Teixeira: No fear of Santos drop, squad better than results | OneFootball

President of Santos, Marcelo Teixeira believes that the club has an individually “excellent” squad and opened up about the risk of Peixe's relegation, which finished the 30th round of the Brazilian Championship with the same points as Vitória, the first team within the Z4.

Back in Serie A, the Alvinegro Praiano revamped its squad and brought in some big names to strengthen the team, such as Neymar and Rollheiser. In the mid-year transfer window, Peixe invested again and signed four more players: Lautaro Díaz, Adonís Frias, Alexis Duarte, and Victor Hugo.

“The expectation for Santos at this moment is to have a lot of responsibility, in a professionalization project that Santos has been undertaking, in controlling revenues and expenses. If you evaluate Santos' squad, individually it is an excellent squad. It is a squad that does not match the current standings. We indeed had problems regarding the formation of the technical committee. When we defined the technical committee last December, we brought in Pedro Caixinha. Caixinha's name was almost unanimous, we brought him in to do a two-year job within this recovery process. He didn't do so well. We realized that we would need to make a change, not because of results per se, but we noticed there was an adaptation issue. We had to make this change, which I don't like to do. Last year, we had the same pressure from the fans because of Carille. We had fluctuations, but we noticed the consistency of the work. The goal was to be champion and move up, which happened. Different from Pedro Caixinha,” explained Teixeira in an interview with Barbacast.

With Vojvoda, Santos reached its third coach this season. Before the Argentine, the club also had the Portuguese Pedro Caixinha, mentioned by Teixeira, and also Cléber Xavier, who took over at the end of April and was dismissed four months later, in August this year.

“Now, we are with Vojvoda. At this moment, we can't make too many demands, but Vojvoda is already showing results. There are two wins, four draws, and two losses in eight games. Yesterday was a tough, difficult defeat, where a win would have allowed us to discuss and plan something better in the championship, but it didn't happen. We still have 12 games ahead, and we are very focused on the goal of recovering from this moment. The 2026 planning has already started, now in a different way, thinking about the technical committee and the players we have,” stated the president.

Is relegation a concern?

Marcelo Teixeira also responded again if he is worried about Santos' relegation, but as the club's president, he avoided any pessimistic speech. Last Monday, Peixe had a direct confrontation against Vitória and could have distanced itself from the Z4, but was defeated and saw the rival close in on the standings.

“When you ask a question, you ask the club's commander. The club's commander must always show firmness of purpose and show the paths being worked on. We don't want to admit any type of... the questions are always these. ‘President, are you comfortable? Do you think the planning was right? Are you calm?’. I am convinced of what is being done. If we think about the presentation that Santos made against Corinthians one game before, it created the expectation of what represents the potential of our group. It is a potential that is there. You went to a different match, with totally adverse circumstances, but this is the Brazilian Championship,” analyzed Teixeira.

The Santos team remains in 16th position, with 31 points, the same amount as Vitória, which opens the Z4. The team still faces a tough sequence ahead, with Botafogo, Fortaleza, Flamengo, and Palmeiras (2x) in the next five rounds of the Brazilian Championship.

“We have to understand that Santos is experiencing a different, atypical moment. It is not a normal moment for what is expected from a club with Santos' history. We will reach the goal that we all want, but it requires time. The main objective we achieved was to get out of the second division. We are in another year, we have to continue doing this structuring, which is not so easy within a reconstruction process that Santos is undergoing,” continued the president.

Satisfaction with Vojvoda

Finally, Marcelo Teixeira also expressed satisfaction with Juan Pablo Vojvoda's work at Santos. The coach was announced on August 22 and, even in a short time, led the team to a considerable improvement, although the results have not matched the good performances.

“There was market interest even because of the campaign that Fortaleza did, and he had a direct influence on a club that secured a spot in the Libertadores and achieved significant results thanks to his work. This interest, we had already attempted to hire him after Caixinha's departure, and then we hired [Alexandre] Mattos and managed to convince him to take on the project with us. I see in him a medium to long-term job, he is a coach with a lot of leadership, a lot of transparency with the group, and very humble in his purposes,” he highlighted.

“He doesn't reinvent the wheel. He does the simple, but a well-refined simple. He is very fair in his decisions, very hardworking. We notice his work. If it weren't for him, Santos wouldn't have had such a radical change in such a short time. You see a more united group, a more prepared team, players closer together. Those who follow the training notice, the players are well-guided and with a purpose, a work philosophy,” Teixeira added.

Santos' position in the standings

Upcoming Santos matches

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.