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Rising stars in Portugal - Lusitano FC


MarcxD

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1 hour ago, noikeee said:

You're breezing through the seasons! Amazing job last year, cup win, EL semi-finals, lost the league only on direct confrontation, qualified for the CL... dream stuff for a tiny club.

And only just getting started ;) 

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September 2024

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A fantastic - perfect - month including our first ever Champions League win!

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In second, behind Belenenses who are somehow having a magnificent season so far. Sporting continues their downfall, it seems like.

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Lopes continues to do amazingly well and got a player of the month award.

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Winning all matches wasn't enough to get manager of the month since the Porto and Belenenses managers also did so.

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With Pontes' first goal this season he has gotten this club record. Even so, he is still only favoured personnel, as am I :herman:

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October 2024

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A really remarkable month above all. If you look at the fixtures it's definitely the hardest month I've had so far - facing Benfica and Porto in the league and Atletico and Napoli in the CL. Winning two of those 4 matches and losing the other 2 by just one goal is something I can be really pleased with. Those wins were really unexpected, especially the Napoli win!

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In fourth after those two league games. It will be interesting to see how long Belenenses and Guimaraes will continue this kind of form.

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After his hattrick against Benfica Diogenes got a player of the month award.

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We were drawn in this league cup group, I would like to do well in this competition for once.

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Another upgrade approved... 

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And a new contract.

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November 2024

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An important win over Belenenses (their first in the league), but we were slightly unlucky in the CL and it seems we're going to end as third in our group, so at least Europa League again in 2025. Also a win in the cup including a Lopes hattrick.

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In third with one game in hand.

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This injury was very disappointing, but it did lead to a debut for a youth player since the AMC position is not very well filled at the club right now.

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He scored right away for a Champions League record :)

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December 2024

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A good month overall, with us winning the first match in the league cup group, going through in the main cup, and keeping Atletico to a draw. Slightly disappointing to draw twice in the league though.

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In the CL we did end up finishing third, much closer than I had expected though, so very pleased with our first run in the CL. 

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In the Europa League we will play Galatasaray, not the easiest draw possible for sure but we can beat them (they did win the EL two years back).

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Doing well enough, although Porto seems to slip away. Benfica in 8th and Sporting in 10th though, ouch.

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Lopes got another nod in a player of the month award, but he's won a slightly more prestigious award as well...

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First Golden Boy from the Lusitano youth!! What a record as well for his age.

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No African player of the year this time for Gildo but he was voted second best midfielder, and right-back Baldé was voted second best defender.

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January 2025

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Busy month because of the domestic cups, but a very successful month. 

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Looking strong, if we win the game in hand very close to Porto again.

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We easily won the league cup group and as you can see above also the semi-final so we can win this trophy for the first time. Also in the semi-cup of the main cup so things are looking good on that front.

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AMR Mulenessa won the player of the month, he has performed very well this season.

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I did not win manager of the month but I was listed in the top 3, remarkable to see Hagi managing Rio Ave.

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I got another international affiliate to get foreign youngsters in, now an Angolan one.

January obviously also has a transfer market, as is regular now it wasn't very busy for me but some things did happen.

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I got in a young left back from Mozambique. Can't hurt if they're free.

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I sold two players for very small amounts - Lupapa was a striker who has done very well for me but has had a giant decrease in ability over the past year (he's now 32) so I sold him with 6 months to go on his contract to an Angolan club and I sold my Sammarinese back up GK already since well... he's never going to make the first team so I just got rid of him when Aves came in for him.

I got more money from previosu deals though.

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I wish I had included a full 50% clause but 50% of the profit still counts as 6M - they bought him for 3M and sold him for 15M.

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February 2025

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And our form continues, for a perfect month! We were a bit lucky in some of these, needing own goals, penalties and extra time goals to get the wins over the line. We are through in the EL after relatively easy beating Galatasaray and we won the Taça da Liga!

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Finally an icon.

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In the EL we'll be playing... Porto. :rolleyes:

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Two points from Porto now! This could be another very tense title race.

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I missed out on the manager of the month award.

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Youth Intake 2025

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No players from the affiliates yet, but this is another strong intake. 

