The Back to the Future challenge

[coolmcool]

Good going with Porto so far and unlucky in the league and Champions League, Basel and Ajax to the Semi Finals must be one of the best Champions league draws i have seen though lol

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Good going with Porto so far and unlucky in the league and Champions League, Basel and Ajax to the Semi Finals must be one of the best Champions league draws i have seen though lol

cheers mate, really thought with that favourable of a draw we'd go on and win it XD

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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Pre-season 2018/19

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I've decided to stay another year at Porto. Ideally, I want to win the Primeira Liga NOS and I really do think I can do it this season! If not, then I'll probably look to join another one of Mourinho's former clubs as a Champions League win would be worth a lot of points. The first order of business for me was to get rid of some deadwood at the club. We had a LOT of players coming back from loans from all over the place and most of them were never going to play in the team, so I had to get rid of some players. Sá was at the team last year but I was not interested in keeping him at all.

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After numerous offers from Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG and more, it feels great to see Pereira signing a new contract. He'll be here for another 4 years which is fantastic and I hope that he'll now back up his new contract with great performances.

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For our first signing, I decided to look for a new goalkeeper. With Sá gone and Casillas retiring, we needed a new goalkeeper who can be our first-team keeper, with our promising youngster Diogo Costa on the bench. In typical Porto fashion, I looked for a great keeper at a bargain price and Rajkovic was the perfect signing. He's already a first-team goalkeeper and will become even better in the future and we signed him for a mere €6 million! A big chunk of a €20 million budget for sure but I really think he'll be a great signing and on top of that, some big players could be leaving the club as well.

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Speaking of Diogo, we got him to sign a new contract shortly after Casillas told me he was retiring. He does have a release clause in there but at the same time, I don't think anyone is going to be paying €39 million for him just yet!

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Another one of our young stars, Diogo Dalot, now signs a new contract! After performing so well as our starting right-back in the second half of the season, it's really amazing to see him want to renew his contract here. As I'm looking for a new right midfielder for the team, he might become our backup right back but that's okay.

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Second departure in the team and it's Adrián. He was out on loan at Deportivo last season and for about half his value is going back to Spain to play for Málaga. I just couldn't see him play over Aboubakar in this team.

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Another player back from his loan that I wasn't going to use. Not much else to say about this departure.

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And another one. I had no idea he was even at the club to be honest, so was surprised to see him come back from a loan. The one annoying thing about all these departures is that we've been forced to pay part of their wages for some time, so that does have an impact on our wage budget and therefore the calibre of players we bring in but it should be fine.

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This was the first big departure of the summer. To be honest, Brahimi was never outstanding for us last season so when PSG and Juventus came forward with €22.5 million offers, I accepted them as I have more faith in Otávio, Óliver and Richard ahead of him. A nice amount of money to get for his transfer though!

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Another man who came back from his loan and was just never going to play for this team. He looked like a pretty decent option as a backup but I just really didn't see him playing ahead of Richard for example.

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Yes, it's another player who came back from his loan away from the club and who doesn't have the quality to stay here.

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Our second signing of the window is one for the future. Assane was playing for ASEC, a club in Ivory Coast famous for their youth prospects. He's joining on a free in December and will definitely be a player I'll be looking to give some playing time to when possible.

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***** was on loan at Wolves last season, and while I strongly considered to keep him to be a backup centre-back, I just didn't see him playing well enough to overtake Marcano and Felipe as one of our starting centre-backs or even a good enough backup. We get a nice €3 million for him.

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Perhaps one of the more surprising departures of the window, but I could see us getting a much better striker than him to shadow Aboubakar or even start ahead of him than Soares. Despite his good performances last season, he's leaving for France for €6 million, giving us even more money to spend on new players.

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A little break from transfer news as Óliver gets injured for the next 2 months after a sprint in training. I have to say, I don't know what our coaches tell the players in training for them to constantly get injured like that but I better tell them to stop! Thankfully, Richard has been dying to show me what he can do and I'm sure he'll do just that when he gets to play at the start of the season.

