Santos Futebol Clube, Parte IV [R]

And he scored his 8th goal. CBF really screws us over, we would've been running for the title otherwise... However I must admit we depend too much on Neymar, he is 80% of our attack AT LEAST atm.

The large ammount of injuries didn't help us either. Fucile (could've been playing at LB), Galhardo+Crystian+Bruno Peres just got injured as well ( kinda hard to have depth at RB like that), DRACENA ( now I can see that he was really pulling our defensive line by himself!), Henrique (better DMF than Adriano, may not be as good at winning balls but has MUCH better passing and technique), Ganso (probably would play half-assed games anyway, since he wants to leave), Miralles ( André is out of shape atm, without the argentinean our only 'depth' is ****ing Bill)... Muricy and our board have a lot of guilt for our current situation, but we can't deny our 'bad luck'.

This is the team that could've played those 25 matches:

---------------------Rafael-----------------
--Bruno P.--Dracena----Durval----Fucile
------------- Arouca---Henrique-----------
-------Bernardo-------------Ganso/Patito---
----------André/Miralles-----Neymar--------

That's a great team.

No, I love the continental leagues.

I think this is the real issue. If the state leagues didn't exist, or were at least shrunk there would be plenty of time to stretch out the Brasileirao schedule to accommodate the FIFA fixture dates. I understand that there is a lot of history with the state leagues, but a 19+ game state league is too much, in my opinion.

This season is definitely an exception with the Olympics, but Neymar has only played in 9 of 25 games. That is simply unacceptable.

I realize that Brazil has a unique schedule, but no other league in the world would tolerate losing its best player(s) for so many games, nor should they.

Thanks for sharing. I really need to learn Portuguese.

Took the words out of my mouth. The problem is that CBF, who should control our calendar, doesn't want to lose their prestige with the State federations. But basically, most of the teams in state leagues survive solely because of these tourneys, they don't dispute anything else worth of notice... So why can't they start the tourney earlier, only for the smaller teams, could be 20 of them for all I care, while the bigger teams are in pre-season. They play the first stage, 19 games and the 4 best teams after that go to the next stage, the last 4 get relegated. Then the next stage are eliminatories, and the big teams finally enter the tournament, seeded in a way that most likely they will only face each other at semifinals.

Basically the big teams would only play for a month. That would be perfect IMO.

Santistas, I know this isn’t the easiest time for your team. Ganso is gone. But look on the bright side. You still have the best player in Brazil (who is a guaranteed starter in the 2014 World Cup) and the most successful coach in recent history.

The 2013 Libertadores is probably not going to be on your calendar, but every team has to rebuild at some point. With good management decisions, the 2014 Libertadores is a realistic goal. Neymar will stick around until then.

You guys had a great run since early 2010 – Copa do Brasil, 3 consecutive Paulistões, and the 2011 Libertadores. There’s no reason such a streak of success cannot happen again.

Saudações tricolores!

Thanks for the words Century's Best, as always. But keep a close eye on Ganso. He is a very gifted player, but he is a venomous snake inside. We should've noticed it when he reffused to pay Giovanni what he deserved for introducing him to Santos FC... Be prepared to see the same kind of drama in January/July, as soon as a European team comes knocking he will make your life hell until he is sold.


The public's opinion on our president couldn't be lower than now. A couple weeks ago he said : " I held Neymar here, and I will do the same with Ganso". Now people are rightfully questioning him.

Bakaman, I hope you're wrong... On one hand I agree - these players want to make top dollar, and in a way they can't be blamed. Gone are the days of people like Marcos, who played for Palmeiras his entire career despite having proposals from Premiership sides.

On the other, there have been plenty of very talented players who have been egotistical and selfish and who pouted away, demanding their departures when things didn't go their own way, and who collected "desafetos" everywhere they went. The greatest example of this is Riquelme. The man is a legend at Boca Juniors, and rightfully so. But he pissed off many people - including his final coach, Julio Falcioni. He got into a huge internal spat w/ Palermo. He was disliked at Villareal. He even banged heads with Maradona and quit his country's NT (twice!).

Ganso thankfully is not the selfish brat Riquelme has become notorious for being. And hopefully Ganso will be successful with SPFC, bringing us a few titles, so that when a rich UEFA club finally takes him away, he will leave in conditions and circumstances friendlier than those which oversaw his departure from Santos.

Robinho may come back that put a smile on my face today.

