A leaked internal Grêmio document posted on social media on Friday laid out the club's football plan in unusually plain language: keep Paulo Pelaipe in place, avoid major changes in the department and wait on deeper 2027 decisions until the team secures its position in Série A. The material includes answers from Rafael Lima to questions from the Comissão de Futebol do Conselho Deliberativo and was prepared after a visit to CT Presidente Luiz Carvalho on October 9.
The leak has drawn attention because it turns a private planning exercise into public reading material at a moment when Grêmio is trying to manage two timelines at once. The club's next-season planning, Lima said, depends directly on remaining in the Campeonato Brasileiro's top division, while the wider discussion around 2027 is still parked behind the immediate fight to add points and move away from the relegation zone.
Lima said the club's intention is to keep Pelaipe as executive of football and that his contract runs for three years. He also said no changes are expected in the football department. That gives the document its weight: it is not a sketch of a rebuild, but a signal that Grêmio wants continuity even as pressure builds around results.
He linked that continuity to the table. In the report, Lima said Grêmio is going through a delicate moment in the Campeonato Brasileiro and must prioritize the fight against relegation before advancing to 2027 decisions. He said the current approach is to focus on each match and keep adding points. He also noted that the club still has a Copa do Brasil semifinal to play, which adds another layer to a season already stretched across competitions.
The report goes beyond the executive chair. Lima said Felipão is responsible for monitoring the methodology of work of the professional squad and evaluating activities carried out by department professionals, while also helping integrate the youth system and the first team. The document says Grêmio currently has 12 players formed in the youth categories in the professional squad, a detail that points to a squad structure the club appears intent on preserving rather than rebuilding from scratch.
There are other signs of day-to-day control in the material. Lima said no player is above his weight and only one is at the limit of acceptable fitness parameters. He mentioned the antigravity treadmill used in training at CT Luiz Carvalho, said field work is done daily within the limits imposed by the match calendar and said the club now has a psychology professional, with the text ending as that addition is introduced on the day of the report.
That ending matters. The leak exposes a club trying to project order while admitting that the biggest decisions cannot yet be locked in. Grêmio can map out personnel, training methods and a 2027 horizon, but it says the answer to the most important question still comes first: whether it stays in Série A. Until that is settled, the plan remains partly written and partly on hold.