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Our third signing of the window is one I'm really excited about. Patrick Cutrone was on the loan list at Milan and he's already a decent player and one who we not only won't be paying much in terms of wages for, but who can also be a fantastic backup for Aboubakar should the latter get injured or not perform well.

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I've been talking about Richard a lot recently and clearly he could tell that he was going to become a more important player in this side as he requested a new contract. His wage is still almost nothing and I hope he'll perform like he did for 6 months at the end of last season.

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The club's new record signing is Davis Neres from Ajax! He really impressed me when we played Ajax in the Champions League last season and who better than a promising Brazilian to join this Brazilian-full squad! I'm really excited to see how he'll fare in the Liga NOS but if his performances in the Eredivisie are anything to go by, he's going to be absolutely incredible!

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More bad news now as Ricardo gets injured. He's arguably our most important player due to his versatility and amazing performances so to lose him for the start of the season is really bad news. We do have Dalot who will be keen to show what he can do or even Layún who's back from his loan at Sevilla so plenty of players to choose from.

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This was the departure I was dreading. We have signed Vukcevic and Danilo last season to anticipate a departure from him but what he brought to the team is irreplaceable. The big positive takeaway from this is that we're getting a massive €40 million to not only invest in a new defensive midfielder but also in other areas if I want to!

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As soon as Pereira left, I went looking on the transfer market for players who could replace him and I found ANOTHER Brazilian who I just knew would be a superb signing. Fred can play as a centre midfielder and a defensive midfielder as well and you can be sure I'll be playing him there and he'll be our new star midfielder now. His wages aren't low, so I really do hope he'll play well for us and I just don't see any reason for him to play badly, especially considering we got him for less than €20 million.

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This has got to be a joke... I sold Boly thinking we wouldn't need a backup centre-back and now Felipe gets injured for 5 months! A huge blow for us once again, as he was arguably our best defender. I have about €30 million left in the budget and you can be sure I'll be dipping in the transfer market to find a centre-back who can not only perform now, but in the future as well.

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To end all this crazy summer business, the board's expectations. They're exactly the same as they were last season and well, while I met the expectation for the Taça de Portugal and exceeded expectations in the Champions League, we didn't win the league. I want to win it at least once before leaving the club so let's hope this year will be our year!

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As you can see, a pretty successful pre-season to say the least! We had some great results against Dortmund and Teramo Calcio. On top of that, we're through to the best placed playoff in the Champions League and will make it to the group stages if we beat Krasnodar over two legs. We also won the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira over Sporting on penalties, which is a nice boost in confidence ahead of the start of the season!

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#25 Otávio
23 years old
Left winger
Brazilian

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Otávio will most likely be our starting left-winger now that Brahimi is gone and what a pre-season he had. With 5 goals and 2 assists from 7 games including 3 official games, he's looking really good early in the season and it's great to see a player stand out so much as it'll allow me to build the team around him in some way. I'm really excited for the new season now!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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August 2018

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After moving the budget around to accommodate for our players' wages, I had just about €24 million to make a new signing and with Felipe out for 5 months, it had to be a centre-back. I'm so proud to welcome Lucas Hernandez to the side as our new centre-back. He can also play as a left back and has a huge amount of talent; I can't wait to see him play with a Porto jersey on! Oh and for €15 million, this really is a bargain.

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We've definitely not been handed an easy group this time around. Last season we had two pretty weak teams and Dortmund. This season, we have a stronger German team in Bayern and two stronger sides in CSKA and Ajax, who we faced in the 1st knockout round of the Champions League last season! I will say though that we should absolutely be making it out of this group in 2nd place.

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Just the 4 games this month, as we smashed Krasnodar 6-2 on aggregate to make it through to the Champions League group stages. On top of that, we got off to a great start in the Liga NOS with 2 wins from 2.

