Sporting Club : Trying to buy a World Cup!

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World Cup 2018 Draw

Pot One
Russia
Argentina
Belgium
England
Italy
Germany
Uruguay
Spain

Pot Two
Iran
Australia
Costa Rica
Honduras
South Korea
Japan
Mexico
United States

Pot Three
Cameroon
Chile
Brazil
Colombia
Egypt
Ivory Coast
Morrocco
Zambia

Pot Four
Bosnia & Herzegovia
Denmark
Croatia
Portugal
Turkey
Poland
Serbia
Netherlands

Some pretty crazy seeding going on there, we could get Brazil or Zambia out of Pot Three, hmm, which do I prefer? I've never agreed with how they do these draws but then again I've never agreed with anything FIFA does, or UEFA.​
 
World Cup Draw cont'd

Here's how it looked after the first 3 pots were drawn:

Group A: Russia, United States, Colombia (RIP Andres Escobar)
Group B: Italy, Mexico, Chile
Group C: Germany, Costa Rica, Cameroon
Group D: Argentina, Honduras, Morrocco
Group E: Belgium, South Korea, Ivory Coast
Group F: England, Japan, Egypt
Group G: Spain, Brazil, Australia (Poor Aussies!)
Group H: Uruguay, Zambia, Iran (Lucky Uruguayans!)

Pot 4: Bosnia, Croatia, Portugal, Poland, Netherlands, Turkey, Serbia, Denmark
 
Portugal are in Group........D!

Argentina, Honduras and Morrocco! Not a bad group at all!

Here are the rest:
Group A
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Prediction: Russia, Colombia
Group B
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Prediction: Italy, Mexico
Group C
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Prediction: Germany, Netherlands
Group D
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Prediction: Argentina, Portugal
Added bonus is that the Argentina game comes last, so we have a chance to wrap up qualification by then and rest Ronaldo!
Group E
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Prediction: Belgium, Ivory Coast
Group F
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Prediction: Japan, England
Group G
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Prediction: Brazil, Spain
Group H
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Prediction: Uruguay, Turkey​
 
I have another bunch of flights this weekend so in order to not fall to far behind again without internet access, I'll post a quick update of where I am at the moment and then pick it up again hopefully on Saturday.
 
UEFA Champions League Knockout Round

I drew Real Madrid and, after falling behind to a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo, we drew level and wound up drawing 1-1 at home. A very good result in my book. The second game has yet to be played.

Liga ZON SAGRES

After a win againt Benfica in the derby and an impressive away win at Porto, Sporting sit 2pts up on Porto with 6 games remaining. I'll update game by game from here until the end of the season.

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Results from last update
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8 wins and a couple draws, this is by far the best run of form in the 5 seasons that I've been at Sporting.​
 
March Notes

So, this happened....
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Paulhinha requests transfer

Why do I have a team full of babies? I swear if Paulinha wasn't such a good prospect I'd ship him off. Instead I will accept his request, then play him in the first team for a few games and, eventually, he will come back to my office and tell me that he wants to stay.



Then this
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Jackson Martinez, ruining peoples lives.

This guy just does not stop. Yet, no teams have come in for him. The fact that this guy has not even had a sniff of the Ballon d'Or or the shortlist proves that no player from the Portuguese league could ever win that thing. Unless we can collectively raise the profile of the league, which is far from happening at this point.



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The Boss wins another

This came with the achievement for winning 10 of these Manager of the Months things. I've been mostly coaching in leagues that don't give this award out because it's kind of cheesy.



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Celio, don't get me started on him

This guy, Celio. Always giving me bad advice. He tells me to praise a player, then the player tells me not to patronize him. He tells me to renew a players contract a week after I've already done that. Now, he tells me how many points we need to win the league? Let me take things one game at a time here. Oh Celio, why do I keep you?






​
 
April to the End of the Season



Mar 31 Arouca 0 Sporting 3
Mar 31 Beira Mar 1 Porto 4

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Sporting and Porto both clinch European berths with their wins. It's a two horse race from this point. Everything about how we've been playing tells me this is the year, our goal difference is right up there, wd compete in every match and we blow out teams that we should blow out.

Then this happened...
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Lucas Evangelista announces his arrival on the world stage with this statement game. One advantage of loaning out a large amount of players domestically is that they can't play against your team, so I'm finding that a lot of the teams we play against are having to play backups and out of fitness players because they have to sit all their loan players against us. The disadvantage of a game like this is that Evangelista has refused to sign an extension and only has 18 months to run on his deal.

