A Chinese Dragon in Portugal

[Reiver]

After a series of games that ended prematurely, either by issues with the save file or by choice (when you've played a season and a half at a team but when asked cannot only remember the name of one of your players, something is wrong there), I'm hoping that this save will bring back the enjoyment a good save can give - I'm putting myself in a familiar place, in a league with a unique situation and in a team with an unique challenge. Welcome to Oriental Dragon FC, and welcome to the lower leagues of Portuguese football.

Oriental Dragon was founded in 2014 by Chinese businessman Chen Qi and based on the other side of the river from Lisbon. The idea behind the team was to give Chinese players a place in Europe to develop and show themselves playing against better adversaries both as youth and as senior players. They have managed back to back promotions in the last two years to finally leave the amateur district leagues. Because of this, in game we have the club vision to sign Chinese players, and each year roughly half of our youth intake will also be Chinese. Now, the club vision doesn't mean we can only sign Chinese players, but if we end up not signing any Chinese players and signing too many other players, the board will be mad at us, and will start blocking deals. We don't want that. This will be made harder at first, because we won't have the ability to just go and scout all of China. 

We will also face a unique situation has the Portuguese league reshuffles itself. This season the Portuguese League system has two fully professional leagues(Liga NOS and Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG)and  controlled by the League itself, akin to how the Premier League works. These leagues are fully professional. Below this you have a league controlled by the Portuguese Federation, the Campeonato Nacional Prio, where 95 teams, in a mix of pro, semi-pro and pretty much amateur teams play, first regionally in groups and then the best ones in a more national way. Below you have district leagues, each of them with their own structure, organised by their District FAs.

This year is a special year though. A new division is being introduced next year, a third national league, a new national third tier, making the Campeonato Nacional Prio go down a level. And this year's Campeonato Nacional will be crazy. It starts as 8 groups of 12, teams playing each other twice. At the end of this round, a team can finish in one of 4 situations. If you finish in one of the 4 bottom spots in the group, you're going down to the district leagues. If you finish between 6th and 8th, you stay in the league as it goes down one level. If you finish 5th to 2nd, you go to a playoff system, where teams are paired in groups of 4, where the top two get promoted to the new third division and the bottom two stay in the same division; finally, the top team from each group gets automatically promoted to the Third division, and goes to yet another playoff system, with two groups of 4 - the top of each group gets promoted to the second division. Sounds confusing? I'll summarise the main point - depending on how you do in the season, you might end up anywhere from the 2nd to the 5th tier in the following season.

Let's look at our team in more detail. The team does not have its own stadium, so they currently groundshare with Moitense, a team that currently only has a youth team, in their Juncal stadium, owned by the local council. It has a capacity for 2500 people, 500 of those seated. We have poor, basic and limited facilities all around.

We currently play in Group G of the league, facing teams from the Lisbon, the southern Greater Lisbon area and the Azores. We were made one of the favourite teams to go up, together with the B teams of Belenenses and Sporting, Real and Estrela da Amadora.

[Reiver]

Knowing that I can't really scout China yet and that appeasing the board early on would be useful so I offered a trial and/or scouted every single Chinese player within my range - all 12 or 13 of them. Most of them were a dud, but, luckily for me, Cova da Piedade, a second tier team from nearby also has Chinese investors in their team and just happened to have two decent Chinese players. Furthermore, they were both transfer listed. All the better, because the one Chinese player on our main team had no business being in a football field, and we loaned him out so we wouldn't have to pay his wages. 

They won't be star players on my team but they will definitively be an active part of the squad this year. Chico Chen has the advantage of being a dual-national Chinese/Portuguese and counts as a Home-Grown Player, he came for 5.5k€; Liu Yuhao doesn't somehow, despite a career almost all spent in Portugal, he came for 4k€. Now, let's look at the team as a whole:

First, I'll focus on the players I've brought in, other than the Chinese players. Hélio Pereira is a 16 year old regen that is already rated at 3 stars that we brought in from a local under 19 only team. Tom Custódio came on a free after being released by an Angolan team - also, his first name is actually Angstrom. André Oliveira came for 1k€ from a second division Luxembourgish team, and Schneider is a Portuguese/Brazilia dual national released by Vit. Setubal.
The team I inherited has a few players worth mentioning. Martim Águas is Rui Águas (former Benfica, Porto and Reggiana player)'s son. The stars of the team would be João Pinto, left back that wouldn't be outclassed playing for a lower Liga NOS team, and Érik Mendes, who is actualy 10-1 in the bookies for league's top goalscorer - out of the 96 teams of the league.