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Our first game was a derby and against a strong Belenenses side who finished in 10th last season. Not the best of teams in the league of course, and I guess it showed on the field as we destroyed them throughout the match but had to wait until the 91st and 93rd minute for a brace from Aboubakar to get us all 3 points.

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What a performance from Aboubakar and what a performance from the rest of the team as well. We went 1-0 down really early on but replied equally fast with 2 goals in 3 minutes to give us the lead and with 2 away goals, things were looking great. We went on to score another 3 goals to basically put us in the group stages already. The second leg was a little more frustrating but we got the win on aggregate which was fantastic.

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We have a game in hand over all the teams above us and a win by a goal would put us top of the league. We've had a strong start to the season so far, I just pray that our form continues that way and that we don't start bottling games like we did last season, which ended up costing us the league title.

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#8 Fred
25 years old
Defensive midfielder
Brazilian

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Our new boy Fred gets the season's first player of the month with some great performances in the Champions League. He couldn't play against Belenenses and Aboubakar could've won the award, but I just felt that Fred brought more to the team and more consistently as well, which is why he gets it this time around.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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September 2018

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Well that's great... Definitely not what I wanted to see so early on in the season. Patrick's not been performing very well but he was a key player for us in that if Aboubakar gets injured now, only Rui Pedro will be left as the club's main striker...

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Well that's just great... Just as we were coming up to the end of the month, we lose Aboubakar for the next month. Rui Pedro will have to be our main striker for now! He's a talented player with a lot of potential but it's been a while since he had proper first team football with Porto, so hopefully it goes well.

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One of our most important players this season in Otávio signs a new contract. He's now our new left winger after Brahimi's departure and has been doing a great job so far.

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I knew the game against Ajax would be a tough one, but it's a real shame to be getting just a point from the match. Our next 2 Champions League games are against Bayern and CSKA, so let's just say we're going to need all the luck we can get to earn some points from those matches. As for the league, we moved up and down the table as we dropped points against Braga but managed 4 wins from 5 games, without conceding a single goal!

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Two very late goals from both teams make the game end in a 1-1 draw, perhaps disappointingly for us. Ajax are a good side so I was expecting a tough game but to score just 1 goal from 25 shots is utterly ridiculous...

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Our only draw in the league so far was against a strong Braga side who put up a good fight against us. I would've wanted all 3 points to be honest, but with Benfica (currently top of the league) and Sporting playing each other next week, we could have a chance to make up the gap between us and the leaders already.

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Benfica dropped points as we smashed Rio Ave with goals from Neres, Richard and Rui Pedro to give us a 3-0 win and first place in the Liga NOS. It's been a decent month so far and I'm hoping we won't start losing momentum like we did last season, which led to us losing out on a league title.

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We're top of the league after a stellar month. We have the 2nd best attack in the league behind GD Chaves and the best defence in the league, level with Benfica with just 1 goal conceded. It should be an interesting game when we play them on the 7th of October... As for Sporting, their title defence isn't going too well after selling William Carvalho and Gelson Martins!

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#7 David Neres
21 years old
Right midfielder
Brazilian

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The club's new record signing and former Ajax man didn't have the best time against his former side in the Champions League but otherwise had a fantastic few games throughout September. He's leading the assists in the Primeira Liga NOS and is second in the Champions League, with 5 assists in each competition. With a goal and 10 assists in 12 games, I think it's fair to say that we really have a gem on our hands.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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October 2018
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No injury news thankfully, and no other news to speak of really other than our results for the month! Once again, just the one goal conceded which is just fantastic. On top of that, how about that 3-0 over Bayern in the Champions League!!! And our 1-0 win against Benfica thanks to a goal from an academy player? Just incredible stuff this month.