Apr 7 Guimaraes 0 Sporting 6
Apr 8 Porto 0 Braga 0

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It's looking good for a title on the green side of Lisbon.


Apr 13 Sporting 4 Rio Ave 1
Apr 13 Porto 3 Arouca 1

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Leave me alone, Celio!

Apr 21 Estoril 1 Porto 6
Apr 22 Sporting 2 Belenenses 1


May 5 Academica 0 Sporting 3
May 6 Porto 2 Setubal 1

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How sweet is it to clinch the title at Academica, one of the teams that I hate the most!

Our first Championship at Sporting since 2002, sixteen years ago!
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April Manager of the Month, two in a row!
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I used the opportunity to approach the board, something I haven't done in a few seasons. I requested a contract extension. I was shocked at the response.
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They refused to extend my contract. I guess I made too many enemies on the board. Well, I made millions of friends in the stands so I didn't back down, I took my case to the media and let them know exactly what was going on behind the scenes. I was basically daring them to fire the manager who brought them their first title in 16 years and who was about to lead Portugal into the 2018 World Cup.
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They called me back into the boardroom and threatened to fire me. I still didn't back down.
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While all this was going on, the dirty rat Lucas Evangelista snuck out of town and demanded a transfer! I promised that weasel that we would win the title and I delivered. He didn't want to live up to his end of the bargain.

He's a *******.
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And then Tweedle-dum followed suit.
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I would love to stuff these two clowns in the B team and let them rot, but with offers of 20 million Euros for Evangelista and 15 for Otavio, I can't ignore them. I simply can't afford to. I agree to sell Evangelista, but not to a bigger club, I'll look for a Brazilian club that wants him. Otavio will stay put, he's signed for another 3 years and he can sit in the stands for all I care.

The final table
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Liga 2 Table, Sporting B as Champions!
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Lucas Evangelista wins Liga ZON SAGRES Player of the Year.
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If he wants the trophy he can come to my office and unflush it out of my toilet!

4 players make the Team of the Year
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Evangelista was called up for Brazil for the World Cup, so he would have been out the door regardless. Assuming he gets a game.
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Manager of the Year, finally!
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Barcelona ended Chelsea's 3 year hold on the Champions League, but it took penalties to do so!
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Lots of information in one update, but I had a few days without internet access so I actually have finished the next season as well, so I will update the World Cup now, and then the entire 2018/19 season as well. And then I can look forward to 2020 where players will start to gain Portuguese citizenship and then, hopefully, they will accept callups to the Portuguese National Team and then onto the World Cup squad to achieve my goal of fielding an entire World Cup squad with these players.​
 
Summer 2018 and the World Cup​

​
Sold: DC Edgar Le
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Normally I don't pay players to leave, I stick them in the reserves and eat their contracts, but I'm trying to change. in the long run, I save money with the move, even with the low transfer fee.


The new coolest name on the squad? Move over Dude, you have competition. Hopefully I can get Dude and Harley in the same squad.
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​

WORLD CUP


GROUP D GM#1
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Argentina 3 Honduras 0
Portugal 3 Morrocco 0
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Argentina 3pts +3
Portugal 3pts +3
Honduras 0pts -3
Morrocco 0pts -3

Game#2
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Honduras 0 Portugal 2

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Morrocco 4 Argentina 6

Argentina 6pts +5
Portugal 6pts +5
Morrocco 0pts -5
Honduras 0pts -5

Just as I hoped for, Qualification is locked up with a game to spare. I was happy about that too, because I holidayed over the friendlies just before the World Cup and was surprised to see most of my players needing rest before the tournament even started. So, I'm thankful for the extra rest. In addition, it's looking as if the winner of the Group will get either Netherlands or Germany, while the second place team will get Cameroon so I'd rather finish second.

Game #3
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I tried resting my stars and tanking the match, but maybe Argentina had the same idea? I don't ever remember having such an easy game against Argentina. The result was that Argentina will face Cameroon, we were lucky to avoid Germany as they were eliminated, instead we will face to Netherlands, which is good news for me. If you know anything about Portugal football, you know that we always beat Holland, Germany always beats us but we beat Holland...and England ;)

Second Round
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Holland 0 Portugal 2

It wasn't exactly the "Battle of Nuremburg" from th 06 World Cup. The Netherlands actually dominated the ball, with 67% of possession, but they only generated 1 clear chance. Portugal took both of their chances and we'll be moving on.

