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Vitor Hugo heads for Fiorentina, initiating a controlled exodus

Posted in Administration, Players, tagged , , , , on June 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

A well-conducted transfer if you ever saw one. Yesterday, centre-back Vitor Hugo held his last press conference (for now) at Palmeiras, before moving to Europe and Fiorentina. The Italians had been eying the 26-year-old for some time, but Palmeiras managed to hang on to the player, a central piece of the 2016 champion squad. In total, Vitor Hugo played 131 games for Palmeiras, finding the net 13 times – one short to make the club’s top 10 list for scoring centre-backs.

With the aid of sponsor/partner Crefisa, Vitor Hugo was brought to Palmeiras from second division side América Mineiro in 2015 for €1.5 million for 50% of his economic rights. Now sold to Fiorentina for €8 million, Crefisa recovers the initial €1.5 million, with the remaining being split between Palmeiras and other stakeholders – a neat little revenue indeed.

Crefisa actually chose not to cash in, but to redeploy the €1.5 million into the acquisition of promising 22-year-old centre-back Juninho, from Coritiba. Prior to Juninho, Crefisa also helped in the acquisition of Luan, the 24-year-old Olympic gold medallist, previously at Vasco da Gama. Palmeiras’ medium to long-term planning is clear: Vitor Hugo just left, Edu Dracena might retire in a year or two and Yerry Mina will move to Europe after the 2018 World Cup. In their place, we have Antônio Carlos (24), Thiago Martins (22), Luan (24) and Juninho (22).

Anything Palmeiras wishes Vitor Hugo the best of luck overseas: this talented, hard-working and charismatic lad deserves it like few others!

Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!
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VH2

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Sonar pings #107 – transfer and punishment

Posted in Administration, Libertadores Cup, Players, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »

vitor-hugo-palmeirasPalmeiras supporters are likely to have seen the last of Vitor Hugo. Coach Cuca today confirmed the centre-defender is heading for Fiorentina, in return for € 8 million. Out of these, € 4.5 million go to Palmeiras, who in turn will pass on € 1.75 million to Crefisa – the amount corresponds to what the sponsor paid for the athlete in 2015. Thus, Palmeiras’ net revenue are € 2.75 million. The remaining € 3.5 million belong to Tombense, the other holder of the player’s economic rights.

The European transfer windows only opens in June, but Vitor Hugo is likely to be released from his obligations as of now. For Palmeiras, he played a total of 131 games, scoring 13 goals. Anything Palmeiras wishes the humble, charismatic, talented and hard-working 25-year-old the best of luck on his new endeavour. Avanti, Vitor Hugo!

As an immediate response to Vitor Hugo’s exit, Palmeiras are set to sign Juninho, a left-footed 22-year-old currently at Coritiba. The youngster is expected in São Paulo tomorrow Saturday to undergo medical and sign the contract, price tag locked at € 3 million. I have a good feeling about this one.

Speaking of Coritiba: the club from Paraná yesterday confirmed the signing of Alecsandro, beating Bahia for the contract. Palmeiras will continue to pay the forward’s salaries throughout the year in an arrangement reached to settle an unresolved balance linked to Raphael Veiga’s transfer to Palmeiras earlier this year. The experience 36-year-old leaves through the front door after 62 games for the Verdão.

Another forward expected to leave any day is Rafael Marques: seasoned, still hungry, but with oh so little space in Palmeiras’ numerous squad. Cruzeiro is a possible destination, with a player from “the Fox” likely to be involved in a swap.

Finally, a piece of news we nourished hopes not having to declare, but was confirmed tonight: the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) sentenced Felipe Melo to six games of suspension for throwing a punch while chased by numerous Peñarol players after the final whistle in Montevideo late April (recap here and here). The original three Uruguayan aggressors received five games each. The Peñarol player caught on tape knocking Willian down seconds before the final whistle goes unpunished. It is a disgrace, it is a scandal, it is CONMEBOL in a nutshell. Palmeiras have already challenged the sentence, seeking it reduced to the minimum three games of suspension. Good luck with that.