I will show the two players with the 1.5* CA ratings but all players with yp8 are signed.

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I use a shadow striker in my tactic so his attributes aren't ideal to say the least, 162 cm plus jumping reach 1 and heading 2! But on the technical side of things it looks quite good.

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Another player that can't jump at all but overall a decent looking midfielder.

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March 2025

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We started fantastically well but then came a crazy series of 4 games - 3 times Porto and one time Benfica in 10 days. We really did quite well, especially the remarkable 4-0 at home in the EL of course, so we're through to the QF's.

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The dropped points mean that we are now 4 points behind, but with 8 more games to go anything can still happen... 

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In the EL we'll have to face Liverpool just like last year. Could we beat them again?

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Encada played a bit more than usual this month and played very well.

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April 2025

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It really was another fantastic month with great wins all around, including a fantastic 5-2 over Liverpool and a 5-1 in the cup to go through to the final. Very disappointing to end the month with a 6-2 loss in England though..... so out of the EL. (Ben Woodburn scored 5 times, FML)

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This reaction was a bit much though.

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3 points behind Porto, 4 more games... 

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Guerra the player of the month this time around, cool to see a pretty big variety of my players getting lauded this season.

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I won manager of the month again, that has been a while.

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The u19's have done very well this year, and made it to the final of the Youth League, where they were defeated by ... Porto. I'm beginning to not like them very much.

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May-June 2025

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Well, well, well. In all reality we did very well including a 4-0 win over Sporting, but that draw against Gil Vicente was just too much. In the end it had to be Porto who beat us in the cup final as well...

For the second year in a row we finished second with 81 points, this time with 97 goals scored. Still not enough.

It is still interesting to see Benfica finish 8th and Sporting 9th... I'm going to guess Lisbon football fans aren't going to be too pleased in this version of 2025!

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Another player of the month and manager of the month award to finish the season.

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The u19s won the league again, really excited about the youth at the club.

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What a whirlwind of a season, so good in every competition but not good enough in the end, except for the Taca de Liga of course. You keep topping yourself each year, so I'm confident we'll see even more success next time out. KUTGW man!

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18 hours ago, john1 said:

So close to winning the league :( At least you knocked them out in Europa League :thup: 

 

13 hours ago, oriole01 said:

What a whirlwind of a season, so good in every competition but not good enough in the end, except for the Taca de Liga of course. You keep topping yourself each year, so I'm confident we'll see even more success next time out. KUTGW man!

Thanks guys and I share your confidence actually, it's looking good for the future.

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Season Review 2024-2025

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Another strong overall season, we just have to deal with a tycoon-owned Porto (to be fair they don't really go crazy with the transfers). Still in that 5K stadium btw, the new 15K stadium is supposed to be done in 2026.

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Not a huge rise this year but we're in the top 30 of Europe already, thanks to our strong performances each year in the Europa League. We didn't do badly in the Champions League either. If we're a bit lucky with the draw next season I hope to go through in the CL, although it would also be nice to get a shot at winning the Europa League.

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Lopes has had a fantastic full first season as striker, 40 goals. Gildo kept on being amazing and ended up with a 7.72 average rating for this season. Nogueira the goalkeeper has done quite well for another season but now some big clubs are interested in him like Juventus and RB Leipzig. He did just sign a new 5-year contract deal, with a 40M limited fee for clubs in the CL so they should pay a fee around there for me to consider selling him.

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More players from us than from Porto in the team of the year.

Let's get to the awards and records, there have been a bunch again this season.

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Topscorer in both the league and the cup, and young player of the year. I am really excited to see him develop further and to see if he can keep this scoring form up for multiple seasons. I don't see why not.

Gildo has gotten a bunch again as well.

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Just ridiculous. 

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 I got myself another manager of the year award as well.

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This is now the overall best eleven, and Pontes is the first player to reach the 250 matches mark. The entire first team is still at the club, but the majority of the subs are gone and will likely be replaced in future seasons.

 

 

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Pre-Season 2025

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A pretty huge increase in budgets, slightly higher expectations as well. 

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Still expected to finish 6th but the odds are slightly better I think.