Quarter Finals
Russia 2 Portugal 0

Losing to Russia in Russia is no shame. It's the first competitive match that I've coached with Portugal that I didn't win.

Semi Finals:
Russia 0 England 3
Italy 2 Spain 1

3rd place Match:
Spain 3 Russia 0

Final:
England 1 Italy 2

View attachment 393069​
 
Update

So, I've played two years since the last update. I didn't plan on it, but I was on a trip without internet and played a little over a season, then I was pretty sure that I was getting fired so I figured I would finish the save and then post one last update before starting a new one. Turns out I did not get fired. Here's a quick recap of the past two years. First 2018/19

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After the World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo announced his retirement from International Football, which sucked until I noticed a link at the bottom. I clicked it to speak with Ronaldo the conversation was literally one exchange, it went something like this:

Ronaldo: What can I do for you?
Me: I think you should continue to play for Portugal. You still have the skills
Ronaldo: Thanks, that's all I needed to hear, I'll play.

And that was that, he is still playing for me!

View attachment 391341
I did a good job, I guess. Please tell my bosses at Sporting


JULY 2018

First order of business back at Sporting was to deal with Lucas Evangelista. He wouldn't sign a new deal as he had to go. Unfortunately, the 26.5m deal from Germany was no longer on the table and, stupidly, Evangelista is leaving Portugal before attaining an EU passport so his value is lowered. i got an offer of 20m from Sao Paolo, the team that sold him to me, so I accepted and Evangelista was gone.
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FAREWELL ADRIEN

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I started getting bids for Adrien during the World Cup. They came in the range of 4-5m. Normally, I would never sell a player in this situation. He has played for Sporting his whole career and I would love to keep him, but this save is not about Sporting, it's about winning the World Cup with Sporting players. Adrien, at his age, does not factor into that, so I decided to sell him, but not before his testimonial. I delayed the offers until July 20, the day after his testimonial against Brentford.
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His departure was amicable and he would love to come back, hopefully I can make that happen.


NEW KEEPER OF THE FUTURE?

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Leandro has turned eighteen and arrived from Brazil in July. He is good enough to go right into the first team, ahead of Wendel and Henriques.


COULD THIS BE THE YEAR FOR SPORTING?

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The oddsmakers have made Sporting, Benfica and Porto almost equal favourites to win the league in 2018/19.


Season Review 2018/19

Sporting started out like a house of fire, taking the top spot and running with it. We continued our unbeaten run in the league through to late October before we finally lost to Guimaraes, a streak of 32 games without a loss. The great play continued all season, unfortunately, Benfica and Porto also had great seasons. The 70pts by Sporting would have been enough to top the league in 4 of the 6 seasons in the save, but this year it would only be good enough for 3rd. The title went to Porto, second place would go to Benfica on the last day of the season as Sporting dropped two crucial points. Europa League for Sporting.

View attachment 391319

Paulhinha, as predicted, offered to stay at the club and retract his transfer request....Jackson Martinez (pictured below) blitzed the record with 6 goals in a game against Camara Lobos in November. He had another 50+ goal season and still no European teams came in for him.....In December, Samir demanded a move to a bigger club, he happily accepted a transfer to Freiburg, wtf?....In January, Adryan was sold to AC Milan for 10m, this wasn't a forced move, but with a huge logjam at the position, I looked at Adryan and didn't see him leading the line for Portugal in the future. Also, despite not any signings this year, we were still heavily in debt so I needed to unload some players. Plus, I sw his picture and he looks like a 12 year old (below)......The saga with Otavio was settled as he signed an extension with the team and forgot about his 'big club' desire. I had to make nice with him if I was ever going to get him to play for me at the national team......New keeper Leandro won the league GK of the Year award....Tottenham topped the Richest Clubs in the World list, don't ask me how that happened.
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Final Table
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Europe

After disappointing in the Champions League, the big 3 of Portugal all wound up in the 2nd round of the Europa League knockout rounds. Benfica made it to the semi final.
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Overall it was a good year for Portugal as they had the best performance of countries outside of the big 4 (Italy, Spain, Germany and England)
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However, Portugal is still in 7th, behind Russia and France, which leaves us with only 2 Champions League spots for 2019/20