I have to say that pre-season has gone great, and so has the beginning of the season: 

We're unbeaten in pre-season, playing mostly against teams at around our level, and the league has started nicely too. The first cup game was against a lower league team so we rotated a bit and still got through. Now, the board expects us to reach the third round, but the draw gave us FC Arouca, a team in the division above us in the Second Round, so I'm not sure if we'll get there. 

[Reiver]

2020/2021 Mid-Season Update/Team Presentation

Now that I've played a good amount of games I have a good assessment of the team, so I will finally present them to you! If I did everything right, each image is a link to the players' FM profile.

• Goalkeepers

 

João Manuel is undoubtedly the first choice here. The 26 year old Angolan/Portuguese dual national was formed at Belenenses, Estoril and Atlético CP and spent most of his career being a keeper at this level - he joined us just this year from Oriental de Lisboa. His main strength is really his ability to get the ball back in the game both with his kicking and his throwing, but is a decent shot stopper. Júnior is in a bad position here because he is not a Home Grown Player, and we need to have 13 of them in the match squad, so he is the one most often sacrificed. Even though he actually had a season as back-up keeper for Coritiba back in 2015 that actually saw in play 5 games in the brazilian top division, he isn't any special and has spent a few seasons as a back up keeper at this level. Lastly, Tiago Mota is our bench warmer keeper in most games. I don't expect him to play a single game this year, unless there's any injuries.

• Right Backs

We like to play in a 4-4-2 where the wingers functions and instructions vary a lot depending on who's available, fit and on who we're playing against, but one constant thing is that we like to play with Wingbacks that get involved with the game upfield. That being said, the right side is usually the more conservative side. The usual first choice is João Guilherme. The 25 year old played most of his career so far in the lower leagues in teams in the greater Lisbon area, and while not really excelling in any area of his game, he also doesn't have any glaring weakness - all around decent for this level. Adilson is a much more attacking option, and can also give a hand at winger. He's older, his career on his rundown, but much more experienced too, with 1 game at the top flight with Belenenses and lots of experience at tier too with the likes of Atlético CP, União da Madeira, Olhanense, Varzim and Cova da Piedade.

• Left Backs
  

João Pinto's career is an odd one. Like mentioned before, he's good enough that he has a space in any second tier team, and would not be outclassed in the top division - at least so is my belief. Top class crossing and corners, and a very technical player in general, while not bad defensively - this guy is the first name in my squad every single game. An yet, his career before joining us is one of lower league mediocrity - always a first starter, but never at a level higher than ours. Will Oriental Dragon be where he explodes? Then we have Portuguese born Francisco Chen Jiayu, Chico Chen. He is here because he is our other option for left back, but this guy is all attack, and I will use him more often as a winger, as his lack of defensive skills means he will only play at left back in easier games where I feel Pinto could be rested. But when it comes to attack, he is close to Pinto's level, minus the crossing. They should both see decent play time.

• Centre Backs

We're nicely supplied when it comes to centrebacks - usually we rotate between the first 3, with the other two coming when needed, while also lending a hand in midfield when we need to play more defensively. Sandro Costa is usually our first choice. The 25 year old formed at Braga and with 3 years of first team experience in tier 2 with Gil Vicente  is just a nice,tidy defender. The same can be said of Diogo Branco, who has the funny details of having played one season in the lower leagues of Austria for SK Bischofshofen when still a teen. In Ivan Dias we have the closest thing to a star in our team - he is Rúben Dias' older brother. He's obviously nowhere near as good as his brother, but he's solid for us both in the center and in the right. Costa and Bá are very similar players, not as good as the rest but still decent and I won't be scared if I need to put them in the field.

