Dorival Júnior cancels São Paulo trip, on Arboleda ban, plea to fans | OneFootball

Dorival Júnior is officially back at São Paulo. The club’s new head coach was introduced at CT da Barra Funda on Monday afternoon (18) and spoke with the press for more than an hour about a wide range of topics.

Among them, he revealed that he really had not planned to work again this year and even had to cancel an international trip he had scheduled when he received the invitation to return to Tricolor.

“I really wasn’t going to come back so soon. And when I got the president’s call, right after the match against Juventude, I understood what had been going on. I had a trip booked to Florida, but I ended up rethinking the whole situation. I have a commitment to São Paulo, I’m taking it on and I’ll try to give my best here,” said coach Dorival.

“You can be sure of that. I’ll do everything possible so that we can recover the moment this same group experienced not long ago. It’s a job that I hope will be a continuation of what had already been put in place here, so that we can find that same level of performance again,” said the manager.

Right at the start of the presentation, director Rui Costa, who was also present at the press conference, had already announced that Arboleda will not be reinstated to the Tricolor squad after the act of indiscipline of leaving the club for a month. And Dorival commented on the Ecuadorian’s case.

“Arboleda was very important during my spell, he was crucial in that title win. In fact, he has been since 2017. Now, a problem happened and it has to be resolved. Discipline matters anywhere and it has to prevail. That’s how I understand the behavior of São Paulo’s board,” he said.

AN APPEAL TO THE TRICOLORES

The new São Paulo coach also made an appeal to the fans, who have been somewhat at odds with the club since Crespo was replaced by Roger Machado, who was booed and criticized throughout his brief spell with Tricolor.

“I hope we have our fans back, truly believing in this team’s recovery. Even within the championship itself, the team has maintained a very competitive attitude, the result of the work done by Crespo and Roger. We’ll carry on, making the most of that work. We’ll continue at least maintaining this position.”

“I’m sure every true São Paulo supporter will set aside any political thinking, anything individual, for the collective good. Before anything else, he is a São Paulo supporter, regardless of whether he is with the current administration or the opposition. I’m sure that person will think carefully, especially because he has the club in his heart. And if he does, this gesture is needed.”

“It will be very important for all São Paulo supporters to grow closer to the institution. Not only for the fans to return to Morumbi, but for that atmosphere to keep happening. That’s a separate matter. It’s a dispute. I hope it can be as healthy as possible. But above all, that they understand the club needs peace in order to find important paths for our club.”

“The message is that the fans have never abandoned São Paulo, Morumbi... and I’m sure that support will come. The fans’ presence is fundamental. The biggest example was precisely in my last spell. In 2017, the strength from the stands helped us turn things around in the league and gave us tremendous support to find a path that wasn’t easy, it was very difficult.”

“People have no idea what goes on inside a working group. Back in 2023, we asked the fans to be a little patient because I saw a lot of quality in this group, which improved even more with Lucas’ arrival, helping the team grow.”

“I hope once again that we have that involvement and that the fans believe again and make their voices heard. It won’t be a simple job. I also had problems over there. We did everything we could to find a way in the last few matches and we couldn’t. Above all, we have to be realistic.”

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