In weeks, CONMEBOL will also rule on the responsibility of each team for what happened in Uruguay. Nothing good can come out of this. At Anything Palmeiras, we stand our ground: should CONMEBOL slap a significant punishment on Palmeiras for being ambushed at the Campeón del Siglo, Palmeiras should walk out on the tournament altogether.

Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!

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Palmeiras 2-2 Flamengo – night and day

Posted in Brazilian Championship, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Dorival Júnior promoted five changes to the starting eleven we saw last week against Fluminense: Deola substituted Fábio between the posts; Lúcio returned from injury to compose the centre-lock with Nathan; 17-year-old João Pedro made his debut on the right flank; Cristaldo and Mouche up front with Henrique.

Pressure was on already before kick-off, as a couple of bad results were pushing Palmeiras down the tables: Fluminense lost to Vitória (goals by former Palmeiras players Dinei and Vinícius) while Criciúma were beating Figueirense.

31-year-old Deola had not played a game since March, but he was not to blame for the disastrous first half. Palmeiras had no creativeness on the midfield and the use of the flanks was easily neutralised by Flamengo, easily approaching the Palmeiras box. With six minutes, Juninho, on the midfield instead for on his usual right flank, was booked. At ten minutes, he almost saw his second yellow. At twelve minutes, he screwed up while trying to clear the ball, and Flamengo open up the scorecard.

Diogo failed in everything he tried. Flamengo withdrew slightly, clearly awaiting those mortal opportunities to counter-attack. At 32 minutes, Lúcio didn’t move in harmony with the offside trap, leaving two Flamengo players clean with Deola, who rushed out to clear the ball, which bounced up on the Flamengo attacker hand before he passed it on to Alecsandro – in offside position – to increase the lead. Nightmare.

At 42 minutes, Palmeiras were denied a clear penalty as Henrique was dislocated in plain flight, in excellent scoring position.

In half-time, Dorival swapped Henrique and Mouche for Allione and Valdivia, the only question being why he waited so long.

Kick-off and full speed ahead. With 2 minutes on the clock, Diogo scored his first goal in twelve months. We saw a completely different game, it was night and day in relation to the first half. Valdivia was instrumental, as he normally is when on the pitch.

Palmeiras dominated the following 15 minutes completely, then Flamengo started to adapt to the new scenario. But it was Valdivia, exchanging quick passes with Diogo and Victor Luis, who allowed the latter to whip in the equaliser with 23 minutes on the clock. The 21.500 at the Pacaembu exploded: our supporters never stopped chanting – not even during the most dreadful moments of the first half of the game – and now they were rewarded for their loyalty.
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Palmeiras looked as if winning the game was possible, pressuring Flamengo hard, but that changed in the 37th minutes when man-of-the-match Valdivia did what he does best: leaves everyone flabbergasted with his immaturity. This time he STEPPED on a lying opponent, deservedly being sent straight to the showers. Unbelievable. The man is a mental case. When he doesn’t get injured, he does something incredibly stupid. Valdivia is an idiot. A complete idiot. This must be dealt with. Internally.

With the results from this 22nd round, Palmeiras are back in the relegation zone with 22 points, ahead of Criciúma (22) and Vitória (21). Above, we find Botafogo (22), Bahia (23), Coritiba (23) and Chapecoense (23). Nice and intimate.

Today was the first of six crucial games against direct contenders for relegation: Flamengo (home), Goiás (away), Vitória (home), Figueirense (away), Chapecoense (home) and Botafogo (away). We’re not off to a good start, although today’s draw admittedly carries a certain air of victory due to the circumstances. Watching the team react was actually a relief. Deola played well. So did João Pedro – just a kid – in his debut.

Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!