• Central Midfielders
  

Brash is the first option as the more defensive minded midfielder. He's athletic, very good mentally for this level, good defensively and then is also good at passing. Then you have Silva, the archetype of the player that is pretty much average at everything - I've never seen any player in the game with as many 10s as this guy has. Mr. Average man right there. When it comes to the more offensive options, we have Angstrom "Tom" Custódio, who probably had physics nerds as parents, comes from Angola after spells without any games at Fluminense e Coritiba. In Angola, he spent two years as a first team player at Girabola team Sagrada Esperança. This guy has technique as his main weapon (as Brazilians often do), and finally we have Águas, son of former Portuguese international and Benfica icon Rui Águas and grandson of former Portuguese international and Benfica even bigger icon José Águas, who is also good in the wings, and might play a few times in the right wing.

• Right Wingers

First choice in the right wing is Nii Plange, a Burkinabe/Ghanian/Portuguese guy with 3 caps for Burkina Faso. Formed at Feyenoord Fetteh in Ghana and ASEC Mimosas, he spent two years in the top Burkinabe league before signing for Sporting B. He has 3 years of portuguese first tier football with Vit. Guimarães and Académica, and bagged over 50 games over 3 years. after a few more years at teams in the porguese lower leagues, he's here at 31 after one year in the UAE. He's not getting any better, but he'll do the trick for us. Behind him stands Nicolau Gomes, Nico, who spent his career so far in the local leagues and is getting one of his first shots at a higher level this year. He's also tiny, and super fast.

• Left Wingers
  
  
  

Here on the wing we see our second Chinese purchase, Liu Yuhao, who spent pretty much all his career in the lower leagues in Portugal, mostly at second and third tier level. While not amazing technically, his mental and athletic stats make him a decent option to hold and distribute the ball from the wing. On a completely different profile, we have Pereira, the first regen to make it into our main squad. Coming on a free from Galitos, a local team that only fields a youth team on the under 19s leagues, this guy is a treat, and seems to have lots of potential, he-s a very technically gifted player, with plenty of flair and a great first touch. If he develops well, in a few years he'll be the guy dictating our game.

• Strikers
  

Caeiro is the grandad of the team - 36 years old and all, and has bags of experience. 6 years of top flight games with Belenenses, the last one just 3 years ago. The only reason why he isn't playing most games is because we fancy fast strikers and through balls and he isn't the best suited guy for that - he's more of a static targetman kind of player, having lost most of his speed because of his age. The GOAT of the team should be Érik Mendes, who at the beginning of the season was touted as one of the favourites to be top goalscorer of the league, and he does have the profile for that. Then he completely torn one of his thigh muscles and was out of service for two months, and lost pace, agility, stamina and strength, which he is still trying to recover. In the end, he only played 5 games in the first half of the season. In his absence, Oliveira took the spot and became our main goalscoring threat. A Luxembourgish/Portuguese dual national that is very similar to Mendes. Slightly slower and not as good in the air, but with better vision. He's been hot in front of goal, with 6 goals in 8 games after taking over Mendes. Lastly, We have Gustavo Schneider, a former Benfica youth team player who also spent time in the youth teams of Braga, Boavista and Vit. Setubal  and is now having is first season in a first team. Great with the ball, he needs to get his athleticism up in order to become a good player for us.

We started very strong with 6 wins out of the first 7 games in the league and up to that point we were understandably first, then we kind of collapsed, and I don't really have an explanation as to what happened. The first two games were neck and neck, and we missed the little bit of luck needed to finish ahead, and against the B teams we were outplayed fairly. In the cup we nearly caused an upset against a higher division team but when it came to penalties it just wasn't to be. That first spot and promotion to the second tier now seems a bit out of reach, with just ten games to overcome a 9 point advantage and 4 teams, but we're still in the run for the new national third tier league, and that's our aim right now - to stay in the top five and qualify for the promotion playoff groups!