The Cup competitions, both won by Porto
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End of Season Review
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​
 
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2019/2020 Recap

So, the thing about signing so many players in such a short space of time, and then having those signings not show until they turn 18, sometimes 2-3 years later, is that some of them get lost in the mix. This happened to a player on my roster named Marcelinho. At the beginning of each season, I usually click the bottom two-thirds of my roster and loan them out, he was one of those players. He was loaned out for two seasons and I didn't really even know anything about him, I had so many prospects that he fell between the cracks. Until this happened:
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I got a 4.5 million euro offer for a player that I didn't even know I had! lol. He didn't play a position that fit into my tactic so I guess I overlooked him. Oh well, the 4.5m sure came in handy as I had missed out on Champions League football once again. I still didn't sign any new players because of the financial situation.

Despite all this, the oddsmakers still gave us a fair shot to win the title, 4-5
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So, I hate to recap a whole season in a few paragraphs but I fell so far behind on my updates that I need to do some catchup. The season started out with a home game against Benfica, which we drew 3-3. After that game, Paulinha, who already has a crybaby reputation in my office, came crying again.
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Who cries after one game?? I couldn't take another season with him. He still wasn't ready to be my 1st team wingback and at 24, he was one of the older players on the squad! I took what i could get and washed my hands of him.

The shocker of the season came just a few days after the transfer window slammed shut:
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My 1st team holding midfielder and one of my top players, Gabriel Henrique, was capped by Brazil with no warning or foreshadowing whatsoever! I didn't even think he was on their radar! The worst part was that I really didn't have anyone who could step in for him. He couldn't play another game for Sporting after being capped by another country so it was 4 months in the B team for him while I sorted out a move. He wound up going in January to Dortmund for 15.5m

The Henrique situation as well as the Paulinha affair brought squad morale to a new low. After all, there's no way in the game to explain to the squad that your best player is ineligible for the team because of a rule that I made up. they didn't react too well to having one of the best players sent to the B team.

Sporting went into a free fall and never had a sniff of the leaders, Benfica and Porto. We were firmly entrenched in 3rd place for pretty much the whole season with no hope of rising in the table and no fear of dropping. It was a pretty boring season in that respect. The only change was that Benfica ran away with the title, for the first time in 10 seasons, they were Champions of Portugal, winning the title by 8 points over Porto.
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The Table 2019/2020
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Sporting management has vowed to erase this embarassing season with a Championship (or close) in 2021!
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The Cup Competitions, both won by Porto (see a pattern here?)
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Portugal in Europe

Each team is listed followed by a brief description of their performance and in brackets, (their coefficient score for the year)

​

Champions League
Benfica lost to Liverpool 5-2 in the Best Placed playoff. they continued on in the Europa League (see below)

Porto got a rough group (thanks to a low coefficient) with AC Milan, Barcelona and Petrolul. They finished 3rd with a record of 2 wins, 3 losses and a draw. They qualified for the Europa League (see below)


Europa League
Guimaraes lost to Polish side Jagiellonia 3-3 on away goals in the 3rd round of qualifying. Thanks for helping us raise the coefficient you losers! (3.400)

Setubal lost 6-0 on aggregate to Dnipro in the Playoff round. (3.900)

Nacional advanced 4-2 on aggregate over SK Rapid Wien of Austria in the playoff round to reach the group stage. they then went on to win their tough group over PSV, Dinamo Kiev and FC Kopenhagen with a record of 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. They won in the 1st knockout round 7-1 over Getafe, which was hugely impressive before finally getting knocked out by Benfica 3-0 in the 2nd round. (14.400)

Benfica won their group with a record of 5 wins and 1 draw against Dinamo Moscow, Dnipro and Debrecen. The they beat Tel Aviv 6-2 in the knockout round, they beat Nacional 3-0 in the 2nd round, beat Hoffenheim 2-1 in the QF before losing to Chelsea in the SF 2-0. (26.400)

Sporting won their group with a record of 4-1-1 against Freiburg, Red Bull Salzburg and Maribor. They then beat Dinamo Moscow 10-4 in the 1st round knockout tie and the lost to Fenerbache 2-1 in the second round. (16.400)

Porto beat Anderlecht in the 1st knockout round 4-1, they beat Udinese 4-3 in the next round, and lost in the QF to PSV 2-1. (18.400)