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Gareca takes over the reins

Posted in Administration, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

With players back at Palmeiras after two weeks of holidays, Argentine Ricardo Gareca has officially been installed and is now exercising his coaching duties. Things have been going smooth these first couple of days, with a focus on low-intensity muscular training and the carrying out of some physical evaluations. Gareca is addressing all players by their names and the language barrier has apparently not been an issue.
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Defensive midfielder Tinga is not in the group commanded by Gareca: on loan at different clubs since 2012 – the last one being Avaí – Palmeiras has negotiated the players’ economic rights with Japanese club Jubilo Iwata, putting an end to Tinga’s four-year spell at Palmeiras.

mateusmullerAttending a request from Gareca, Palmeiras have promoted four players from the youth academy that will train with the first squad: defenders Léo Cunha and Mateus Müller, midfielder Juninho and striker Erik. These are all good names: Müller (pictured on your right) was on the Brazilian under 20 national squad that won the international “Panda” Cup. The group of four will join the rest of the squad this coming Monday, for the training period in the city of Atibaia, interior of the state of São Paulo. Gareca is known for keeping a close eye on the youth academy.

Palmeiras also continue scanning the transfer market for reinforcements. Argentine centre-back Fernando Tobio is said to have reached a verbal agreement with Palmeiras and is expected to sign a five-year contract in July. Forwards are also a priority, with former Boca Juniors striker Pablo Mouche reportedly close to signing. Both these players are on Gareca’s wish list; an invasion of hermanos, it seems.

— ooo —

The World Cup today features three clashes:

At the moment of writing, David is doing rather well against Goliath, Australia putting pressure on the Dutch and sustaining a 1-1 draw in group B.

At 7pm local time, the last game of the day features Cameroon and Croatia, both teams looking to bounce back from their initial defeat in Group A, where Brazil and Mexico sum four points each after yesterday’s goalless draw.

It’s however the game in the middle, at 4pm, that attracts the most attention: Chile take on current World Champions Spain, the latter desperately needing the three points after having lost in the opening round to van Persie, Robben and Co. At William Hill world cup betting, Chile is the natural underdog at 5 to 1, but if Palmeiras’ playmaker Valdivia finds the space for those precise cut-through passes while counter-attacking, the Spaniards might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

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*drumroll* Gilson Kleina it is

Posted in Administration, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, the never-resting Eduardo Luiz of Palmeiras Todo Dia gave us an update on the so far frustrated attempts to find a new coach for the Verdão. Jorginho was our directors’ first option (and I’d say also that of a majority of the supporters) but he claimed he couldn’t leave Bahia, a team he took over only about a month ago. Dorival Júnior, recently contracted by Flamengo, gave the same reply. Then there was Paulo César Carpegiani, the man responsible for placing Vitória at the top of the second division. Carpegiani preferred not even enter into negotiations as he considered a transfer inappropriate at this time. Gilson Kleina would consider leaving Ponte Preta but only to sign a longer contract with Palmeiras (at least until the end of 2013); our directors were tempted but got cold feet when internal criticism began to surge. Finally, Falcão also wanting an extended contract in addition to a rather hefty pay check.  

In addition to the fabulous (sic) five officially contacted by Palmeiras in the last few days, other names were contemplate: Cristóvão Borges (too inexperienced), Renato Gaúcho (a joke), Joel Santana (even more of a joke), Emerson Leão (persona non grata).

Would the coming few weeks prove to be the most important weeks in interim coach Narciso’s career?

No.

Today Gilson Kleina signed for Palmeiras until the end of 2013. By paying a fine of roughly US$ 150.000, Palmeiras released Kleina from his contract with Ponte Preta, where he had been since early 2011. The new Palmeiras coach will receive approximately US$ 125.000 monthly for the ungrateful task of saving the team from relegation and reforming the squad for next year’s competitions, including the Libertadores Cup.

With the arrival of Kleina, the last members of the former technical staff leave Palmeiras, i.e. Anselmo Sbragia (physical preparation) and Carlos Pracidelli (legendary goalkeeper trainer). Kleina is bringing his guys to the table: two assisting coaches (Jair Leite and Juninho), Fabinho Xha (physical preparation) and keeper trainer Palha.