[Reiver]

2020/2021 Winter Transfer Window Update

Contracts in China usually end on the 31st of December, meaning that on the 1st of January, which just so happens to be when our transfer window opens, there is a ton of potential Chinese free transfers. I can't scout China at the moment, so our modus operandi is to just cast the widest net possible and offer free trials to all of them. Out of the 100 to 200 players we offered a trial to, some 10 to 20 accepted it. After removing the ones that are asking for values way out of our range and players not nearly good enough for us and pinpointing players in that spot that is just right for us, we actually signed 2 more Chinese players! As usual, FM profile available if you click on the players.

Guo Hao comes after being released by Tianjin Teda, and comes to be a rotational player in midfield. A regular for them in the last 6 years, he moves for his first experience abroad. With his physicality, work rate, positioning, tackling and passing, I'm hoping that he'll occupy spaces in the midfield, get balls back and chuck them to our attacking pieces. Jiang Tao was released by Beyjing Guoan. A mainstay in the team in 2017 and 2018, he had fallen out of favour and only had 4 appearances in the last 2 years. He will work as an attacking full back on our side, taking advantage of his speed and and his mentals which are off the charts for this level. 

No players left during this transfer period. In the meantime, I got an update on how our youth intake will be. I'm not expecting much from it.

[Reiver]

Some quick news as we approach the end of the first stage of the league we're in:

Manuel did not leave the bench on his call up but Pereira played against Northern Ireland as a right winger and got himself on the scoreline. I did not expect to have called up players this early in the save.

[Reiver]

2020/21 April - Campeonato de Portugal First Stage End

Unfortunately, despite always being close to the top spots, we never managed to get back there. We were actually top from game 3 to game 7, then we had a poor run of games which led us down to 5th, then we held onto the 4th spot from game 11 to the end. We were just too inconsistent to catch up with the top teams, especially Sporting B. Other than in the first game against Amadora where he was on fire, Mendes's season so far was plagued with injuries and we had to rely mostly on André Oliveira to score our goals.

Now that direct promotion to the second tier is out of the window, we're still fighting for promotion to the new national third tier.

Here we are. 6 games, top two go up. I don't think that Pevidém has the team to do it, but other than that, we're 3 dogs for 2 bones.

[jawzy]

Leira are no where near what they used to be even as recent as last years FM though., I has confidence you can be in the top two

[Marshdweller]

"3 dogs for 2 bones" is a great phrase! Good luck fighting for that bone!

[Reiver]

2020/21 Promotion Playoff

This group playoff stage was insane - I mean, we scored 17 goals in 6 games, and had the same amount of goals scored against us! Things started normally enough with a 2-1 win against Leiria won in the last twenty minutes on a very even game where my keeper saved a penalty. Then our worst game of the season, away in Águeda. Despite the result, it was again a very even game - they only out xGed us by 0.5 - we were playing very offensively in the second trying to catch up to a 2-0, and we even scored once, but we ended up too exposed in the back and they managed to score 4 in ten minutes. We had the same amount of chances, we just wasted ours. At this point I got scared we would not go through, and that only got worse when we lost against Pevidém where, once again, you'll see a pattern, they scored against the grain, and then again when we were chasing the result - this was not our worst form of the season, but our worst result streak, and right where we needed results the most. Things had to change, and we ended up getting revenge on poor Leiria in a game where they actually managed more shots on goal than us - it was nice to taste the poison being used against us! A draw against Águeda meant that we depended only on ourselves in the last game against Pevidém - as long as we didn't lose we'd go through. They actually scored first, but we then dominated the game and gave them no chance. This means Liga 3 next year!

For once, the players that I need to highlight at the end of the year are the ones I expected in the beginning. João Pinto ended up being the king of assists from the left wing - the quality of his crosses and through balls was so high that I often played with "hits early crosses" and "look for overlap" only on the left side just to involve him as much as possible in offensive plays. It paid off. Then Érik Mendes, who got 12 goals in 18 games - and this considering that he spent over 3 months of the season injured, including a completely torn muscle - it took him a long time to recover from the injury and he still managed to end with an average above 7. If next season he stays clear of injuries, I think he'll be a beast. And in the absence of Mendes, we had André Oliveira. We had to spend 1000€ to bring him from Luxembourg's top league (from a team that ended up being relegated too), but it was money well spent - 24 goals in 26 games is a beastly mark.

