax 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santa Cruz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Grêmio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Grêmio asked and Sport Recife said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The fee is $2.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Santa Cruz drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Grêmio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Grêmio have gone to Vasco da Gama 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.
Grêmio have gone to Santa Cruz 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.
Grêmio have gone to Sport Recife 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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. Grêmio will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tiago did not need any: 8.48, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
In brief
Player ratingsLeonel Pérez pops up at the right end — 7.95
4 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.
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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Carlos Vinícius was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.93. 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Grêmio and Sampaio Correa in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“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 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.
Three points for Grêmio, 3‑1 the final word against Santa Cruz in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Martins 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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 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 Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals in one match, Carlos Vinícius on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Grêmio and Boa.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Carlos Vinícius was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.53. 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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Martin Braithwaite 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Grêmio can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Pedro 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of João Pedro
“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.
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
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ignacio Nardoni 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Felipe Araujo 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Wesley Pomba wants continental football; whether Grêmio can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 Francis Amuzu is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francis Amuzu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ignacio Nardoni 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mathías Villasanti 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 Juan Ignacio Nardoni signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Athos Thawan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
João Pedro falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Carlos Vinícius 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.
“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.
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.
At 23 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.
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 dugout29 Mar 2027
Marcos Rocha 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.
“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.
0‑2 away to the standard of Flamengo. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Martin Braithwaite was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Vinícius Bezerra left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 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 João Pedro 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 Martin Braithwaite is on it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Wesley Pomba'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 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 Carlos Vinícius is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francis Amuzu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
0‑2 against Flamengo. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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 23 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Francis Amuzu will call it something else in private.
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.
“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 offer from IA for Harlley 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.
Martin Braithwaite 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dodi 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.
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.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Harlley had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marlon 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.
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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Wesley Pomba'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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Ignacio Nardoni signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Grêmio have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Rivers United for Thiago Beltrame 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.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caio Paulista 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 Weverton is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Pedro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Martin Braithwaite 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 Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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 Mathías Villasanti has written the date down.
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 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Wesley Pomba 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Ignacio Nardoni signs something — a contract at Grêmio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Grêmio had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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.
“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.
“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.
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.
At 23 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.
Shakhtar did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $14.9M for Pedro Henrique, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martin Braithwaite provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Pedro Henrique has, at Grêmio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
7.89, 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Grêmio can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $11.8M has been paid because Wesley Pomba is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Parana for Leonel Pérez 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.
Grêmio offered $980.0K; Bahia 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.
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 21 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.
7 goals in one match, Carlos Vinícius on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Grêmio and Ceará.
Grêmio have gone to Veres 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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Deportes Tolima had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Grêmio did not stop to explain themselves.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mirassol have kept their man, and Grêmio go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 offer went to Bahia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I 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.
The offer went to Vasco da Gama this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thiago Beltrame is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Francis Amuzu 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.
0‑1 away to the standard of Instituto. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Martin Braithwaite 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 Francis Amuzu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
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 Dodi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 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 0‑2 Vinícius Bezerra left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7 goals in one match, Martin Braithwaite on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Grêmio and Atlético Mineiro.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Francis Amuzu 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Grêmio will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 3‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutWillian has become a man the manager trusts
2‑0 against O'Higgins, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
“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.
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Francis Amuzu 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
André Henrique was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Willian
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
Martin Braithwaite 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Carlos Vinícius and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
3‑2 against O'Higgins, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Carlos Vinícius was at the centre of the description.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Francis Amuzu 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 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Athos Thawan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Francis Amuzu 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Wesley Bezerra 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. Danilo Ribeiro has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Weverton 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 Francis Amuzu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Bahia kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Grêmio will be asked about the last half hour all week.
0‑1 away to the standard of Deportes Tolima. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
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.
Weverton 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.77, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Tetê scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑4 to Bahia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francis Amuzu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 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.
“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
8 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.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Grêmio training over how hard people work
2‑0 against Instituto, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Martin Braithwaite was at the centre of the description.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.53 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 Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Márcio Mendes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Fluminense tried to reorganise, Grêmio did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vinícius Bezerra on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
2‑1 against Internacional, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
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.
Weverton 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francis Amuzu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danillo Gabriel, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Tetê'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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jovane Cabral is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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.
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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Grêmio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dodi 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alexsandro did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.56, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Grêmio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Alexsandro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Grêmio and Bahia.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.56 at 35, 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.
Weverton 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.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Carlos Vinícius’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Grêmio.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Francis Amuzu 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 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mateus Rocha 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. Willian Correia 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
285 appearances across 10 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.
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.
“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.
Weverton 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.
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.