Kleina is 44 years old and started his coaching career at the youth academy at Coritiba. He was the assisting coach for Abel Braga, following him to Atlético Mineiro and then Olympique de Marseille before going solo. Kleina passed through a number of smaller clubs before developing decent work at Ponte Preta, for which he has been receiving a certain amount of recognition.

Kleina will have to do more than decent in order to survive the threat of relegation, Palmeiras’ presidential election and the fierce political climate at his new club. From the bottom of my heart: the best of luck to you, Gilson.

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Sonar pings #34

Posted in Administration, Opinion, Players, tagged , , , , , , , on January 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

Everything shrinks in proportion to Marcos’ announcing his retirement. Still, a few things from the last two weeks that went by are worth noticing.

Kassab visits the New Arena
São Paulo mayor Gilberto Kassab visited the New Arena construction site in late December together with Palmeiras president Arnaldo Tirone and representatives from the construction firm WTorre. The reason for the visit was convincing the mayor of the importance to dismiss a few bureaucratic formalities that today hinder the expansion of the planned parking lot (from a thousand to roughly three thousand parking spaces) as well as the demolition of a specific part of the old Palestra Italia stands (without going into much detail: today the New Arena is formally a “renovation”, meaning that parts of the old stadium necessarily need to remain; WTorre and Palmeiras wish to redefine the New Arena as a “new construction”).

Kassab promised to study the case and signalled that he could have it solved by February. If that if fact would happen, the final price tag will drop and the Arena could be finished up to four months ahead of schedule.

Players arriving…
In mid November Scolari asked for “steak and shrimp” in 2012, meaning some quality players to work with. Let’s see what’s arrived on Palmeiras’ menu so far, shall we?

Marcos Paulo – the 19-year-old midfielder from São Paulo-based club Mogi Mirim will start in the Palmeiras B squad. At 1.85 and 76 kilos, the kid seems also to have a good head on his shoulders. It’ll be interesting to follow his development; good luck to him.

Juninho – the left-winger replacing Gabriel Silva (Udinese/ITA) was officially introduced to the squad on the day of Saint Marcos’ retirement. Straight from Figueirense – where he had a very good year and was elected one of the three best left-wingers in last year’s edition of the Brazilian championship – the 21-year-old from Bahia is now on a three-year contract with Palmeiras. Good luck, Juninho.

Adalberto Román – yesterday Palmeiras also confirmed that Paraguayan defender Adalberto Román is arriving. The player is currently with River Plate/ARG but found himself out in the cold after having committed a stupid penalty that sealed River’s relegation to the second division. Román will join Henrique, Leandro Amaro, Maurício Ramos and the recently promoted Wellington, occupying the place left by Thiago Heleno who underwent surgery in both his feet and will not be back until April/May. The contract is for a year, with the option of buying the economic rights of the player at the end of 2012.

Carlos Alberto – apparently everything is set for the arrival of the offensive midfielder currently belonging to Vasco da Gama but on loan to Bahia due to disciplinary problems in the Rio de Janeiro club. Carlos Alberto didn’t do too well at Bahia either, scoring no goals, making no assists and spending half of the championship in the medic’s department.

The funny thing is that the charismatic troublemaker, who in 2008 managed to get himself kicked out of São Paulo Futebol Clube, has a rather impressive CV: in 2004 he won the Portuguese League and the Champions League with FC Porto under José Mourinho before moving back to Brazil and becoming Brazilian champion with Corinthians in 2005. He also won the Brazil Cup with Fluminense in 2007.

Carlos Alberto is 27 years old and certainly an above average footballer when he sets his mind to it. The question is: will he? He might. Who knows he finds joy side by side with Valdivia in 2012. Details on his contract have not been made public, but if the price is right it could be worth a shot, although it’s a long shot indeed.