With the promotion, we're adding 500 seats to our stadium (good), turning professional - but our wage budget remained the same (not good) - being pro means we have to pay minimum wage level to players and it will be a lot harder to form a squad next season. Expect to see plenty of loanees! But that's for next update!

[Reiver]

2021/22 Liga 3 Season Preview

Welcome to the first ever season of the new national Portuguese third level! Some familiar faces here that have previously played at upper levels - Olhanense, Beira-Mar, Leixões and even Tirsense, and also Guimarães B. We're predicted to finish 7th, with 14-1 odds to win the league, so we're considered to be up there at the top. The board is onboard, expecting us to finish in the top half; personally, I think we have what it takes to finish in the top 5, fighting for promotion to the end, specially after our transfer dealings this year. All this comes despite the fact that we turned professional and kept the same wage budget - meaning that now the minimum wage we could offer players was around 500€ - it also meant we let many a people go on a free that we could have otherwise kept as useful players and are now focusing a bit more on loans to fill those spots, as a cost cutting measure without suffering on quality. Our Stadium is having 500 seated places added, meaning we'll end up with 2500 people stadium with 1000 seated spaces - minimum league requirements there. League rules are the same as last year: maximum squad size of 25, minimum 13 homegrown players in the match squad, free players can be registered any time.

While I will delve into the squad for next season in the next post, just to give you an idea of how many people will change, this is my released player list - 8 of them were squad players last year:

[Reiver]

Quick update - I just realised I didn't even mention the youth intake - it's because it sucked. You know you had a bad youth intake when even your assistant manager only recommends we sign 1 player out of all of it.

[dalenichol]

Feb 16, 2021 22:27:14 GMT Reiver said:

Quick update - I just realised I didn't even mention the youth intake - it's because it sucked. You know you had a bad youth intake when even your assistant manager only recommends we sign 1 player out of all of it.

I'm not sure there's anything worse in FM than a bad youth intake, especially in the first season.

[Reiver]

2021/22 Summer Transfer Window

Let's take a look at how we improved our team for this season. You already saw the list of released players - this was a mix of youth players I had not mentioned before, players that would not be used anymore (like Adilson who was ageing, Lui Yuhao who stopped being used in the second half of last season), and players that were asking for way too much money for the skill level they brought (Nico, Martim Águas). There was also one player I didn't mention in the previous updates, João Guilherme, who signed for Milsami Orhei in Moldavia on a end of contract deal rather then renew with us - and I understand, going to a top division team that will have Europa League games beats maybe playing in the Portuguese third tier. In general, we had to cut costs wherever possible in order to keep our key players in the team - even most players we renewed managed to get similar or lower wages than before, other than João Pinto who saw his wages double and got a match highest earner clause. He's our best player and the creator of most of my goals so i didn't want to lose him at all, and by the time we have more players at his wage level we should have renegotiated his deal, so I am not worried about this at the moment. Without any further ado, here are the new Oriental Dragon Stars:





Haoran Li is a 21 year old Chinese player we signed on a free from Royal Antwerp - formed at Shanghai Genbao Football Base, the academy formed by Chinese football legend Xu Genbao that formed Wu Lei, he spent the latter years of his youth football at Anderlecht before Antwerp and had a loan spell at Rudar Velenje in Slovenia, where he played 4 games. While not being and amazing player at the moment, he can make use of his speed, and then his dribbling and passing are good for this level too - if I can improve these and his crossing and vision, he will be a good addition for us while in the lower leagues - and he seems to have the potential for it. On top of that he's here as a Breakthrough Prospect being paid peanuts.




