The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Ituano will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Alan Saldivia 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 Guilherme Xavier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Ituano training over how hard people work
Alan Saldivia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alason Carioca 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Igor Souza 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. João Braga has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matheus Mendes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antônio Barbosa 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.
Alan Saldivia and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Ituano than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano 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 Osman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ituano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Ituano would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Guilherme Xavier 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 Alason Carioca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alason Carioca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Penedense had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Ituano ran out of time with Criciúma. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ituano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Criciúma 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.
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. Ituano will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Wagner has just signed for Ituano, and for once the answer mattered.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ituano can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Everything agreed with Sport Recife, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ituano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ituano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ituano can pretend not to have heard.
Ituano offered $2.9M; Bragantino 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.
The deal that would have taken Marlon Yan to Porto Vitória has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Ituano with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ceilândia pay $8.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alason Carioca is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ituano are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ituano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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. Olimpia have kept their man, and Ituano 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 Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Marlon Yan again, and this time the name on the line is Porto Vitória. Ituano are listening politely and promising nothing.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ituano are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Ituano have had the benefit of it.
The offer from Azuriz for Lucas Dias was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $100.1K — a club that wants Lucas Pereira enough to be asked twice.
Guilherme Xavier and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 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 Carlão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Monte Azul waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ituano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Willian Souza has, at Ituano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Horizonte did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.3M for Willian Souza, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to Novorizontino this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Vitória 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Willian Souza from Horizonte for $1.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Neto Berola and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Samuel Freitas kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Náutico defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Floresta next, and one man in the Ituano dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alason Carioca 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kauan Richard has his answer from Ituano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Something was said to Zé Carlos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Náutico next, and one man in the Ituano dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlão signs something — a contract at Ituano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zé Carlos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Ituano would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Neto Berola 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matheus Maia and Ituano agree another 2 years.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Samuel Freitas to a room that had heard them before.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 1 saves does not settle it either way.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.79 beside his name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guilherme Xavier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ituano 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.
Bruno Mezenga 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ituano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marlon Yan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Bruno Mezenga 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Mezenga. 3‑1 against Confiança, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Xavier is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marlon Yan 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.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ituano can pretend not to have heard.
Neto Berola 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.
At 20 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Neto Berola’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ituano needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Razera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ituano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Matheus Mancini has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Ituano the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fernando Canesin provided it, and the 8.17 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 Ituano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Neto Berola and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marthã and Ituano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Alason Carioca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.94. 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Fernando Canesin in the middle of it, and Tombense unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alason Carioca 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Maia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ituano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout28 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Samuel Freitas to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Ituano are still learning each other
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ituano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
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.” Samuel Freitas kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Pedro Mantovani 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.
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 Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 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.” Samuel Freitas kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Marthã 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alason Carioca and Ituano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alason Carioca 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alason Carioca has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ituano have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ituano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bruno Mezenga 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Ituano 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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Victor Reis decided nobody was going anywhere. Anápolis had no time left to answer.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ituano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Victor Reis 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.
5 matches without defeat, and then CSA. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Ituano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alason Carioca 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: 47. 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.
A 1‑0 win over Guarany de Bagé, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 8.08 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ituano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roberto Gomes has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcelo Neves has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Márcio Pereira has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alex Borges 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.
Neto Berola and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ituano, another week without a signature from Neto Berola.
Still no offer on the table, and Matheus Mancini’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Samuel Freitas after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.