Thiago Silva reckons Brazilian Football is in a decent state and some of the criticism that the players are receiving these days is uncalled for.

The Selecao seem to have lost the trust of the people and the media back home after their displays on the field in the last one and half years.

After the thrashing Germany loss in 2014, which was hugely embarrassing for the Football fraternity in the country, Brazil has had a couple of failures in the recently finished 2015 as well.

In Copa America, they crashed out of Round of 8 which was unexpected and pretty disappointing and they couldn’t show that much conviction in their performances in the World Cup qualifiers either.

The very first qualifier against Chile, they lost comprehensively by 0-2.

They bounced back with a couple of wins thereafter to keep themselves in top three in the South America World Cup qualification standings at the end of the year, but, the boss Dunga and the team management would not be satisfied with the overall showings of the team.

However, according to Silva, there is not as much wrong in Brazilian Football as some people, especially the players turned television experts, are portraying.

Speaking to a website, the former skipper said, “There’s been plenty of nonsense being said on Television of late.”

“Those who have been here, they have got the idea how difficult it can be, but, they don’t hesitate in dishing out the flak and it hurts you the most as a player.”

“I don’t think there is any lack of quality as far as our Football is concerned at the moment.”

“Yes, the confidence is not there. We’ve not been able to play with a lot of innovation and it’s something we will have to rediscover for sure.”

Former São Paulo and Arsenal midfielder Denilson recently signed with Middle East outfit Al Wahda. He has moved to Al Wahda for around £ 3 million from São Paulo after recently making his move to the Brazilian club permanent.

A three-year contract signed withAl Wahda would suggest that he is in for the long term, but the player’s career path in the last five years shows a very different story. After making his name in Brazilian football, Denilson moved to Arsenal as a very young player. Despite his lack of experience, he was a consistent first-team player for several years before losing his spot.

This led to his return to Brazilian football once again rather than attempt to play at a top European club. After spending the last few years at São Paulo where he made the loan move permanent, Denilson appears to have been left disappointed with the lack of recognition in the national team. He is now close enough to featuring as a regular for the Brazilian national team despite the poor form shown by the International stars. He has moved toAl Wahda amidst solutions that this could be yet another short-term transfer. Denilson says that he is coming toAl Wahda for the long haul.

“I came here not to play for one or two years but I came here to play for as long as I can. I know UAE football is growing every year and, thanks to my agent, I’m here now. I would like to promise all the Al Wahda fans that I will be playing to the best of my ability and giving my best. It is a new challenge for me but I have heard good things about the league and I’m very much looking forward to it,” said the 27-year-old.

Barcelona’s Pedro Rodriguez is a summer target of Arsenal and Liverpool which is a fairly surprising thing taking into consideration that the Spanish forward did not play an important role for his club in the past season.

Pedro made a total of 35 appearances for Barcelona in the previous season but 20 of them arrived from the bench as he played a substitute role. Even though Pedro struggled trying to get playing time at Camp Nou, the club decided to renew his contract until 2019 and Pedro has a buyout clause of €150 million.

It doesn’t look like things will be changing anytime soon for Pedro at Barcelona. The head coach of the Spanish side, Luis Enrique has at this disposal, players such as: Lionel Messi, Neymar, Suarez and many other top players which makes it extremely difficult for Pedro to snatch a spot in the main team of Barcelona.

If Pedro is interested in joining a club where his chances of appearing in the main squad it’s better off for him to make a move to Arsenal or Liverpool which are the clubs that have shown interest in signing the Spanish attacker.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, Liverpool and all of the other clubs that want to sign Pedro, it has been become clear that the player is happy playing a backup option at Camp Nou as he signed his contract extension and has not shown any signs of leaving Barcelona anytime soon.

Arsenal will have to search somewhere else for their offensive options as Pedro is out of the reach. Real Madrid’s KarimBenzema is another summer target that Arsenal has been linked with but the Frenchman will cost a hefty fee as the player is an important figure in Real Madrid and they would only be interested in releasing him for a substantially high price tag or a good enough offer involving other players as part of the exchange.

Podolski has not impressed Inter Milan and according to the head coach of the Italian side, Podolski will be returning to Arsenal.

The 29 year old forward Lukas Podolski wanted to spark his career by making a move to Inter Milan but his revival hasn’t happened as the player still struggles to make a name for himself despite having transferred from England to Italy.

So far, Podolski has been featured in 13 appearances and has scored 1 goal.

This is not an impressive record for a player who is trying to make a statement and an impact.

On January 5 of 2015, Podolski signed a loan deal with Inter Milan as the player decided to travel abroad and perform in an Italian club for the first time of his career but it hasn’t turned out to be a good move as Roberto Mancini has already confirmed that Podolski will be returning to London at the end of the season.

Inter Milan’s Roberto Mancini announced that Podolski will be making his return to Arsenal as the Italian coach said: “Not everything can happen quickly, particularly when you are moving from one country to another or from one club to another.That also applies to Podolski, who I rate as a great player and a great professional. His situation is a bit different because he’s on loan and he wants to go back to Arsenal, and that is how it will be.”

After signing with Inter Milan, one of the things that Lukas Podolski was hoping to happen was to not sit on the sidelines and have to be a back-up option. This is what has been occurring with the German forward during his time with Arsenal but unfortunately for him, but despite having transferred to Inter Milan he still has been used as a substitute player more than anything else.

São Paulo managed a 2-0 victory over XV de Piracicaba that kept them at the top of the Paulista A1 table after three matches.