— ooo —

What bothers me is not so much Carlos Alberto himself, although I do consider him a high risk investment and potentially dangerous for the social environment of any football club. No, it’s the procedure of getting to him that drives me crazy. Would you believe me if I told you that Palmeiras’ director of football Frizzo was chatting away with an old friend in the interior of the state of São Paulo and this friend told him about this other friend, who is a pastor, who had spoken well of Carlos Alberto due to knowing him from church? Frizzo started pushing buttons and shortly after meeting with Carlos Alberto face to face decided to go ahead and contract him (no wait, I’m being unfair: apparently, Frizzo also called his son to check his reaction). End of story.

My friend Ivan Fadel gave me this book, “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis, and it’s currently serving as my bedtime literature. The book tells the story of how science and statistics revolutionised baseball in the USA. Today, and in any sport, the tools available to thoroughly analyze every game component, every player, every kind of strategy can be backed up by tons of data. And should be. The competitive edge that knowledge provides is priceless, especially in times when even mid-range coaches and players are demanding US$ 200.000/month pay checks.

At Palmeiras, Frizzo the football director picks up any player nominated by a friend of a friend…

I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but AVANTI PALESTRA.

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Sonar pings #31

Posted in Administration, Advertisement, Players, tagged , , , , , on December 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

With no competitions in the next six weeks or so, the squad has been sent on vacation. Players report back on 4 January. No matches means fewer post here at Anything Palmeiras, although I’d recommend you not to stay away too much; you’ll learn there’s plenty of action to write home about even during holidays.

Sub-20
The Brazilian Sub-20 championship is under way. The format of the competition is four groups with five teams in each, where the top two in each group advance to the quarter-finals. Palmeiras play in group 1 and currently ties for first position with Fluminense. The Verdão beat Atlético Paranaense 1-2 in the opening game and yesterday drew 1-1 with Fluminense. Check out the full tables to your right (source: globo.com).

Viera injured…
Yesterday’s game against Fluminense ended badly for midfielder/striker Patrick Viera, who was integrated into the A-team by Scolari in the second semester. The 19-year-old suffered a serious injury to his left shoulder and is undergoing surgery as these lines are being written. Viera will need 3-4 months before fully recovered. Bruno Dybal, recent sub-17 Paulista champion, replaces Viera on the sub-20 team. Good luck to both of them.

…and also Thiago Heleno
Another player going under the knife is defender Thiago Heleno. Thiago has for some time complained about pains in the frontal part of his feet. Turns out he has metatarsalgia, also known as stone bruise, which is a type of inflammation that occurs in a part of the foot known as the metatarsal (ball of foot), normally where the three middle toes meet the ball of the foot. It is a product of high impact activities or, sometimes, caused by badly-fitting footwear. The surgery is a simple procedure but recovery painstakingly slow: Thiago should be fit for play only in April – after the end of the São Paulo State Championship.

Transfer market
The injuries only further highlight the need for reinforcements at Palmeiras. The transfer market is bubbling with speculations and names are dropped 24/7. Palmeiras have yet to confirm any signings – which is a bit worrying – but have advanced in the negotiations with several players. Only one will be mentioned at this point, as both Palmeiras and the player seem to consider the transfer a done deal: Juninho, the 21-year-old left-winger who has played for Figueirense since 2009. Juninho was elected the best in his position in the 2011 edition of the Brazilian Championship, receiving the “Silver Ball Trophy” (picture). We’ll provide you with more info on this interesting player as soon as the signing has been confirmed.

Sponsors
Not only the transfer market generates speculations, but also sponsorship deals. It’s not yet official but well known that Fiat is withdrawing as main sponsor of Palmeiras; the toughening financial climate is allegedly partially to blame. Negotiations could be under way with another car manufacture and both Hyundai and Chinese Jac Motors have been mentioned. It would be good to have this sorted out as soon as possible so that Palmeiras could start the Paulista championship financially strong.

— ooo —

That’s it for now. Next post will cover the visit of the female Italian national football squad, the upcoming friendly game against Dutch team Ajax, the “Babe of the Brasileirão” competition and  much, much more. Stay tuned!

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