The Final coefficient for Portugal this year was 12.000 Not too bad, but France got 13.500. Portugal remained in 7th place but with a chance to move up as the very poor 2015/2016 year drops off the rankings this season.​
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As you can see by the chart, Portugal start next season in 8th because the Netherlands had an even worse 2015/2016 season drop off so Portuguese teams need to step it up in Europe this year! They are:

Champions League: Benfica, Porto
Europa League: Sporting, Setubal, Maritimo, Braga


Portugal: National Team

Euro 2020 Qualifying:
We were grouped with Slovenia, Finland, Moldova, Macedonia, and Malta. Not a bad group, but an early loss to Slovenia left us in 2nd place the whole time, until the rematch when we evened the score and won the group, Slovenia took second, also Qualifying for the Euros.
View attachment 390771

Euro 2020:
Again we got Slovenia in our group, also Netherlands and Switzerland. Cristiano Ronaldo was injured in a pre-tournament friendly and was out for the entire tournament (5 weeks) and I was not allowed to call up a replacement because apparently, he could still feature? Made no sense at all, nor did the fact that a week after his injury he was tipped to win the Golden Boot at the tournament. anyway.

Group Stage
We handled Slovenia 4-0 in the first match, next up was the Netherlands. Remember what I said in a previous post about Portugal always beating the Netherlands? Well, forget that, we lost 1-0 (on a penalty) and then we squaeked into the 2nd round with a draw against Switzerland 0-0.

Knockout Round:
We got Belgium, who are always stacked with talent and only managed to put it all together in Football Manager. They did that with a 2-0 win over us and we were out of the tournament. I was almost fired afterwards but was able to talk my way out of it.

This is where we are now, so everything is up to date and from here on there will be much ore regular updates and much more details! Thanks!


​
 
July-August 2020

Sporting have been made 3rd favourites to win the Liga this year
View attachment 390629I've promised the board Continental Qualification, which has not been an option in recent years, this is a good sign. The board has lowered their expectations of me!


But I'm still under Pressure!
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I can't believe these dirtbag managers coming to pick my bones like vultures, I'm not even fired yet!

The finances have begun to turn around, thanks to some players sales brought on by the Brazil Manager capping some of my brightest young stars (Gabriel Henrique and 19yr old wonder kid keeper of the year, Leandro)
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On the National Team front, after 7 years, my strategy for winning World Cup 2026 with all Sporting players is beginning to bear fruit. Otavio has reached his eligibility for Portuguese citizenship and is awaiting paperwork! Several other players are now within a year of doing the same.
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The season got off to another good start. The only competitive goal we gave up was in the home leg of the Malmo tie. It was squeaky *** time for the final few minutes of that second leg as another Malmo goal would have sent them through. We scored in injury time to seal qualification. The Beira Mar game was another strange one as it was scoreless after 84 minutes before 3 Sporting goals won the day.
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So, as of September 1st, Sporting sit atop the table in what should be a very promising season in which I finally get out from under the guillotine and maybe get a little bit of job security!

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2 time defending Liga2 Champions Sporting B once again are dominating the 2nd tier. It would be interesting to see how they would do in the top tier. I think I've lost the annual friendly game against them for the past 2 or 3 seasons.
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Both myself and B team manager Abel have won our respective Manager of the Month awards. How many of these do I have to win before my job is officially safe?
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​
 
International Break Preview September 2020

View attachment 390608
Group winner qualifies for WC2022, second place team may qualify for playoff.

Once again, we have Slovenia in our group (They were in both our qualifying group for Euro2018 and our Finals group for Euro2018). they should be our only real competition in this group.


Our first two games are against Montenegro and Lithuania.

This begins what could be Cristiano Ronaldo's last International campaign as he has already tried to retire once from the National Team.

The squad, featuring 5 current Sporting players:
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Let the games begin!!

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The marketing department made me include this photo ;)
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International Break

Portugal dominated the game from the outset. Twice. (The game crashed after 4 minutes with Portugal up 2-0. I had to replay it). It was a good start to the campaign with Sporting's Joao Mario getting on the scoresheet and winning Man of the Match.

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One more Sporting player added to the National team roster.


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Joao Mario celebrates his goal


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In the second game, Portugal were even more impressive with a 5-0 home win over Lithuania. Cristiano scored from the penalty spot and Maicon had two.