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I got in a new back-up goalkeeper in Malanda and I decided to actually spend some money this year and get in a good center back in Mendy (he's Bissau-Guinean).

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As far as the outgoings are concerned a bunch of loans for youth players and I sold Guerra. He had one more year in his contract and I couldn't afford his salary demands so I decided to offer him for 15M - and there were some takers. He's now worth 25M at Hertha, so I guess they got a good deal, but with one more year to go I'm not too displeased with the money we got.

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A remarkable pre-season with three huge victories over not the worst opposition - and then we were stopped by Porto, of course.

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When I said I wanted a lucky draw in the Champions League this was not quite what I had i mind.

:ackter:

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September 2025

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A fantastic month, especially our performances in the Champions League!!! I was happy enough with the draw against Arsenal but to beat Bayern in their stadium... thanks to a 96th minute goal no less.

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In second, with Porto having another strong start. Guimaraes also going very well and Sporting seems to have a better season so far than the previous years, but Benfica is having it rough!

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Gildo player of the month now. I keep on being surprised by his performances - he keeps on delivering.

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Another nod but understandable that Porto's manager got the award.

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19 hours ago, john1 said:

What a start in your Champions League :cool: 

Surprised to see Guimaraes, right up there?! :eek: Who is their manager? Any takeovers?

Cheers!

Guimaraes has been doing very well for a few years now, but this is their best start yet. There have not been any takeovers nor are they spending huge amounts of money - remarkably this summer they sold for 20M in total but only spent 1.5M themselves.

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This is their manager since 2023, before that he was in charge of Gil Vicente.

17 hours ago, kidthekid said:

another unlucky league finish, but once again, there's clear progress.

Thank you - I would agree about the progress but I'm not sure if it's unlucky or just being that little bit behind Porto. In the games that we play them they almost always win.

3 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

You're doing superbly here, really enjoying this save :thup:

Great to read, thank you! I'm having a lot of fun as well. For me it definitely helps that I'm able to go quickly through the seasons and document it on here.

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Haha at your little rivalry with Porto forming. I'd take fighting Lusitano VRSA over fighting Benfica for the title any day. :D

You're just a tiny step away from a league title and/or some serious European glory now. Keep pushing...

Shame about that crazy CL draw! Looks like you started well though, might very well get at least a EL place. Maybe the Europa League trophy is coming to the Algarve this season? ;)

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21 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Haha at your little rivalry with Porto forming. I'd take fighting Lusitano VRSA over fighting Benfica for the title any day. :D

You're just a tiny step away from a league title and/or some serious European glory now. Keep pushing...

Shame about that crazy CL draw! Looks like you started well though, might very well get at least a EL place. Maybe the Europa League trophy is coming to the Algarve this season? ;)

:lol: I can imagine, wait until Lusitano becomes the super power though...

I would love the EL trophy this year - but it's going extremely well in the CL so far.

Cheers!

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October-November 2025

I forgot to screenshot the league table after October so just doing two months at once here.

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October went very well, as we kept Porto and Roma to a draw and won the other matches.

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November though, wow. 7-1 against Roma. I don't know either!

We did finally lose in the CL against Arsenal but with one more game to go we can still qualify for the knock-out rounds. 

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Still in second - still on equal points with Porto. Guimaraes has dropped away a bit, so we're the only teams that are still unbeaten. Benfica 11th...

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Another youth affiliate, from Mozambique this time.

Midfielder Biai won the player of the month for november.

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December 2025

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Another slight loss in the CL sadly, but otherwise a good month with another cup win and a strong start to the league cup group.

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In first, but Porto still has a game more to play. 

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In the CL we just missed out, so we go through to the Europa League again. I really think we can go for that trophy.

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First obstacle will be AZ - certainly should be doable. Very remarkable to see Trepça there as well.... and Real Madrid.

It's december so time for the African awards again, and Gildo once again was up there.

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Best midfielder.

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Lopes also won golden boy again! 

I keep on being excited about him, but there seems to be an issue with his ankle...

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:(

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January 2026

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A perfect January! 

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Still in first - for the first time pretty much ever a lead on Porto in stead of the other way around. Only two points, but still. We are both still unbeaten...

