The Santa Cruz Chronicle
Squad16 Apr 2029
A fracture rules Felipe Alves out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santa Cruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for Matheus Régis
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Régis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santa Cruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market16 Apr 2029
As if he never left: Gabryel Freitas returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gabryel Freitas is a Santa Cruz player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Gabryel Freitas gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabryel Freitas has just signed for Santa Cruz, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Graduation day at Santa Cruz
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad16 Apr 2029
João Lucas 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Santa Cruz agree a free transfer for Saymon
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Santa Cruz
Tomás Fernández 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
One of our own: André Oliveira joins the Santa Cruz first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. André Oliveira is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Market Santa Cruz promote Igor Lopes from within
- Boardroom A promise the Santa Cruz board did not keep
- The dugout No hiding place for Guilherme Gomes