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Our first Champions League outing for the month was, to say the least, disappointing. A 0-0 draw was not what we wanted ahead of our showdown with Bayern but it's still a point I guess. Neres was fantastic once again as he continues to justify the club record fee I spent for him.

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Another world class performance from Neres and a great goal from Rui Pedro has given us a HUGE win over Benfica, our main title rivals for this season's league title it seems.

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World class performances from the whole team this time around! Aboubakar, Danilo and Otávio have all justified that they deserve to be in the starting 11 of this team and it's incredible to get such a good result after 2 disappointing ones in our first 2 group games. I really hope we can keep this momentum going to get out of the group now.

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Our fantastic form in the league keeps us in 1st after 9 games, 4 points clear of Chaves and 6 points clear of our biggest title challenger for this season. The holders Sporting are clearly struggling, as they find themselves outside of European places for next season for now. In the Champions League, we're halfway through and are in 2nd in the group, just ahead of Bayern. With our next Champions League game against Bayern in Munich, a good result there could secure our spot in the next round but nothing's for sure, so it'll be tough.

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#7 Davis Neres
21 years old
Right midfielder
Brazilian

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Another player of the month award for Neres, his second in a row since joining the club. He's turning out to be, dare I say it, a much better player than Corona so this is an incredible opportunity to develop him and maybe bring him to my next club if I move at the end of the season. I'm not too sure what I'll do yet, it'll all depend on how we do in Europe this season and so far, it's looking pretty good!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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November 2018

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Big blow as David gets injured really early on in the month. We're only losing him for about 2 weeks though, which means he'll be able to play the second half of November thankfully.

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Another big blow now... I guess I jinxed it when I said last month that we weren't getting any injuries! Again though, I'm glad he's only out for 2 weeks and not any longer.

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The Champions League drama continues! A 1-0 defeat against Bayern put us in a pretty bad spot before facing Ajax who were in a great spot themselves, but we got an amazing 2-0 away win to put ourselves back up in 2nd place in the group, with just one game to go at home against CSKA left. In the league, we didn't do as well this month with a tight victory against GD Chaves who were in 3rd when we played them and a disappointing draw against Estoril.

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It feels great to have Aboubakar back from injury as he's back on the scoresheet again. Lucas also scores his second goal for the club in the 24th minute with what proved to be the winning goal for us. Considering how good our defence has been in the last few months, I have to say I hate conceding but at least we're getting 3 points and not bottling it.

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Dalot was our man of the match in this game as we were playing without Neres as our right midfielder but Pereira, and we just couldn't deal with Bayern at their home ground. Credit to them, they were fantastic and now go top of the group with that win.

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This was a must win for us to stay in the race to make it out of the group and what a win. Another goal from Aboubakar and Fred's 3rd goal of the season (and in the Champions League) keeps our hopes alive! What a performance from Telles too, who was being scouted by Tottenham during this game actually. This winter transfer window is going to be a whole lot of transfer offer rejecting I think!

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Sporting and Benfica have worked their way back up the table. We're now just 3 points clear at the top of the league but I'm confident we can stay top for a little while at least. As for the Champions League, it's as tight as ever right now. We need a win against CSKA in our last game to 100% guarantee a spot in the next round as Bayern and Ajax will battle it out at the Allianz Arena.

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#21 Ricardo Pereira
25 years old
Right back/right midfielder
Portuguese

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Pereira continues his great form and continues to attract Europe's biggest clubs as he earns the player of the month for November. It was a tough one as we got some pretty average results at times but he was still the best player by some margin. On top of that, he managed to play really well as both our right back and our right midfielder so credit to him.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Hey everyone, I'm not sure how many people are actually reading this story but just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be taking a little break from it for some time. I'm enjoying going through and writing up my Villa story a little more at the moment so will leave this aside for when I eventually get a little bored of the Villa one, then you can expect loads of updates on here! I really do want to make this a great challenge that people can take on even in the next FM so will be back on this story soon enough. Apologies for anyone who was enjoying it!