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We went perfect in the league cup and as you can see above we already won the semi-final. Next up, in the final: FC Porto...

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I won manager of the month...

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And also played the 400th game this career.

As far as transfers are concerned, I did not sign any players but there were some outogings

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I recalled Lopes and Grade from their previous loan clubs because I did not think they played enough, hopefully they get more time at their new clubs. Almeida was transferlisted but no one came in for him so I just loaned him out, and Encada is getting older and getting less and less game time so when Portimonense came in for him I just got as much of a loan fee for him as possible.

 

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February 2026

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Of course we lost the final, hopelessly. Did well elsewhere and absolutely destroyed AZ in the Europa League.

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Up next... Liverpool for the third time three years!!!

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Still that 2 point lead.

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Big issue here - not only will he miss most if not all of the rest of the season, at this age a serious injury might severely decrease his ability.

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Youth Intake 2026

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Another good intake, with 4 very interesting players and two possible other prospects.

Sadly still no players from the affiliates though.

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Not the best to start out with but I have faith in the perceived PA.

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Another very talented striker, I definitely like the look of him a lot. Tbh not quite sure if realist is a good or bad personality though.

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Also not a bad midfielder - some tutoring to up his determination and a better personality will be done.

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The quickness is already there, but the technical side needs quite a bit of work.

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March 2026

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We managed to beat Liverpool this time around, but sadly lost to Porto once again.

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In second now, on equal points and record as Porto!! But they have the better "results between teams" record which matters the most.

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In the Europa League we'll play Valencia next, another tough opponentn. But all the teams except for the two Danish clubs (remarkable!) are a bit scary to face.

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This award was also given to Lopes this month, kind of out of the blue. Lopes is actually the first to play in Portugal to win this.

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April 2026

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First I would like to thank AVB.

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But we did beat him and his Valencia, going through to the semi-final where we are facing Leverkusen as you can see. Not a terrible first leg result, we can still make the final. Remarkably Zenit beat Real Madrid in the QF so it's either them or Midtjylland who we'll play in the final if we qualify. In the league we continued to do very well and we've also qualified for the cup final. 

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And wonder oh wonder, Porto has been held to a draw by Benfica so we have the upper hand!

Don't screw this up.

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Some more awards this month.

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May 2026

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Couldn't beat Leverkusen in the crazy return, so sadly no EL final for us - but we won all three matches in the league!!! You know what that means. 

Sadly we couldn't keep that up and lost the cup final...

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But who cares! Finally we won the title.

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Got another award as well. Hey Jaap, btw.

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Season Review 2025-2026

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Fantastic although I lost two more cup finals and did not make it to the EL final I had hoped for. Still though, finally beat Porto for the title!

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Some more youth players here, and that number should only increase during the next seasons. Gildo's injury was a bummer, and his replacement Fonseca surely is not at his level yet. Lopes was injured a hell of a lot of times but he still managed to play 44 matches with a remarkable average rating.

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It was good enough for him to equal Gildo's average rating record and to win both young player and player of the  year. He ended up as second in the topscorer rankings.

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Nogueira won GK of the year.

I did not win manager of the year (that went to Rio Ave's Hagi).

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Only three of my players in the team of the year and once again no place for the winner of player of the year. ?!?!?!

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Pontes now over 300 matches! Lopes now a higher average rating than Gildo...

And finally, the squad (without the players that were loaned out):

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Wages are still somewhat affordable but Lopes has asked about 6 times for a new deal, captain Pontes is quite convincing though, so for now no unhappiness or forced first contract where a player earns 1M+... and if he gets one others will also want one.

New arrival Mendy played the most minutes out of everyone. Not only did he perform very well, he also developed way more than I expected for a 24 year old.

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There's that league title! Remarkable work to claim that trophy against the constant threat of an excellent Porto side. Shame that you couldn't quite get over the line in any of the cups this time, but the progression is what matters most. Good luck next season, you should really be in business now.

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14 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Great work on the title, shame about the cups but I bet you'd have took the league over those this year if you was offered at the start of the year :cool:

Definitely!

