Santos concluded, on Monday night (11), its main task for 2024: ensuring its return to Series A of the Brazilian Championship. The black and white team defeated Coritiba 2-0, goals from Wendel Silva and Otero, at the Couto Pereira stadium, in Curitiba, and guaranteed that they will finish the second division, at worst, in third place.
The title is also very close and will be obtained, without dependence on other results, with two more points. But, having achieved the year’s big goal, the club is starting to think about what its return to the elite will be like, with the plan of putting together a team that doesn’t limit itself to fighting against relegation, as became common until the relegation in 2023.
The campaign in Series B, although superior to that of its competitors, was not built without hiccups. With 66 points in 36 rounds (20 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses), the beach team has recorded a 63% success rate so far, but the football has been criticized, and coach Fábio Carille has been challenged.
After the runner-up in São Paulo and a good start in the second national division, there were four consecutive defeats between May and June. In August, a new sequence of four matches without a win, with one defeat and three draws. In November, with access well underway, president Marcelo Teixeira was accused by fans and had a harsh argument with one of them.
In this scenario, despite the celebration of the goal achieved, the atmosphere is not typical of a team that advances. There will be changes for 2025, and one of them could be in the technical command.
There are disagreements within the board itself regarding the maintenance of Carille’s work. The coach’s contract has an automatic renewal trigger in case of access and a termination fine of approximately R$1.5 million. The chance of permanence, previously considered very unlikely, has increased with the current sequence of four victories.
However, the rejection of a considerable portion of the fans, attached to the club’s vaunted “offensive DNA”, weighs heavily against the coach. Carille is not a professional with this genetic code – although Santos has the best attack in Serie B, with 56 goals – and he also made, in the context of the second division, a bet on more experienced players. In the access victory, the starting lineup had only one athlete from the base, and the appreciation for the “Meninos da Vila” is another striking characteristic of the Santos fans.
Marcelo Teixeira has already made it clear that he intends to give the boys more space. “Santos, in a short space of time, will once again have a young, competitive team, with talents revealed at the base, who will be representing the team in official competitions, on par with the great forces of Brazilian football”, he stated last month , to Sheet.
Also in that interview, the manager said that Carille’s job “was chosen for the 2024 season”, “an atypical year, a season completely outside the club’s reality”. An indication that the path could be different with the return to the first division.
In any case, on the part of the fans, the questions gave way to relief at the end of a martyrdom that, as they always claimed, they would never experience. A celebration that combined with the expectation of the return of a famous boy from the village.
Saudi Arabian outlets published that Al Hilal is willing to terminate the contract of Neymar, 32, at the end of the year, as he tries to recover from repeated physical problems. The possibility is still treated as remote, but Santos and the striker have been exchanging affection – the athlete was invited to watch the team’s last home game in Series B, against CBR, next Sunday (17).
“Everything will depend on the player’s will, at the right time for him to want to return to Brazil. Of course, Santos has a project aimed at the return of a player of this level. He himself has already declared that he feels at home here, he has already expressed his desire to return to Santos, these are good signs”, said Marcelo Teixeira.
It’s a dream.
The reality, after an atypical year, is that Santos is once again a club in the first division of Brazilian football.