This was the third successive victory in this competition for the club after they had finished the Brazilian Serie A with a defeat in the final match of last season. After conceding two goals in the last victory against Capivariano, it was important for São Paulo to keep a clean sheet and look forward to the upcoming tough clash against Santos.

Former Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano gave his team a 1-0 lead after 30 minutes while a penalty converted by Rogério Ceni in the 58th minute confirmed three points for the club.

São Paulo manager Muricy Ramalho was a happy man after the victory. He said that Fabiano making his presence felt in the match was not surprising given that the former Brazil international has always been about finding the back of the net. Apart from scoring, the 34-year-old also had an impressive game overall. He has now taken his season’s tally to 2 goals in three league matches.Ramalho is happy with the way the team is progressing under him, but he has eyed more improvements as the Copa Libertadores comes near.

TheCopa Libertadores campaign will begin with a match against Corinthians in the middle of February.”Luis knows what to do. Forward does not give just to make goal. I’m explaining this to him and the duck. You must participate without the ball, pressing opponents. When you are well prepared, he [Luis] yields. This goal he did today, he always does, because that diagonal it is deadly.It is important to get a competitive team. We are still thinking, we need to repeat over the team, we have to think in Libertadores debut,” saidRamalho.

São Paulo are one of the teams looking to make it into the finals of the 2014 Copa Sudamericana.

They suffered a setback in the first leg of the semi-final after losing to their opponents Atlético Nacional. The second leg, crucially, will be at home, and manager Muricy Ramalho says that the home support will have a major say on the final result. São Paulo need a victory in order to have any hopes of reaching the finals, but they also need to shut out of their opponents in order to prevent an away goal.

Luiz Ruiz scored the only goal of the game in the first leg. This kept their incredible run in the competition going.Atlético Nacional are yet to suffer a defeat in this competition so far. However,Ramalho expects that run to come to an end when the opponents visit São Paulo’s ground which can hold more than 65,000. Former Arsenal midfielder Denilson was part of the team that lost in the first leg. He is likely to retain his place given that the 26-year-old has been one of the better players for the club this season. A victory is essential for São Paulo given that they lost the Brazilian Serie A season to Cruzeiro.

“It will be a very tough match. Teams like them play better abroad than at home, because they know how to control a match. We should not let them play.We really expect São Paulo fans to attend the Morumbi and do what Nacional supporters did in Colombia, pushing all the time. It will not be easy to turn it around, but we’ll fight a lot for that. I hope the strategy we set will work, but I think we have the right to have the illusion. We can play them at the same level, equalise their intensity,” saidRamalho.

On September 14 of the ongoing year Sao Paulo battled against the current leaders of the Brazilian league in a match that saw the goalkeeper of Sao Paulo, Rogerio Ceni scoring the 120th goal of his entire career which is an incredibly high amount of goals for a goalkeeper. The 41 year old shot-stopper is the only player in his position which has been capable on finding the back of the net on so many occasions.

Rogerio Ceni’s penalty goal against Cruzeiro helped Sao Paulo in defeating the leaders of the Brazilian league as they won 2-0 and remain in the battle of winning the league silverware as their hopes are alive with this victory playing a huge role.

Cruzeiro are the defending champions of their league as they won the previous edition of the season and now Sao Paulo are eager on taking the title away from their Brazilian rivals.

This time around Sao Paulo is eager and hungry to take the title away from Cruzeiro and a 2-0 triumph has maintained their hopes alive.

Ceni scored the opening goal of the match at the 36th minute as he scored via a penalty kick and in the 2nd half it was the 25 year old forward Alan Kardec who managed to make his mark on the score-sheet by scoring after 72 minutes had passed.

This victory is the 3rd successive that Sao Paulo has secured in the top tier league of Brazil as the team of Muricy Ramalho is on a stunning form with positive results in just about every match they have played in the last few months. The league is only 3 months away from reaching its end and naming the next champions of this season and Sao Paulo is only aiming to win their 7th league title.

Brazil failed to capture the 2014 World Cup trophy even though the squad was playing in their home turf as they got eliminated from the tournament in a disappointing manner which saw the team of Luiz Felipe Scolari having to wait at least 4 more years for them to compete against the best squads in the world and secure another World Cup title.

Following their embarrassing exit from the tournament, the head coach of the team Luiz Felipe Scolari decided to resign from managing the squad and now it has been officially announced and confirmed that Dunga will be making his return to the Brazilian for the 2nd time.

Dunga has experience coaching Brazil as he was the manager of the team back in 2006 when he managed to lift the Copa America title in 2004 and 2007 as well as lifting the Confederations Cup. It was a very impressive campaign for the Brazilian manager taking into consideration that he never had any coaching experience being in charge of a national team.

During the 2010 World Cup, Brazil reached the quarter-finals where they lost against Netherlands and Dunga was fired from his position in the team but now he has been recalled back into the squad.

Dunga is well aware of the position that the Brazilian squad is currently going through as he went on saying that his team is no longer the best one out there and the squad has to prepare themselves for the challenges that await them.

“I am immensely happy to be back. We are no longer the best. This is a project we all need to be aware of.
Everybody had a concept of football and the World Cup. We can no longer pretend to be the big guys or that we are the best. The Brazilian shirt is very much respected, but everyone wants to beat us. We have to be prepared for that. We can’t think that we’ll pull on the Brazilian shirt and win the World Cup before it’s even started.” Dunga said.