It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monte Azul 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 Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Reidiner trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 The request is on a desk at Monte Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Monte Azul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
An order from above at Monte Azul: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Santiago Maidana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
404% of the income goes out in wages at Monte Azul
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Caio Bahia, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Monte Azul dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Paulo Santos to a room that had heard them before.
Santiago Maidana 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Monte Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Reidiner 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 8.16 — 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Paulo Santos kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
At 22 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.
Santiago Maidana 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.
Everybody at Monte Azul saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Monte Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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 Monte Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Monte Azul 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Monte Azul know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Monte Azul, another week without a signature from Luan Silva.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Monte Azul would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Reidiner signs something — a contract at Monte Azul or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
526% of the income goes out in wages at Monte Azul
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ancelmo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Matheus Santana has come out of that comparison in the side, and Monte Azul have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Gui Sales 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paulo Santos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Monte Azul would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Gui Sales 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.
9 combined actions and 6.71. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monte Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monte Azul 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 Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marlon Flórez and Monte Azul agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Paulo Santos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marlon Flórez and Monte Azul agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Rian Felipe
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rian Felipe has come out of that comparison in the side, and Monte Azul have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Marcílio Dias next, and one man in the Monte Azul dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The offer from Laçi for Wanderson 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.
Santiago Maidana 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.66, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Barra, and it could have been more.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Rian Felipe takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rian Felipe provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Davi Samuel, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 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.
Santiago Maidana 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Monte Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Monte Azul know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monte Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Monte Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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.
Marked 7.45. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Monte Azul 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 dugout17 Aug 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.” Paulo Santos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ancelmo is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Guarany de Bagé will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monte Azul were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Davi Samuel did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.81 for the rest of it.
Gui Sales 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.
8 goals in one match, Davi Samuel on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Monte Azul and Guarany de Bagé.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Monte Azul, another week without a signature from Wallace.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout3 Aug 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.” Paulo Santos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.