Paraíba has been playing very well since his first match and is getting better every match. After he joined us the team restarted to play a nice and offensive footbal, trying to reach the goal every time they have the ball.

Marcelinho is definitely one of those players which I want on my team. His scarlet and black hair proofs that he deserves to be on Flamengo.

Yesterday, after four matches, he scored for the first time wearing our shirt.

He started playing this Sunday match against Fluminense and assisted Marcelinho Paraíba on his first goal.

On his first game he played very well; very well indeed. And gave the supporters a little demonstration of what he is capable of doing. He is one of those players who deserve to wear our colors and now he gave Caio Jr a headache.

The coach must choose between Éverton and Sambueza for the next game and both were great yesterday.

His first match may be against São Paulo (away on September 14th), when Josiel will defend the sacred mantle for the first time too.

On 257 matches for Colo-Colo he scored 68 times and he has 1 goal on 13 caps. This is quite impressive for a winger.

He seems to be a great young experienced player who already has some titles.

When last season finished, he was transferred from Paraná to Al-Wahda and now join Flamengo on a loan until the end of this season.

Last year Flamengo played in my city against Paraná and was defeated (2-1) with Josiel scoring twice.

And the first impression is that the board signed the right player. He came from the bench last Sunday on the derby against Fluminense (2-2) and when there were only two minutes remaining he assisted Kléberson who headed to score and tie the match.

He joined Flamengo on a loan for a period of one year.

He is an attacking midfielder and joined Flamengo after playing ten matches and scoring ten goals for Mixt on Brazilian League Third Division.

He scored a goal today in the training session.

After scoring 27 goals for Avai during the first semester, Vandinho joined Flamengo on latest July to solve the goals problem. On August 3rd, in Maracanã, he came from the bench and scored the opening goal against Cruzeiro. Although his great start, it was not enough. Flamengo lost the match 1-2.

On the next game, agains Goiás in Serra Dourada (another defeat 2-1), he played just for 5 minutes in consequence of an injury.

He hasn’t played since that day, but he left a great first impression and must be back on Wednesday for the match against Figueirense in Florianópolis.

He signed a contract that goes until December 31st, 2009.

Or should I say texts?

Here it goes: one new text for each new player that joined us on this summer (winter here) window.

Paraíba is a 33 years old who already played for São Paulo, Olympique Marseille, Grêmio, Hertha BSC and Trabzonspor. He plays as a SS, linking the midfield and the attack, playing both functions.

Marcelinho can help our attack to get back socring and also may help the midfielders to mark, pass and create opportunities.

Last month, after a Wolfsburg’s victory against FC Schöningen 08, he said some Brazilian clubs offered him great contracts but he wanted to continue on Germany and finish his contract with Wolfsburg, which goes untile the end of the season, before he comes back to Brazil. Now Kléber Leite has to work and convince the player, who confess that they are negotiating, to come back and join Flamengo.

The board is taking too long o bring new players after we lost Marcinho, Renato Augusto and Souza. Renato has gone on July 8th, Marcinho, on 16th, and Souza, on 26th. All trasferred on July and we signed only two players (one of them a LWB) and Vandinho, the only front man who our board has already signed, is already injured.

Today Kléber Leite said “We didn’t give up. But we took too long thinking only about Felipe and Vágner Love. Now we have other plans”.

According to the Brazilian website Globoesporte.com one of the plans could be Sandro. He is a 24 uears old attacking midfielder who played for Paraná on 2006, while Caio jr was their coach, and left the club to joing Gençlerbirligi, from Turkey. Nowadays he plays for the also Turkish, Oftasspor. However, after consulting, Kléber Leite evidenced he won’t be a possible player because of his contract’s rescissory fine clause, which is too high.

About Vágner Love and Felipe, all I know is that club and players have an agreement about the salaries, but they still have to convince their current teams to sign Flamengo a deal, which it isn’t as easy as it seams to be. Al-Sadd, where Felipe plays, is ruled by a sheik and everybody knows they are not open-minded people. Vágner Love’s team, CSKA Moscow, is going through a difficult time: they are not scoring, as well as Flamengo, and in a need of strikers. As I already checked with j, the Russian Football Federation blogger, they may be convinced, but they have to sign other player first and they are not on a hurry to do it. So, it may take a while.

After the bomb images got worldwidely spread, Richard Morales said he will not join Flamengo. Board and player had already announced the deal and set date, time and place for the player presentation, but his family told him to stay on Uruguay and, scared, he thought it would be a better idea to stay instead of facing the pressure.

I was very angry about that, but now, thinking calmly, I can see it was better. A player that can’t handle pessure is not a player that can wear our sacred mantle. If without him we already have some problems, with him it would be worse, because he wouldn’t know how to work with the constant fans pressure.

Today the board is having a videoconference with Boca Juniors’ board to deal Leandro Gracián. According to Club de Futbol Monterrey’s blogger, he would be a great “10″ for us. This is what I expect.

Yesterday during the game, ex-Flamengo advanced midfielder Felipe affirmed that between Flamengo and him everything is ready for him to come back. He only needs to reach an agreement with his team, Al-Saad. He said he is not joining the team at Switzerland for its pre-season.

Kleberson is out for two weeks at least. He fell over his right shoulder during the training session this morning. He had recovered from an injury just a few days ago and now is out for a long time. The doctors said in best hypothesis he will be out for two or three weeks, but it will probably take more time for him to recover.

Later, the board announced they are bringing Vandinho, Eltinho and Éverton. The first is a 21 year-old striker, as I already explained.

Eltinho is a left winger who already worked with Caio Jr when he was coaching Paraná as well as Vandinho. He was at Cruzeiro, but wasn’t playing. He was only recovering from an injury since last year and came to be Juan’s substitute when needed.

Éverton is playing for Paraná and is one of Brazilian Second Division best players. He will be joining Flamengo on January 2009, but the board is working to bring him right now. He is a midfielder who fits on the team.