The first regen of the bunch, this 17 year old actually came from the youth rankings of another lower league Portuguese team, AD Sanjoanense, from the tier we played in last year. A signing for the future, this kid is already 1.5 stars and has the potential to reach 4 to 5 stars. He doesn't seem like the offensive kind of full back we currently use, but it's a much more defensively sound one, to the point I'm considering retraining him as a DM, even though he's not considered versatile.



If you had told me that I'd have on my squad a former Palmeiras keeper with 28 appearances for the team while in the 3rd tier I would not have believed you - even more when 18 of those were in a single year, meaning that for a while he was Palmeiras' first choice keeper (well he wasn't, but their first choice keeper was injured for 5 months). Still, after 5 years at Palmeiras, a few years on loan in the lower leagues of Brazil and then at Aves (before they went bankrupt), he will now be out first choice keeper, replacing João Manuel. Huge (nearly 2m tall) and with great aerial reach, he will be a great shot stopper for us.



It was hard to find pictures of some of our loanees! Simão Coelho comes from the Boavista Under-23s to provide cover for Érik Mendes and André Oliveira for the striker position. This 19 year old is decent only at what makes a poacher (Acceleration, Off the Ball, Finishing, Heading and First Touch), so whenever we need to use him, that's how he'll play.



The other loanee with an elusive picture hunt! Pussick comes from Belenenses SAD, also to provide cover in attack, and just like Coelho he's just good as a poacher (just slightly better than him). I don't think either of them will see a lot of footballing time - but they're coming for free, I don't have to pay their wages, they count as Homegrown and it won't hurt me too much if I do have to play them from time to time.



Ivo Mesquita also comes on loan from Boavista,  but unlike the previous loans, he comes to be a regular player. A under-19 international, he's a great ball playing defender for this level, without any flagrant weaknesses. He apparently has the potential to be a top tier defender in the future, so I'll try to charm him into liking the team and me, so it might be easier to get him permanently in the future.



Another regen, another loan, this time from Moreirense - at just 17 years old, this guy is amazing - 15 tackling, 14 positioning? The only drawback is that pesky 6 Strength and only being 173 cm - means he will be playing full back more often that centre back. Another under-19 international playing for us.



I just spoke against a centreback with 6 Strength and now I show that i regularly play with a defender with Strength 5? The main difference is that Van Der Gaag is a tower, being 190 cm - too bad he's also a stick, weighing only 67 Kg. The son of Mitchell van der Gaag, who played in PSV, Motherwell, Utrecht and then in Portugal for Maritimo for 5 years, and that is now the Jong Ajax manager, he comes on loan from Belenenses SAD.




Diogo Teixeira, yet another loanee, comes from Rio Ave. A very versatile player, playing almost everywhere in the midfield, and also accomplished playing in the wings, he's like the perfect sub, the jack of all trades you can fit wherever you need him o depending on team form and injuries.



And we reach our last loanee. Rúben Gonçalves, also from Rio Ave, actually has experience at a higher level, as he spent last season loaned to Vilafranquense, playing 19 games in the second tier. He's coming to get a first team spot in midfield that he probably will be able to keep the whole season.



Portugal is full of players with nicknames, but few are as good as this one: David "Dinamite" Augusto comes to pair with João Pinto for a deadly left wing. He's comes with loads of experience playing in the Portuguese lower leagues, with 201 games mostly at the old tier 3 and 4 of Portuguese football - but he has the quality to do a jump to higher quality teams for sure.



I wondered if I should even mention this guy. He came on a free after a very long career that saw him play for Lokomotiva Zagreb, Western Sidney Wanderers, Newcastle Jets, Astra Girgiu and a few more lower level Australian teams. Originally signed to be a first team player, he started moaning when the loanees from Rio Ave came in, fearing he was being replaced (even though he had just been hired), nothing I said to him made him change his mind, so after just three games, and before the transfer season had ended, I chucked him out to another third tier team - i didn't want him stinking up my team's atmosphere!