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An early penalty goal from CR7 set the tone for Portugal

A win by Cyprus over Slovenia was an unexpected gift for Portugal. Although Cyprus could surprise in the group, they've been oddly competitive during this save.
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September 2020

After opening the liga schedule with 3 wins, Sporting drew 1-1 at Leiria and, surprise, surprise, Boss Tweed was called into the boardroom to talk about his job. This is getting out of hand. 3 wins out of 4, top of the league, 10 games unbeaten in the league.
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That old ******* Slaven Bilic was spotted in the stands again. It seems that everytime my job is called into question, he shows up.

Anyhow, the rest of the month wasn't great. One win in four games overall, still second in the table and I've gotten the away game at Porto out of the way as I managed to escape with a 2-2 draw. The game was marred by clashes between the supporters outside of the Dragao stadium in Porto. Something about the Sporting manager being seen out on the town with 6 or 7 wives of the Porto players, some say more.
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The results and table for September 2020
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The European matches have also not gone well. After blowing a 1-0 home lead to Lyon, which is horrible for our coefficient struggle, we drew 0-0 away in Norway to Molde and we sit at the bottom of the group ater the first two rounds of games.

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​
 
2020/2021 Season Review

It's been a while since the last update and I've completed 2020/21. I'll recap the season with details on certain highlights and then I'll begin 2021/22, which is the season that I had originally been building up to in this save. I had planned on being at the top of the club world at this point leading up to the 2022 World Cup where I would take my entire club squad to the WC. It hasn't quite panned out that way, my club team has struggled and my players from Brazil were not staying in Portugal long enough to nationalize so early on in the 2020 season I changed my focus.

I began targeting Portuguese players, both established internationals and young stars. I also revisited my tactics and began to think about playing with a striker. The tactic that I have been using for 8 seasons was really dominant in a previous update of the game but not so much in 14.3, it's been good enough, but I really need to go to the next level and I'm starting to think that this tactic may be holding me back.


October 2020

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October started with a trip to Norway to face Molde in the Europa League, after losing in September to Lyon, a 0-0 draw with Molde left Sporting on the bottom looking up at the group. I stepped up the training big time during this month, not worrying about fatigue due to the large roster. Players needed to start improving or they will sit.
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Sporting took 5 of 9 points in the league, beat Leiria in the Taca Portugal 3rd round and recoverd in the Europa League with a 5-1 pounding of Bratislava.

November 2020

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November was better. Players started to play better and complain less. I made some decisions about who I wanted to keep and who I wanted to let go. I decided to no longer sign foreign players unless they had superstar potential. The bank balance was at a very good level due to a large number of players having been sold, so i looked towards signing established Portuguese players.

Sporting took a slim lead at the top of the table, beat Aves in the 4th round of the Taca Portugal, and went into the final Europa League group game in December against Molde needing only to avoid a loss in order to qualify for the next round.
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The National Team also looked impressive, beating their main competition, Slovenia, 3-0 and handing minnows Andorra a 4-0 loss. the only blip came with a disappointing draw with surprisiningly strong Cyprus.
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December 2020

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A very strong December set Sporting up for the second half of the season as leaders. a 5-0 derby win over Benfica was, perhaps, the most important win of the entire save and it moved Sporting ahead of Benfica and also almost guarantees the tiebreaker edge, so really it's like a 4 point win. The month began with a 4-0 win against Molde to guarantee knockout round football in the Europa League. And finally, the Taca da Liga kicked off with a 1-0 win over Maritimo.

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Otavio finally had his paperwork sorted out but declared his intention to play for Brazil internationally therefore, he was placed on the transfer list.
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Sporting managed to sign two current Portuguese Internationals, Joao Moutinho and Cedric Soares. We almost landed the coup of the century by signing Cristiano Ronaldo for 15m but the deal fell through as he didn't think we had the cash to pay his 400k/week salary. (He was SO right!)
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​
 
Boss Tweed Fired!

I've been fired from the National team, with good reason, and the save is over. Thanks to everyone who followed along and commented. It was my first save and it was really fun, I look forward to starting another soon!


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After a 10-0 win over Andorra and a 4-0 over surprise package Cyrpus, Portugal failed to move into even a playoff spot in a very weak group. Slovenia won the group and Cyprus went to the playoffs and qualified!

The firing meant that the save is a failure. I resigned from Sporting at the end of the season (I won the league by 9 points)​
 
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