Regardless of format if there is a Libertadores competition and a Brazilian team is participating they will more then likely neglect the brasileiro, I don't like it at all but there is really nothing we can do to avoid it either. Look at week 1 this year Corinthians vs fluminese , Santos vs Bahia and out of all those teams the only one to field a 1st team was Bahia. Both Vasco and Gremio were resting key players as well kind of a shame since its the 1st week of the league. I think if there was a true pre season it would be a disaster because the amount of travel during the preseason would be crazy. Lets be real the clubs are going to follow the money so is a 2 week tour of Asia then another week in the middle east/Europe going to get brazilian teams ready for the Libertadores? Quick answer no the amount of travel is already a problem the players complain about.

I laughed about it before, but the Robinho + Diego rumours are gaining strength. This could be VERY interesting.... We still desperately need a LB though, and a top CB and striker would be great as well...

Muricy just mentioned all 3 of Kaka, Diego and Robinho in relation to a possible transfer next year.


I'm not expecting anyone of them, but boy if this happens..

I'd like to see where Santos will find the money to fund this.

Well I know we have 24m reais from Ganso's transfer... And 30m reais from tv contracts. All in all we should have about 23m euros to burn... Certainly not enough to land all three ( specially since São Paulo has much more money thanks to Lucas's transfer, IF Kaka wants to return to Brasil certainly São Paulo would win a bidding war), I suppose Kaká has plenty of european clubs wanting him... But now I see Robinho and Diego as a possibility.

We just can't forget that we desperately need a LB (or two), a CB, and maybe a CF and a DMF that can pass @_@ We must consider our priorities.

I think the reason Kaka' didn't leave Madrid was because no European team wanted him. According to him nobody made an offer.

Plenty wanted him, but his wages are insane for his output and he wasnt willing to take a pay cut. As a HUGE fan of Kaka', that surprised me. I really wanted him go get the hell out of there and become a regular starter somewhere.

How good is this Gabigol moleque that I read about today? Just signed with a crazy transfer fee buyout of R$ 131 million. Is it hype?

Checked out a couple of compilations of him on Youtube ... doesn't look like anything special. One has a bunch of easy goals and loads of PKs the other has a couple of nice goals but nothing out of the ordinary. He must have something not shown in the videos.

Haven't seen him yet aswell.

I hope he's not another Victor Andrade and has some proper creative talent in him and not just a project.

I remember I read an interview with him saying he doesn't follow the herd and won't have a "neymar" hairdo - I was kind of happy to read it to be honest, as minor an issue as it is.

Now look at him


----

Anyways, atleast some positives from this season! CAMPEAO

Two titles a year for three years running. Not bad. Should have won by a lot more, but the decision making in the final third was so frustrating, especially from Patito. Big props to Felipe tonight. We shouldn't give up on him.

@Muurad You don't like Victor Andrade? I think he has done very well for a 16 year old playing in a dysfunctional team.

Well again I don't close the book on him, as obviously he's still 16-17 - but, compared to his hype - I just don't see that top top talent, atleast yet.

Got to see him with the Copinha side, and with the senior side - he seems like a fine physical specimen, remarkable really for his age(although he still can't take contact yet which is understandable) - but playing away from the box I just don't see the 'wow' factor I expected, and inside it he showed some flashes but not enough.

Again, it's tricky cause he's so young - but so far i'm not that stoked about him, all ofcourse compared to his hype. Hope to be proven wrong.

Congrats Santos! You guys won the Recopa against a team which had been one of the sensations of the continent. I expected more from La U de Chile in the Libertadores, but oh well. And, Brazilian soccer wins yet another international cup.

Great win last night this is the first time I seen Felipe Anderson play good he was even winning balls in the midfield which helped. Patito Rodriguez keeps showing flashes but overall hes been pretty average and gives away the ball a lot. Neymar played great of course and Bruno Rodrigo has quietly had himself a really good season. If we are talking about Victor Andrade I'm not sold on him either, every time he plays he pretty much has done nothing. He doesn't even know how to use his strength yet. As a young player hes an asset of course but for the rest of the season hes pretty much useless if we want to win games. He might get some starts though because of the league position and because Andre is looking clumsy.

Nice win last night, in spite of the aforementioned poor decision making in the final third.

In crappier news, Neymar will miss yet another 2 games so that he can travel 11,000 km to play Japan and Iraq (!!!) in exhibition games. Three cheers for the CBF!

Jon Cotterill (@pitacodogringo) had some nice tweets this morning:

I would like to think Santos would be successful with this complaint, but I know better.