Position 3, 47 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Palmeiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Jhon Arias is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Palmeiras, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Palmeiras 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Miguel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexander Barboza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Palmeiras 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Palmeiras. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Palmeiras heard it as anything else.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ramón Sosa commits to Palmeiras for another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Piquerez 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.
Alexander Barboza 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 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I 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.
Luís Pacheco 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Carlos Miguel 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 Palmeiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Jhon Arias is on 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 Palmeiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Piquerez 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Palmeiras told Jhon Arias something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Gustavo Gómez is on it.
$40.6M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Palmeiras have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He is going to VfL Wolfsburg, the club has $40.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The deal that would have taken Khellven to Cruzeiro has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Palmeiras with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Piquerez 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.
Alexander Barboza 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 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.
9 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Palmeiras scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The bid was some way short and Palmeiras did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Vitor Roque, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.47
A mark of 8.47 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.
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 Palmeiras have had the benefit of it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Guilherme Nogueira is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadWords at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Palmeiras 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.
The offer from Bahia for Khellven 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.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Zé Marcos is living that version at Palmeiras, and it tends to show in the first month.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Palmeiras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 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 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vitor Roque did not need any: 8.38, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Vasco da Gama drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. JP Murilo has, at Palmeiras, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Bahia 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Palmeiras. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
1‑0 against Santa Fe, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Andreas Pereira was at the centre of the description.
The fee is $24.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cruzeiro drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vitor Roque did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$1.6M on the table at Vasco da Gama. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kaio Jorge has just signed for Palmeiras, and for once the answer mattered.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Vitor Roque obliged against Flamengo. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Palmeiras.
$24.4M on the table at Cruzeiro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Palmeiras asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Palmeiras offered $6.2M; Fluminense 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Vitor Roque, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.20
A mark of 8.20 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.
The offer from Flamengo for Paulinho 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.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lucas Evangelista scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
An average of 7.14 in a first team he is several years too young for. Palmeiras have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Gustavo Gómez 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 Palmeiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Alexander Barboza 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Bragantino scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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 Jhon Arias is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Bruno Fuchs
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Daniel Braga on the draw
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.
Alexander Barboza 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 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Cruzeiro had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
6‑0 against Zamora, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Palmeiras heard it as anything else.
Vitor Roque 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Palmeiras and Zamora in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Piquerez 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Palmeiras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vitor Roque did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.14, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Bruno Fuchs and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
10‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Two goals and a mark of 9.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Vitor Roque takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vitor Roque provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Palmeiras and Zamora, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gustavo Gómez 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.
Marlon Freitas 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.
8 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gustavo Gómez 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.
Alexander Barboza 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 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Nobody at Palmeiras 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
An average of 7.06 in a first team he is several years too young for. Palmeiras have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gustavo Gómez 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 Palmeiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Piquerez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexander Barboza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Palmeiras 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 dugout28 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.” Daniel Braga chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Mirassol defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
1‑0 against Unión de Santa Fe, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Ramón Sosa was at the centre of the description.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Unión de Santa Fe spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Heittor, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Vitor Roque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Evangelista 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.
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
1 for Marlon Freitas, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Luis Arthur has agreed terms with Boa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Emiliano Martínez 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Palmeiras will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Gómez 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 Palmeiras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pedro Mendes 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Mateus Santos 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. Douglas Lima is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Wesley Figueiredo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Corinthians 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Palmeiras will try not to make too much of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Alexander Barboza 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.
Fluminense will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Renê has pre-agreed a move to Palmeiras, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Luís Pacheco 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.52, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Vitor Roque, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.32
A mark of 8.32 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Alexander Barboza 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 Gustavo Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Palmeiras will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vitor Roque did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Palmeiras and Boa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Piquerez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Palmeiras hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Alexander Barboza 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Evangelista 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Vitória, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Vitor Roque, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.40
A mark of 8.40 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.
Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people suddenly very careful about their wording. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.
“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.
Jhon Arias 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.
He is 21 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.