A 0‑3 beating by Mirassol was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$2.3M settles it between the clubs for Alix Vinicius
Bragantino have accepted the money. What Santa Cruz do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Santa Cruz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Santa Cruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Arismendi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santa Cruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Cruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Rodrigues 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriel Souza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santa Cruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Billal Brahimi 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.
Santa Cruz asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pedro Ribeiro has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Santa Cruz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Santa Cruz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santa Cruz is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Santa Cruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Robinho 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Aguilas Doradas have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Santa Cruz have made the call to Racing Club. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oeste waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santa Cruz is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santa Cruz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Cruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fee is $88.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. São Paulo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Vasco da Gama wanted more than $58.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Santa Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Renato 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.
7 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.