São Paulo boss comes clean, reveals club’s target for 2026 | OneFootball

São Paulo's coach, Hernán Crespo, opened up after the 3-0 victory over Internacional this Wednesday at Vila Belmiro, for the Brazilian Championship, and revealed what the club's goal will be for the next season.

Still with chances to qualify for the Pre-Libertadores, the Tricolor awaits the outcome of the Copa do Brasil, but for coach Hernán Crespo, the club's objective has nothing to do with the continental tournament.

“The idea is to be competitive in every game, regardless of the competition, but the first thing is to accumulate 45 points in the Brasileirão. Once we achieve 45 points in the Brasileirão, we will think about something else. The second part of the season is always complicated for everyone, but next year the first part will be too, because we will have the Paulistão and Brasileirão at the same time,” said Crespo.

Indeed, the calendar for the next season will be tight because of the World Cup. As a result, clubs that do not have an extensive and quality squad will suffer even more to maintain a certain level of competitiveness. This is why coach Hernán Crespo's ambitions for São Paulo in 2026 are more modest.

“We will have seven days of pre-season. I'm not here to criticize the calendar, it is what it is. Everyone must do their best. If you think that next season everything will change completely, it won't happen. We have less than a month. It will be the same approach, trying to improve, taking a step forward,” he continued.

The forecast is that São Paulo will have another difficult year in 2026. Trying to adopt a policy of financial austerity after debts reached R$ 1 billion, the Tricolor board is not expected to make significant investments in reinforcements, and Crespo is already “tightening the belts.”

“I don't know the financial situation of São Paulo. I can say that for me, regardless of playing in the Libertadores, I think if we play in the South American Cup, we also have to be competitive. I don't know if financially we will be able to reinforce well. The most important thing is to try to improve today's team. We finished eighth, but with an eight-point difference to the seventh. That's a lot. Are we going to reduce eight points in a month? Let's be realistic, let's improve, the idea is to improve, but we won't go back to being the São Paulo of the 1990s, there's still a long way to go. There are many steps. There are 20 steps, next year it has to be 19. One step at a time,” he concluded.

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