12 hours ago, john1 said:

Fantastic season :thup: But surprised to see Rio Ave finishing above Benfica and Sporting CP :eek: 

 

7 hours ago, oriole01 said:

There's that league title! Remarkable work to claim that trophy against the constant threat of an excellent Porto side. Shame that you couldn't quite get over the line in any of the cups this time, but the progression is what matters most. Good luck next season, you should really be in business now.

 

4 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Excellent. Finally!!!

Thanks guys - now to prove we can do it again.

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Pre-Season 2026

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Big increase in budgets, I'll be looking to give some new contracts to my players, not necessarily to spend hugely. Still only expected to qualify for EL (top 5/6)

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That corresponds with the expectations, which is exactly the same after a title-winning season. Sure, why not.

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The season started with the welcome news that the new stadium is finally done - although 16K seems like it's going to be too easy to fill so a quick expansion will likely be needed.

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I didn't do a lot of transfer business - I just got in a very talented 16 year old Cape Verdean in Barros. Outgoing were more loans and Varzim were willing to take Almeida from my hands. As you can see FC Twente is now also an affiliate, no more of the 15 nations have clubs that I can take so I got the biggest Dutch club possible.

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After the world cup - which so it happens was won by Portugal in a final against Denmark (!) - I got these two big offers, I rejected them since I do not want to do international management ( at this point ).

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Perfect pre-season and our first Supertaça win - also our first official match in the new stadium. It probably helped that we didn't have to play Porto.

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The CL draw seems relatively kind, there's always going to be some tough opposition but top 2 should be possible here.

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August 2026

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A perfect start - and Lopes started with 2 hattricks, back to back. Just praying that he stays fit.

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Together with Porto and, remarkably, Paços Ferreira (managed by Jaap Stam) still on a perfect run. Benfica has lost twice (they did already play Porto though).

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Pontes now officially has the record for most league appearances, I signed him when we were in the second tier and since he's only 25 years old he could go on for a while yet - if he doesn't get overtaken by some of the youth prospects, which is a real possibility.

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With his two hattricks Lopes was obviously chosen as player of the month even though the numbers two and three had higher average ratings.

By the way, from now on I will only show these things if I or a player of mine actually win these and not just top 3 (like the second place I got this month in the manager award).

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September 2026

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Purely looking at the results another very good month - but these wins were not the most comfortable wins. On the other hand, we did beat Juventus and Porto! 

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Still perfect.

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October 2026

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A really good month with some very convincing wins actually - the biggest one in the CL. 

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No longer perfect in the league because we drew with Braga but still a fantastic start to the season, Porto's keeping up with us though.

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Very strong month from Mulenessa so definitely a deserved award for him.

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Actually a bunch of injuries this month (Lopes out for a couple of weeks for instance) but this is the worst one and actually very annoying - he is very talented and developing very fast and got really close to the AMC's I'm currently using.... but it seems he's going to have to wait and I just hope this injury won't hurt him too much in the long run.

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November 2026

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The first loss of the season... combined with the draw in Ukraine that's a bit of a disappointing result in the Champions League - we will have to get a result at home against Lyon in the last match of the group to qualify for the next round. 

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Still very strong in the league - and Sporting beat Porto so we have a bigger lead now. It also shows that Sporting and Benfica are having a much better season than the previous years.

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Not good.... and as you can see Lopes got another ankle injury.

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December 2026

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A perfect month again! We needed a win against Lyon and we delivered.

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With a game in hand 5 points ahead of Porto!

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A close group and we missed out on the first spot in the group... but through to the knock-out rounds for the first time.

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It was clear it was going to be a tough draw because we finished in second, and we got a tough draw alright.

There were some more awards this time around.

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Lopes won the Golden Boy for the third consecutive year. Wow.

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Right-back in the African XI, but there were more of my players honoured.

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left-back Cumbe also listed in the defenders category, while AMR Mulenesse is among the midfielders and striker Mazive also named.

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January 2027

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The month and the year started very poorly, in the first 4 games we lost more than we had done in the previous months.... it means we are now out of both cups, but luckily in the league we managed to get back to form.

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So still in first, with the lead of 8 points intact.

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I got a new deal...

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And an expansion was approved, but of only 1500 seats??? 

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