[Reiver]

2021/22 New Affiliate Deal

Pelezinhos  is a team from Setubal (around 25 minutes from where we play) that only has players up to under 19s - they play in the Setubal District Under 19 team - the third tier of under 19 football and the lowest available ingame. This is actually a great bit of deal we've done for one reason, that forks into two benefits. And that reason is facilities! Pelezinhos has average youth and training facilities while we have poor facilities, but under the terms of this deal we can now use their training facilities, meaning that effectively my facilities went from poor to average for free. It also pretty much doubles my youth intake, as when Pelezinhos new intake comes through, I have full visibility and reports on how good they are and they can be, and this coming from a team with better facilities than mine!

[Reiver]

2021/22 Mid Season Update

We started very strongly with 4 wins in the first 5 games... then Universitatea Cluj made an offer for my captain Sandro Costa on deadline day. I refused, he got mad and the atmosphere tanked to horrible levels and we suffered 15 goals in the next 5 games. It also made us exit the cup before expected - we received a bye in the first round, and we got humiliated in the second round when the expectation was to reach the third round. In the end I had to offer him out at this point, and a transfer has been arranged: he is leaving in January for 12k€ to Tondela in tier 2. Once this happened and after we held a team meeting and a few personal conversations I managed to salvage the atmosphere and we got back on track - and what a track. It was Érik Mendes's show - playing how I expected him to last season. Ronaldo has nothing on Mendes, with 27 goals and 6 assists in 23 games. In the meantime, Lamine Bá and Nii Plange will also be leaving us now in January, and with the space opened in the squad (and in the budget) to try and bring in potential end of contract Chinese players.

I'm doubtful after the previous intake, the message was very similar last year. let's see how it goes.

[Reiver]

2021/22 Winter Season Signing.

Only the one player comes in during the winter season. This Ghanaian midfielder came to Portugal as a youth player to FC Porto, but has had a career in the lower leagues, including one year at second level with Gil Vicente. A strong and fast ball winning midfielder? Sign me up! Comes straight to the first team!

Latest results have been a mixed bag. While the result against Oliveirense was too one sided it was against another side hoping for a promotion spot, the results against Cerveira, a relegation battle team, and Beira Mar a lower mid table team were not in the cards, and have set us back a bit. In any case, the race is currently incredibly close. We've gone down to 9th when before we were 4th, but there's currently 10 team within 6 points of a promotion spot!

[Dirk Nowitzki]

Damn, exciting months ahead!

[jawzy]

Very tight for those two spots!

[Reiver]

2022 Youth Intake

One more year of signing a single youth intake player. At least this time Carvalheira is a decent player:

Is he amazing right now? No. Does he look like he'll make a great player for us? No. But he looks like he might have what it takes to become a decent player, not excelling at anything but also without any glaring weaknesses. He'll probably grow enough to become a professional player in the lower leagues, but you never know, my assman is decent but not amazing and he might surprise us.

[Reiver]

2021/22 End of Season Report

We did it! We were almost relentless in the last months of the season, losing only 10 points in 16 games. We were lucky that when we slipped in the second to last game so did Leixões, and even if it had gone otherwise we depended only on ourselves to finish in the top 2. This season was Érik Mendes's show - 43 goals in the 43 games he played, 7 assists and 11 Man of the Match awards, and and average of 7.38, the highest of the league. He's not the only one to highlight though: his striker partner André Oliveira score 19 in 34 games, with 8 assists and 3 MoTM. We were deadly out of left-wing too: our left back João Pinto contributed with 19 assists in 31 games, and his backup/winger partner Dinamite had 13 assists in 32 games.


There will be a small revolution in the squad to be able to compete at the level above: there were a few players were were unable to keep hold of because their contracts were ending and they received offers higher that ours: Szymonek, the keeper is joining Joinville in Brazil, while Guo Hao and Haoran Li got offers from Chinese clubs and we just don't have their firepower when it comes to wages. I already working on the replacement keeper, and Gonçalves,  on loan from Rio Ave this season, joins us permanently. Once we got confirmation we would be promoted, our board increased our wage budget - and what an increase: it is now 5 times higher. I plan to take advantage of this together with our increased reputation to build a team where we can confidently fight for at leas the top half of the second division.

And once again, because of the rules of the league: