Cruzei-me agora mesmo com este vídeo. Além do cântico ser muito bom, é uma excelente demonstração do que deve ser viver o futebol. Por muito que o estraguem, se continuarmos a viver o nosso clube com orgulho e não nos vergarmos às forças que nos tentam derrubar, dentro e fora do campo, o futebol deve ser vivido assim: COMO UMA ENORME FESTA!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsOkaJOLNb4
Que esta festa se repita sempre e que hoje à noite haja motivos para uma festa ainda maior.
PS: Desculpem ser em link mas não consegui por directamente do Youtube (falta de jeito ou embirranço do blogger...)
SL
terça-feira, 30 de setembro de 2014
sábado, 27 de setembro de 2014
Colo
colo |ó|
(latim collum, -i, pescoço, gargalo de garrafa)
(latim collum, -i, pescoço, gargalo de garrafa)
s. m.
1. Parte ântero-superior do busto. =PESCOÇO
2. Parte posterior da cabeça de certos animais.
3. Parte superior do peito, acima dos seios, geralmente em relação ao corpo feminino.
4. Parte do corpo entre a cintura e os joelhos de pessoa sentada. = REGAÇO
5. Parte mais estreita ou apertada.
6. [Anatomia ] Parte estreita entre a cabeça e o corpo de alguns ossos (ex.: colo do fémur ).
7. Parte mais estreita de algumas concavidades (ex.: colo do útero).
8. Parte superior e estreita da garrafa, frasco, etc. = GARGALO
9. Boca de balão.
10. [Geografia ] Passagem entre montes ou elevações de terreno, geralmente mais larga que o desfiladeiro. = COLADA
ao colo: agarrado pelos braços junto ao peito.
com muito cuidado ou com muita protecção
colo |ó|
(grego kólon, -ou)
s. m.
(grego kólon, -ou)
[Anatomia ] Parte do intestino grosso entre o ceco e o recto
Plural: cólones.colo-
(grego kólon, -ou)
elem. de comp.
(grego kólon, -ou)
Exprime a noção de intestino grosso (ex.: colorrectal
Plural: cólones.Gosto particularmente da definição 10 pois faz-me lembrar as nádegas que se enfrentam e como elas adoram o colo. Gosto também do facto de ser também sinónimo de cólon, pois o que estamos a assistir é mesmo uma grande merda.
Confesso que não vi nada do jogo e é possível que não haja nada evidente. Mas quantos arranques de época o porto teve com estas expulsões, penaltis, golos mal validados e mal anulados, faltas por marcar ou marcadas em excesso. Ao crime nunca faltou imaginação. Nem capacidade para se espalhar.
lopatego: o treinador ideal do corrupto-mor
lopatego esqueceu-se (tal como quase toda a gente) que devia ter jogado com 10 desde o golo do Sporting. Antes da bola entrar, o Danilo mete claramente a mão à bola. Os pés dele estão em cima da linha, logo, é impossível a bola já ter entrado. O árbitro dá (bem) a lei da vantagem não assinalando pénalti, mas "esquece" a sanção disciplinar: um cartão vermelho óbvio. A jogar com 10 e com a entrada que o Sporting teve alguém acredita que o resultado fosse outro além da vitória? Acho que teria sido um massacre.
Como é possível alguém ainda se queixar (sem razão) depois disto?
Os corruptos têm de facto uma grande cara de pau e este lopatego é (mais um) treinador feito á medida.
SL
Como é possível alguém ainda se queixar (sem razão) depois disto?
Os corruptos têm de facto uma grande cara de pau e este lopatego é (mais um) treinador feito á medida.
SL
sexta-feira, 26 de setembro de 2014
Primeira vitória do dia!
A fifa anunciou que vai avançar com a proibição dos fundos de investimento no futebol. Excelente notícia, mas que levanta algumas questões:
1. A proibição tem efeitos retroactivos? Ou seja, os passes dos jogadores actualmente detidos por fundos têm de ser adquiridos na totalidade pelos clubes?
2. Caso tenham efeitos retroactivos, de quanto tempo disporão os clubes para regularizar a situação?
3. O que fazer nos casos em que a totalidade do passe do jogador está nas mãos de fundos (como acontece com o rodrigo e com o andré gomes)?
Este será um assunto que irá fazer correr muita tinta, mas que é uma excelente notícia, disso não há dúvidas. Vai tornar o futebol num negócio mais claro. Não muda tudo o que está mal mas é um bom princípio.
Venham as restantes vitórias do dia!
SL
1. A proibição tem efeitos retroactivos? Ou seja, os passes dos jogadores actualmente detidos por fundos têm de ser adquiridos na totalidade pelos clubes?
2. Caso tenham efeitos retroactivos, de quanto tempo disporão os clubes para regularizar a situação?
3. O que fazer nos casos em que a totalidade do passe do jogador está nas mãos de fundos (como acontece com o rodrigo e com o andré gomes)?
Este será um assunto que irá fazer correr muita tinta, mas que é uma excelente notícia, disso não há dúvidas. Vai tornar o futebol num negócio mais claro. Não muda tudo o que está mal mas é um bom princípio.
Venham as restantes vitórias do dia!
SL
Conversa para boi dormir...
Neste caso, é conversa para tentar com que certos bois durmam mais descansados. Na capa de hoje do jornal(?) o jogo está a seguinte frase:
"Mito abalado: I Liga tem mais formação do fcporto do que do Sporting"
É possível que assim seja, mas esse é um dado que apenas indica que a maior parte da formação do porto apenas serve, na melhor das hipóteses, para consumo interno. É um facto mais do que conhecido que a formação do Sporting é das que mais jogadores coloca nas principais ligas europeias. Num estudo do CIES apresentado em Outubro de 2013 o Sporting era o 4º clube europeu mais representado nas principais ligas europeias e o porto estava no 17º lugar. De referir que o Sporting tinha 52 jogadores da formação nas principais ligas europeias sendo que 11 eram nas cinco principais ligas. O porto tinha 37 e menos 10 nas principais ligas.
"Mito abalado: I Liga tem mais formação do fcporto do que do Sporting"
É possível que assim seja, mas esse é um dado que apenas indica que a maior parte da formação do porto apenas serve, na melhor das hipóteses, para consumo interno. É um facto mais do que conhecido que a formação do Sporting é das que mais jogadores coloca nas principais ligas europeias. Num estudo do CIES apresentado em Outubro de 2013 o Sporting era o 4º clube europeu mais representado nas principais ligas europeias e o porto estava no 17º lugar. De referir que o Sporting tinha 52 jogadores da formação nas principais ligas europeias sendo que 11 eram nas cinco principais ligas. O porto tinha 37 e menos 10 nas principais ligas.
Se olharmos para as convocatórias da selecção encontramos quantos jogadores da formação do porto? No Mundial eram 5 mas 4 com mais de 30 anos. Do Sporting eram 8 e apenas um com mais de 30 anos (Beto). Se a famosa renovação da Selecção realmente acontecer estes números irão ser ainda mais desequilibrados, com a entrada de jogadores como o Adrien, Cédric e mesmo o João Mário e saídas do ricardo costa, bruno alves, postiga e hugo almeida (este nem consegue arranjar clube). Do porto poderá entrar quem? rúben neves na melhor das hipóteses.
Isto já para não falar nos jogadores feitos "em casa" que actualmente estão nos plantéis de cada clube. O Sporting tem 9, o porto tem 2 (o kelvin entra para estas contas). Mas ainda havemos de ver na capa do jogo que um terço dos portugueses do plantel do porto são produtos da casa! Sim, o porto tem 3 portugueses no plantel...
Em conclusão, só um jornal que colaborou no que está neste vídeo se poderia "lembrar" de uma capa deste tipo. Enfim... Que os bois durmam consolados esta noite por terem mais jogadores da formação na primeira liga, porque vai ser a única coisa que os vai consolar depois do jogo!
FORÇA SPORTING!
SL
quinta-feira, 25 de setembro de 2014
Curtas sobre a merda do nosso futebol
pinto da costa, jacinto paixão e respectivos assistentes ilibados das acusações de corrupção. Para quem nunca viu, aqui fica a confissão do jacinto paixão sobre o que se passou nesse jogo, referindo ainda mais dois jogos em que foi corrompido pelo fcporto. Confesso que tudo isto me dá vómitos.
fcporto recusou entrar em campo acompanhado de crianças amanhã. Por mim acho muito bem. Devemos manter as nossas crianças longe de tudo o que esteja relacionado com um clube que faz o que vem mencionado no vídeo anterior.
O benfica teve resultados positivos pelo quinto ano positivo. O bes também teve resultados positivos em cinco anos consecutivos entre 2006 e 2010. Acho que a amizade entre o espírito santo e o vieira serviu também para os contabilistas partilharem truques. Quando o relatório da SAD for público e se eu tiver paciência volto a este tema. As contas consolidadas do clube são as mais fáceis de falsear e nem me vou dar ao trabalho de olhar para elas.
O benfica tem uma promoção em que os novos sócios recebem um mês de assinatura grátis do record. Podiam oferecer uma assinatura do jornal do clube... Espera, é isso que eles estão a fazer! Se fosse a eles fazia um hiper-pacote com o cm, o record e uma flash (para fazer volume), enrolava e assim já lhes entrava melhor no... pacote.
segunda-feira, 22 de setembro de 2014
Pena que cá em Portugal estes sejam assuntos que não interessam a ninguém
Na digestão de uma excelente vitória em Barcelos (com a cabeça no sítio foi outra coisa), deixo-vos um excelente artigo de investigação sobre o jorge mendes. Aprendi muitas coisas!
O original está aqui.
Jorge Mendes: the most powerful man in football?
From Diego Costa to Angel di María, the Portuguese super agent is responsible for the biggest deals in football but is also in apparent breach of Fifa regulations
Jorge Mendes, the Portuguese agent who has conducted many of the biggest transfers in European football, is serially involved in the third-party ownership of players in apparent breach of Fifa regulations, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Mendes, who brokered the year’s biggest deals, including Angel di María’s £59.7m move to Manchester United and Diego Costa’s £32m purchase by Chelsea, was seeking to attract €85m (£67m) from undeclared investors via offshore companies to buy stakes in players at clubs in Spain and Portugal, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The prospectus and further inquiries have shown that:
• Mendes and the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon advise five Jersey-based funds on more than £100m to be invested in buying “economic rights” in players.
• Mendes admits he has a conflict of interest, because he acts as the agent to players whose economic rights have been bought by the funds he advises; this appears to contravene Fifa regulations on agents.
• Sporting Lisbon say the funds which Mendes and Kenyon advise sought to buy stakes in players as a condition of players, advised by Mendes, renewing their contracts.
• Mendes claims to have conducted 68% of all player transactions at Portugal’s great clubs, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Porto, in the decade 2001-10.
The 20-year ascent of Mendes from Porto nightclub owner and friend of footballers to the beaming broker of the game’s most lucrative transfers has tracked the sport’s pay-TV-fuelled inflation itself, and Portugal’s status as a habitual exporter of players. Mendes built his name and the operation of his company, Gestifute, on attaining a remarkable dominance over the deals done by Portugal’s top three clubs, and he took several of these players on multi-million pound moves to England and Spain. There he has extended his influence, particularly after his client, José Mourinho, made the journey himself from Porto after 2004, to sign as the manager at Chelsea, then Internazionale and Real Madrid, now Chelsea again.
Mendes’ work reached stunning fruition this summer, when he was seen conducting the biggest moves of talent and money not only from his home country’s financially hollowed out clubs but of the whole European football player transfer market. James Rodríguez, his reputation glowing from his World Cup excellence, was signed by Real Madrid for £71m from Monaco, to where Mendes brokered his move from Porto only last year for €45m (£38.5m). Porto declared in its annual report that it paid Gestifute €4.4m (£3.6m) for “intermediation service costs” on that deal; the amount paid by Real this year has not been disclosed.
Angel di Maria moved to Manchester United for a shade under £60m.Angel di María moved to Manchester United from Real Madrid for a shade under £60m.
Di María, deemed surplus stock at Real Madrid, came to Old Trafford for almost £60m in Manchester United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes splash-out; a grinning Mendes’ was seen with Louis van Gaal in the 4x4 at United’s Carrington training ground. Radamel Falcao, whose €40m (£32m) sale by Porto to Atlético Madrid in 2011 was brokered by Mendes – Gestifute shared €3.7m (£3m) “intermediation service costs” with another company, Orel – moved to Monaco last year for £50m, then Mendes brought him to United this summer on an extraordinarily costly loan. Eliaquim Mangala, for whom Manchester City paid £32m to Porto – 33% of Mangala’s “economic rights” had been owned by the Malta-based third party ownership fund, Doyen – was another Mendes move.
Costa brought his goalscoring eye from Atlético Madrid, where Mendes boasts of powerful influence, to Mourinho at Chelsea, who paid £32m. Reports have stated that 30% of Costa’s “economic rights” were owned by an offshore fund but sources close to the signing say in fact there was no third-party ownership of Costa.
Unquestionably true, however, is that Mendes, as well as acting as an agent for these and many other players, and being paid by clubs as a transfer “intermediary”, is serially involved with Kenyon in advising on the third-party ownership of economic rights in players.
The Guardian has seen a document, a prospectus from 2012 seeking to raise €85m (£67m) to buy stakes in footballers via Gibraltar, a tax haven, for a fund named Quality Sports V Investments LP, registered in Jersey, another tax haven. Mendes’ Gestifute agency and Kenyon’s company, Opto, are described as advisors to the fund, helping to identify players, make “partnerships” with “development clubs” in Spain and Portgual, and using their “relationships” with clubs in the “Big 10” – Europe’s and the world’s richest – who will then buy the players.
The prospectus boasts of Mendes’ dominance in Portugal, and his and Kenyon’s connections in football, including Mourinho. The document describes the great clubs of Portugal: Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, the smaller Portuguese club SC Braga, and last season’s La Liga winners and Champions League finalists Atlético Madrid as “partner clubs”. It suggests the fund will do substantial business with them, buying stakes in players who will then be sold on, at a substantial profit to the investors.
The standard justification by funds and clubs for third-party ownership, which is condemned by Uefa and banned by the Premier League, is that such funds provide clubs with money they need to buy or keep players. That rationale, which Uefa and the Premier League rejects, arguing that third-party ownership undermines clubs’ and the game’s financial health and integrity, is not mentioned anywhere in the 225-page prospectus. It focuses firmly on the money investors can make from a “unique opportunity to invest in football”.
With graphs showing the exponential financial growth of the modern transfer market, the prospectus says it is aiming for a startling annual profit: 32%. The fund will “execute the Investment Strategy”, the document promises, through “the expertise of the Investment Advisors, [companies] represented by Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes,” who “have extensive experience working within the football industry.” Mendes and Kenyon have “extensive relationships with clubs in the Big 10 that have the financial capacity and incentive to invest in the most talented, high-value football players”.
The plan is for the fund to advance the money to an Irish-registered company, Quality Football Ireland IV Limited, which will buy the stakes in players. The document says of Mendes and Kenyon that they have: “… developed many relationships throughout the football community. By leveraging these relationships, Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes have demonstrated a proven track record in brokering football Transfers [sic].”
There is no explanation of what is meant by Kenyon and Mendes “leveraging relationships” within football clubs to make transfers happen.
The document makes clear that Mendes remains a players’ agent – stating that he represents “several of the world’s top coaches and footballers”, including Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Several transfers are cited in evidence for the track record of Mendes and Kenyon, including Ronaldo’s €15m (£12m) move to Manchester United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon, when Kenyon was United’s chief executive and Mendes was Ronaldo’s agent; and Tiago Mendes’ 2004 move from Benfica to join Mourinho at Chelsea, where Kenyon had moved to become chief executive after Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
The document lists four other funds investing in third-party ownership of players which it says Kenyon and Mendes have advised. These are all Jersey-listed partnerships, as outlined by the Guardian earlier this year when we revealed that Chelsea strongly appear to be involved in the third of these funds, Quality Sports III Investments (since renamed Burnaby). Altogether, the four funds have raised £46.8m, have fully spent that money buying player stakes, and “are on track to achieve the target returns”.
A report on third-party ownership prepared for Fifa earlier this month by the research organisations Centre de Droit et d’Economie du Sport (CDES) and Centre International d’Etude Du Sport (CIES), which the Guardian has seen, emphasises there is a conflict of interest: where an agent whose prime duty should be to act in the best interests of his client, the player, in fact owns a stake in him and so has a financial interest in having him sold.
Third-party ownership, the report concludes, cements a system in which players must be sold before their contracts are served, so that their clubs, and the funds which have advanced the clubs money, can cash in. Some of football’s most powerful agents have become involved in third-party ownership, the researchers found, as a means of extending their influence, and gaining access to more players.
The Quality Sports V Investment prospectus deals with Mendes and the question of conflicts of interest. It says: “The Fund is subject to a number of actual and potential conflicts of interest.” These include “inherent conflicts” in the way Gestifute will “provide services” to the fund and to the company investing the money, Quality Football Ireland IV Ltd based in Dublin, and the “services” and “sub-advisory services” Kenyon’s company Opto will provide to the fund, QFI IV, and Gestifute. Gestifute and Opto “may carry on activities for other investment funds or entities,” with different “investment programmes”, the document says, and “provide advisory services” to other funds established since 2010 which have “equivalent investment objectives” to the fund.
“There could be actual or potential conflicts of interest between those funds and [this Quality Sports V Investments] fund,” the prospectus says. “Under the general heading “Conflicts of Interest”, the document declares that Mendes will act as the agent for players in whom stakes are bought by the fund.
“Jorge Mendes (either directly or through his corporate vehicles) acts or may act as agent for, or otherwise represents or may represent, certain of the Investee Players or potential Investee Players, and may be remunerated independently in that capacity.”
This appears to make the world’s most celebrated football intermediary “super-agent” in breach of Fifa’s agents regulations, which remain in force. Regulation 19.8 states that: “Players’ agents shall avoid all conflicts of interest in the course of their activity.”
Regulation 29.1 imposes an obligation on clubs not to pay any part of a transfer fee to a player’s agent, and specifically prohibits the agent “owning any interest in any transfer compensation or future transfer value of a player”.
Mel Stein, chairman of the Association of Football Agents in England, argues that agents can represent a player and be a broker in his transfer, if efforts are made to avoid a conflict. However, he says: “What is not acceptable is seeking to earn money from both ends of a transfer without ensuring that there is no conflict. I believe that third-party ownership makes that impossible to achieve.”
Mendes and Gestifute declined requests for an interview and did not respond to specific questions about his involvement in the third-party ownership funds and the apparent conflict of interest with his duties as an agent. Fifa would not provide an answer to whether an agent like Mendes, who is also involved in third-party ownership, is by definition acting in breach of their regulations.
A spokeswoman for Fifa said in response to that question: “We cannot provide comments based on a hypothetical situation. The Disciplinary Committee decides on a matter after analysis of all the specific circumstances pertaining to a case.”
World football’s governing body is believed never to have brought any proceedings against any club or person in relation to third-party ownership funds, which clubs are prohibited from allowing to “influence” them, and there is not understood to be any investigation into the activities of Mendes.
The prospectus seen by the Guardian illustrates, with coloured pie charts, Mendes’ startling dominance of Portuguese football. Famously, he is always said to have brokered his first significant deal in 1997, the move from Portugal’s Primeira Liga club Vitória Guimãraes to Spain’s Deportivo La Coruña for the goalkeeper Nuno Espirito Santo.
Mendes, seen smiling by players’ sides ever since, has always been said to have accumulated a huge share of deals, and this document sets it out explicitly, that from 2001-2010, Mendes had “unparalleled success in the Portuguese transfer market”.
Mendes, it says, conducted transfers worth 78% of Sporting Lisbon’s total earnings of €88m (£70m) in that decade. At Benfica, the figure is cited as 51% of €107m (£85m) in transfer deals. Porto exported most of Mourinho’s 2004 Champions League-winning squad – including Paulo Ferreira (£13.2m) and Ricardo Carvalho (£19.85m) – to Chelsea, where Mourinho had joined as manager and Kenyon was chief executive. Further deals included Pedro Mendes (£2m), who went to Tottenham Hotspur; Deco, sold to Barcelona in a €21m (£17m) swap deal with midfielder Ricardo Quaresma; then Maniche to Dinamo Moscow and 31-year-old Nuno Valente, who joined Everton for £1.5m. Mendes is stated to have conducted 70% by value of Porto’s transfers between 2001-10 – €238.4m (£189m) worth of deals, out of €340m (£270m).
In total, Mendes is said to have conducted 68% by financial value of all the deals done in the whole decade by Portugal’s top three clubs: €362.2m (£287m) of players sold, out of €535m (£425m) “transactions” concluded in total by the clubs.
There are some in Portuguese football who see this dominance by one agent as unhealthy, reflecting concern expressed in the CIES/CDES report to Fifa of the transfer market’s “oligopolisation” by a few powerful intermediaries. Mendes represented or brokered the transfers of most of Portgual’s national team, and acted for Carlos Queiroz, who was the coach from 2008 to 2010.
The Guardian asked Portugal’s football association, the FPF, whether Mendes’ dominance as illustrated by the document and his representation of so many players and coaches gave any cause for concern. A spokesman replied: “The Portuguese FA is not aware of the documents you mention and has no comments to make on this matter.”
Sporting Lisbon, recently, has had plenty of comments to make. The new president, Bruno de Carvalho, has denounced as a “menace” and “monster” the funds to whom majority stakes in almost the club’s entire squad were sold before he was elected in March 2013 and vowed to end the practice. Sporting’s latest annual report listed eight players, as of 30 June this year, majority or 50% owned by three of the companies in the structure advised by Kenyon and Mendes: Quality Football Ireland; Quality Football Ireland III (in which Chelsea appear to be involved), and Quality Football Fund Ireland.
Sporting have told the Guardian that some of these stakes in players were bought by the funds advised by Mendes and Kenyon when the players’ contracts with Sporting were renewed, with Mendes negotiating as their agent. The stakes appeared to De Carvalho’s regime to have been sold as a condition of the players renewing their contracts, which the club argues was a “distortion” and a conflict of interest.
A Sporting spokesman, discussing Mendes’ status as an agent and his involvement with third-party ownership funds, said: “This is a situation that Sporting does not agree with. Mainly in situations where the conditions for the renewal of the players’ contracts depended upon the grant from Sporting of those economic rights.”
Mendes and Kenyon did not respond to the Guardian’s question about whether economic rights in players were sold to the funds they advise as a condition of a player, represented by Mendes, renewing his contract. However, Sporting said they have been told by the Quality Ireland companies that Mendes does not play a role in their management.
Having risen, and moved, with football’s quantum leap to a business of multi-billion-pound money flows and shifting centres of spending, Mendes now bestrides the game, from delivering Di María to a flapping Manchester United, to advising funds buying stakes in Portuguese players he also represents.
Mendes’ first major international deal came in 2002 when he brokered the then 19-year-old midfielder Hugo Viana’s transfer from Sporting to Newcastle United, who paid £8.5m for a player who would start just 16 Premier League matches for them. Mendes’ break into English football was achieved in partnership with the Manchester-based agency, Formation, who then claimed Mendes broke their agreement when sealing his truly breakthrough deal the following year: Ronaldo’s move from Sporting to United.
Kenyon then moved to Chelsea, where he and Mendes negotiated Mourinho’s hiring as the new manager, the signings of Carvalho and Ferreira to join him from Porto, and Tiago Mendes, from Benfica. Formation sued in 2005, claiming their agreement required Gestifute to split the agents’ fees from Chelsea, of €2.9m (£2.3m). In 2011 Formation announced they had settled the case, with the payment by Gestifute, net of legal costs, of €205,000 (£163,000).
In 2007, Mendes negotiated the £27m purchase by United of Anderson, from Porto, and, for £25.5m from Sporting Lisbon, Nani, whose previous agent, Ana Almeida, complained she had been sidelined. The same summer, Mendes broke through to Real Madrid, when the Spanish giant signed central defender Pepe for €30m (£24m) from Porto.
Mendes’ influence at Real greatly extended when he negotiated Ronaldo’s £80m move from United in 2009, then Mourinho’s arrival as the coach in 2010. Di María, signed from Benfica for £21m, and Carvalho, from Chelsea for £6.7m, were signed immediately, Fábio Coentrão, for £25m from Benfica, the following year, all deals brokered by Mendes.
In 2010, came his most enduringly curious deal: United’s signing of Bebé, from Vitória Guimarães, for £7.4m). The player, who had a troubled childhood and grew up in care, never played in any club’s academy, unlike Nani, Anderson, Ronaldo and the rest, played in the Homeless World Cup, then scored goals in one season in the Portuguese third division, before playing pre-season friendlies with Guimarães.
The club told its members that Mendes bought 30% of Bebé’s economic rights just before the move – rather undermining the argument that the sale of economic rights enables clubs to hold on to players – and, with a 10% agent’s fee, was paid €3.6m (£2.9m) of the £7.4m from United. Goncalo Reis, Bebé’s agent, complained to the PFP and Fifa that Mendes had poached the player; later Portuguese police announced an investigation into the transfer, but no results of it are known and Mendes has faced no disciplinary charges.
Emilio Macedo, the Vitória president, said approvingly of Mendes: “This country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country. This is like an export.”
Bebé, said by United to have been recommended by their scouts in Portugal but never seen by Ferguson, started not a single Premier League match, then was loaned to Besiktas, where several Mendes-represented players have gone, then Portuguese clubs Rio Ave and Pacos Ferreira, before Benfica bought him this summer, spending £2.4m.
Last year, Mendes was called to help with the new Monaco project financed by the Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlev, and he organised the arrivals of Rodríguez, Falcao, Carvalho, and midfield force João Moutinho, from Porto. This summer, Rybolovlev decided to restrain his spending, and Mendes brokered the sale of Rodríguez to Real Madrid and loan of Falcao to United on deadline day.
Mendes is said now to be involved with the Singapore businessman Peter Lim, who has bought an indebted Valencia. The club’s coach, appointed after two seasons at Rio Ave, is Nuno Espirito Santo, Mendes’ first ever client, back when, a nightclub owner, he ventured into deal-making in the beautiful game.
Football has changed vastly since, becoming an industry in which super-rich Premier League clubs and Spain’s top two are bulk buyers of talent. Mendes, agent, transfer intermediary, advisor to anonymous investors buying stakes in players, “partner” to smaller clubs, “leverager” of relationships in rich ones, has ridden that change. He has made a huge, unthinkable amount of money, and made himself indispensable too, as an orchestrator, an oiler of the wheels.
O original está aqui.
Jorge Mendes: the most powerful man in football?
From Diego Costa to Angel di María, the Portuguese super agent is responsible for the biggest deals in football but is also in apparent breach of Fifa regulations
Jorge Mendes, the Portuguese agent who has conducted many of the biggest transfers in European football, is serially involved in the third-party ownership of players in apparent breach of Fifa regulations, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Mendes, who brokered the year’s biggest deals, including Angel di María’s £59.7m move to Manchester United and Diego Costa’s £32m purchase by Chelsea, was seeking to attract €85m (£67m) from undeclared investors via offshore companies to buy stakes in players at clubs in Spain and Portugal, according to a document seen by the Guardian. The prospectus and further inquiries have shown that:
• Mendes and the former Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon advise five Jersey-based funds on more than £100m to be invested in buying “economic rights” in players.
• Mendes admits he has a conflict of interest, because he acts as the agent to players whose economic rights have been bought by the funds he advises; this appears to contravene Fifa regulations on agents.
• Sporting Lisbon say the funds which Mendes and Kenyon advise sought to buy stakes in players as a condition of players, advised by Mendes, renewing their contracts.
• Mendes claims to have conducted 68% of all player transactions at Portugal’s great clubs, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica and Porto, in the decade 2001-10.
The 20-year ascent of Mendes from Porto nightclub owner and friend of footballers to the beaming broker of the game’s most lucrative transfers has tracked the sport’s pay-TV-fuelled inflation itself, and Portugal’s status as a habitual exporter of players. Mendes built his name and the operation of his company, Gestifute, on attaining a remarkable dominance over the deals done by Portugal’s top three clubs, and he took several of these players on multi-million pound moves to England and Spain. There he has extended his influence, particularly after his client, José Mourinho, made the journey himself from Porto after 2004, to sign as the manager at Chelsea, then Internazionale and Real Madrid, now Chelsea again.
Mendes’ work reached stunning fruition this summer, when he was seen conducting the biggest moves of talent and money not only from his home country’s financially hollowed out clubs but of the whole European football player transfer market. James Rodríguez, his reputation glowing from his World Cup excellence, was signed by Real Madrid for £71m from Monaco, to where Mendes brokered his move from Porto only last year for €45m (£38.5m). Porto declared in its annual report that it paid Gestifute €4.4m (£3.6m) for “intermediation service costs” on that deal; the amount paid by Real this year has not been disclosed.
Angel di Maria moved to Manchester United for a shade under £60m.Angel di María moved to Manchester United from Real Madrid for a shade under £60m.
Di María, deemed surplus stock at Real Madrid, came to Old Trafford for almost £60m in Manchester United’s post-Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes splash-out; a grinning Mendes’ was seen with Louis van Gaal in the 4x4 at United’s Carrington training ground. Radamel Falcao, whose €40m (£32m) sale by Porto to Atlético Madrid in 2011 was brokered by Mendes – Gestifute shared €3.7m (£3m) “intermediation service costs” with another company, Orel – moved to Monaco last year for £50m, then Mendes brought him to United this summer on an extraordinarily costly loan. Eliaquim Mangala, for whom Manchester City paid £32m to Porto – 33% of Mangala’s “economic rights” had been owned by the Malta-based third party ownership fund, Doyen – was another Mendes move.
Costa brought his goalscoring eye from Atlético Madrid, where Mendes boasts of powerful influence, to Mourinho at Chelsea, who paid £32m. Reports have stated that 30% of Costa’s “economic rights” were owned by an offshore fund but sources close to the signing say in fact there was no third-party ownership of Costa.
Unquestionably true, however, is that Mendes, as well as acting as an agent for these and many other players, and being paid by clubs as a transfer “intermediary”, is serially involved with Kenyon in advising on the third-party ownership of economic rights in players.
The Guardian has seen a document, a prospectus from 2012 seeking to raise €85m (£67m) to buy stakes in footballers via Gibraltar, a tax haven, for a fund named Quality Sports V Investments LP, registered in Jersey, another tax haven. Mendes’ Gestifute agency and Kenyon’s company, Opto, are described as advisors to the fund, helping to identify players, make “partnerships” with “development clubs” in Spain and Portgual, and using their “relationships” with clubs in the “Big 10” – Europe’s and the world’s richest – who will then buy the players.
The prospectus boasts of Mendes’ dominance in Portugal, and his and Kenyon’s connections in football, including Mourinho. The document describes the great clubs of Portugal: Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, the smaller Portuguese club SC Braga, and last season’s La Liga winners and Champions League finalists Atlético Madrid as “partner clubs”. It suggests the fund will do substantial business with them, buying stakes in players who will then be sold on, at a substantial profit to the investors.
The standard justification by funds and clubs for third-party ownership, which is condemned by Uefa and banned by the Premier League, is that such funds provide clubs with money they need to buy or keep players. That rationale, which Uefa and the Premier League rejects, arguing that third-party ownership undermines clubs’ and the game’s financial health and integrity, is not mentioned anywhere in the 225-page prospectus. It focuses firmly on the money investors can make from a “unique opportunity to invest in football”.
With graphs showing the exponential financial growth of the modern transfer market, the prospectus says it is aiming for a startling annual profit: 32%. The fund will “execute the Investment Strategy”, the document promises, through “the expertise of the Investment Advisors, [companies] represented by Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes,” who “have extensive experience working within the football industry.” Mendes and Kenyon have “extensive relationships with clubs in the Big 10 that have the financial capacity and incentive to invest in the most talented, high-value football players”.
The plan is for the fund to advance the money to an Irish-registered company, Quality Football Ireland IV Limited, which will buy the stakes in players. The document says of Mendes and Kenyon that they have: “… developed many relationships throughout the football community. By leveraging these relationships, Peter Kenyon and Jorge Mendes have demonstrated a proven track record in brokering football Transfers [sic].”
There is no explanation of what is meant by Kenyon and Mendes “leveraging relationships” within football clubs to make transfers happen.
The document makes clear that Mendes remains a players’ agent – stating that he represents “several of the world’s top coaches and footballers”, including Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Several transfers are cited in evidence for the track record of Mendes and Kenyon, including Ronaldo’s €15m (£12m) move to Manchester United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon, when Kenyon was United’s chief executive and Mendes was Ronaldo’s agent; and Tiago Mendes’ 2004 move from Benfica to join Mourinho at Chelsea, where Kenyon had moved to become chief executive after Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
The document lists four other funds investing in third-party ownership of players which it says Kenyon and Mendes have advised. These are all Jersey-listed partnerships, as outlined by the Guardian earlier this year when we revealed that Chelsea strongly appear to be involved in the third of these funds, Quality Sports III Investments (since renamed Burnaby). Altogether, the four funds have raised £46.8m, have fully spent that money buying player stakes, and “are on track to achieve the target returns”.
A report on third-party ownership prepared for Fifa earlier this month by the research organisations Centre de Droit et d’Economie du Sport (CDES) and Centre International d’Etude Du Sport (CIES), which the Guardian has seen, emphasises there is a conflict of interest: where an agent whose prime duty should be to act in the best interests of his client, the player, in fact owns a stake in him and so has a financial interest in having him sold.
Third-party ownership, the report concludes, cements a system in which players must be sold before their contracts are served, so that their clubs, and the funds which have advanced the clubs money, can cash in. Some of football’s most powerful agents have become involved in third-party ownership, the researchers found, as a means of extending their influence, and gaining access to more players.
The Quality Sports V Investment prospectus deals with Mendes and the question of conflicts of interest. It says: “The Fund is subject to a number of actual and potential conflicts of interest.” These include “inherent conflicts” in the way Gestifute will “provide services” to the fund and to the company investing the money, Quality Football Ireland IV Ltd based in Dublin, and the “services” and “sub-advisory services” Kenyon’s company Opto will provide to the fund, QFI IV, and Gestifute. Gestifute and Opto “may carry on activities for other investment funds or entities,” with different “investment programmes”, the document says, and “provide advisory services” to other funds established since 2010 which have “equivalent investment objectives” to the fund.
“There could be actual or potential conflicts of interest between those funds and [this Quality Sports V Investments] fund,” the prospectus says. “Under the general heading “Conflicts of Interest”, the document declares that Mendes will act as the agent for players in whom stakes are bought by the fund.
“Jorge Mendes (either directly or through his corporate vehicles) acts or may act as agent for, or otherwise represents or may represent, certain of the Investee Players or potential Investee Players, and may be remunerated independently in that capacity.”
This appears to make the world’s most celebrated football intermediary “super-agent” in breach of Fifa’s agents regulations, which remain in force. Regulation 19.8 states that: “Players’ agents shall avoid all conflicts of interest in the course of their activity.”
Regulation 29.1 imposes an obligation on clubs not to pay any part of a transfer fee to a player’s agent, and specifically prohibits the agent “owning any interest in any transfer compensation or future transfer value of a player”.
Mel Stein, chairman of the Association of Football Agents in England, argues that agents can represent a player and be a broker in his transfer, if efforts are made to avoid a conflict. However, he says: “What is not acceptable is seeking to earn money from both ends of a transfer without ensuring that there is no conflict. I believe that third-party ownership makes that impossible to achieve.”
Mendes and Gestifute declined requests for an interview and did not respond to specific questions about his involvement in the third-party ownership funds and the apparent conflict of interest with his duties as an agent. Fifa would not provide an answer to whether an agent like Mendes, who is also involved in third-party ownership, is by definition acting in breach of their regulations.
A spokeswoman for Fifa said in response to that question: “We cannot provide comments based on a hypothetical situation. The Disciplinary Committee decides on a matter after analysis of all the specific circumstances pertaining to a case.”
World football’s governing body is believed never to have brought any proceedings against any club or person in relation to third-party ownership funds, which clubs are prohibited from allowing to “influence” them, and there is not understood to be any investigation into the activities of Mendes.
The prospectus seen by the Guardian illustrates, with coloured pie charts, Mendes’ startling dominance of Portuguese football. Famously, he is always said to have brokered his first significant deal in 1997, the move from Portugal’s Primeira Liga club Vitória Guimãraes to Spain’s Deportivo La Coruña for the goalkeeper Nuno Espirito Santo.
Mendes, seen smiling by players’ sides ever since, has always been said to have accumulated a huge share of deals, and this document sets it out explicitly, that from 2001-2010, Mendes had “unparalleled success in the Portuguese transfer market”.
Mendes, it says, conducted transfers worth 78% of Sporting Lisbon’s total earnings of €88m (£70m) in that decade. At Benfica, the figure is cited as 51% of €107m (£85m) in transfer deals. Porto exported most of Mourinho’s 2004 Champions League-winning squad – including Paulo Ferreira (£13.2m) and Ricardo Carvalho (£19.85m) – to Chelsea, where Mourinho had joined as manager and Kenyon was chief executive. Further deals included Pedro Mendes (£2m), who went to Tottenham Hotspur; Deco, sold to Barcelona in a €21m (£17m) swap deal with midfielder Ricardo Quaresma; then Maniche to Dinamo Moscow and 31-year-old Nuno Valente, who joined Everton for £1.5m. Mendes is stated to have conducted 70% by value of Porto’s transfers between 2001-10 – €238.4m (£189m) worth of deals, out of €340m (£270m).
In total, Mendes is said to have conducted 68% by financial value of all the deals done in the whole decade by Portugal’s top three clubs: €362.2m (£287m) of players sold, out of €535m (£425m) “transactions” concluded in total by the clubs.
There are some in Portuguese football who see this dominance by one agent as unhealthy, reflecting concern expressed in the CIES/CDES report to Fifa of the transfer market’s “oligopolisation” by a few powerful intermediaries. Mendes represented or brokered the transfers of most of Portgual’s national team, and acted for Carlos Queiroz, who was the coach from 2008 to 2010.
The Guardian asked Portugal’s football association, the FPF, whether Mendes’ dominance as illustrated by the document and his representation of so many players and coaches gave any cause for concern. A spokesman replied: “The Portuguese FA is not aware of the documents you mention and has no comments to make on this matter.”
Sporting Lisbon, recently, has had plenty of comments to make. The new president, Bruno de Carvalho, has denounced as a “menace” and “monster” the funds to whom majority stakes in almost the club’s entire squad were sold before he was elected in March 2013 and vowed to end the practice. Sporting’s latest annual report listed eight players, as of 30 June this year, majority or 50% owned by three of the companies in the structure advised by Kenyon and Mendes: Quality Football Ireland; Quality Football Ireland III (in which Chelsea appear to be involved), and Quality Football Fund Ireland.
Sporting have told the Guardian that some of these stakes in players were bought by the funds advised by Mendes and Kenyon when the players’ contracts with Sporting were renewed, with Mendes negotiating as their agent. The stakes appeared to De Carvalho’s regime to have been sold as a condition of the players renewing their contracts, which the club argues was a “distortion” and a conflict of interest.
A Sporting spokesman, discussing Mendes’ status as an agent and his involvement with third-party ownership funds, said: “This is a situation that Sporting does not agree with. Mainly in situations where the conditions for the renewal of the players’ contracts depended upon the grant from Sporting of those economic rights.”
Mendes and Kenyon did not respond to the Guardian’s question about whether economic rights in players were sold to the funds they advise as a condition of a player, represented by Mendes, renewing his contract. However, Sporting said they have been told by the Quality Ireland companies that Mendes does not play a role in their management.
Having risen, and moved, with football’s quantum leap to a business of multi-billion-pound money flows and shifting centres of spending, Mendes now bestrides the game, from delivering Di María to a flapping Manchester United, to advising funds buying stakes in Portuguese players he also represents.
Mendes’ first major international deal came in 2002 when he brokered the then 19-year-old midfielder Hugo Viana’s transfer from Sporting to Newcastle United, who paid £8.5m for a player who would start just 16 Premier League matches for them. Mendes’ break into English football was achieved in partnership with the Manchester-based agency, Formation, who then claimed Mendes broke their agreement when sealing his truly breakthrough deal the following year: Ronaldo’s move from Sporting to United.
Kenyon then moved to Chelsea, where he and Mendes negotiated Mourinho’s hiring as the new manager, the signings of Carvalho and Ferreira to join him from Porto, and Tiago Mendes, from Benfica. Formation sued in 2005, claiming their agreement required Gestifute to split the agents’ fees from Chelsea, of €2.9m (£2.3m). In 2011 Formation announced they had settled the case, with the payment by Gestifute, net of legal costs, of €205,000 (£163,000).
In 2007, Mendes negotiated the £27m purchase by United of Anderson, from Porto, and, for £25.5m from Sporting Lisbon, Nani, whose previous agent, Ana Almeida, complained she had been sidelined. The same summer, Mendes broke through to Real Madrid, when the Spanish giant signed central defender Pepe for €30m (£24m) from Porto.
Mendes’ influence at Real greatly extended when he negotiated Ronaldo’s £80m move from United in 2009, then Mourinho’s arrival as the coach in 2010. Di María, signed from Benfica for £21m, and Carvalho, from Chelsea for £6.7m, were signed immediately, Fábio Coentrão, for £25m from Benfica, the following year, all deals brokered by Mendes.
In 2010, came his most enduringly curious deal: United’s signing of Bebé, from Vitória Guimarães, for £7.4m). The player, who had a troubled childhood and grew up in care, never played in any club’s academy, unlike Nani, Anderson, Ronaldo and the rest, played in the Homeless World Cup, then scored goals in one season in the Portuguese third division, before playing pre-season friendlies with Guimarães.
The club told its members that Mendes bought 30% of Bebé’s economic rights just before the move – rather undermining the argument that the sale of economic rights enables clubs to hold on to players – and, with a 10% agent’s fee, was paid €3.6m (£2.9m) of the £7.4m from United. Goncalo Reis, Bebé’s agent, complained to the PFP and Fifa that Mendes had poached the player; later Portuguese police announced an investigation into the transfer, but no results of it are known and Mendes has faced no disciplinary charges.
Emilio Macedo, the Vitória president, said approvingly of Mendes: “This country owes him a lot because he handles large transfers and brings money into the country. This is like an export.”
Bebé, said by United to have been recommended by their scouts in Portugal but never seen by Ferguson, started not a single Premier League match, then was loaned to Besiktas, where several Mendes-represented players have gone, then Portuguese clubs Rio Ave and Pacos Ferreira, before Benfica bought him this summer, spending £2.4m.
Last year, Mendes was called to help with the new Monaco project financed by the Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlev, and he organised the arrivals of Rodríguez, Falcao, Carvalho, and midfield force João Moutinho, from Porto. This summer, Rybolovlev decided to restrain his spending, and Mendes brokered the sale of Rodríguez to Real Madrid and loan of Falcao to United on deadline day.
Mendes is said now to be involved with the Singapore businessman Peter Lim, who has bought an indebted Valencia. The club’s coach, appointed after two seasons at Rio Ave, is Nuno Espirito Santo, Mendes’ first ever client, back when, a nightclub owner, he ventured into deal-making in the beautiful game.
Football has changed vastly since, becoming an industry in which super-rich Premier League clubs and Spain’s top two are bulk buyers of talent. Mendes, agent, transfer intermediary, advisor to anonymous investors buying stakes in players, “partner” to smaller clubs, “leverager” of relationships in rich ones, has ridden that change. He has made a huge, unthinkable amount of money, and made himself indispensable too, as an orchestrator, an oiler of the wheels.
quinta-feira, 18 de setembro de 2014
Onde está o problema? Na cabeça!
Depois de cinco jogos oficiais, é para mim evidente que este Sporting está com problemas e que esses problemas têm muito que ver com a vertente psicológica do jogo. Esses problemas revelam-se a vários níveis:
1. Como equipa - Em 2 dos 5 jogos oficiais nesta época sofremos golos nos descontos. Contra a académica o golo nasce num lance que inclui um corte patético do Carrillo para dentro da área e uma enorme passividade do Paulo Oliveira e do Rosell. Ontem, a um corte mal conseguido do Sarr (mas que ainda era possível emendar) Maurício tem uma ridícula abordagem ao lance, fazendo uma rosca que se torna numa assistência para golo. Em qualquer dos casos jogadores mais concentrados e focados teriam feito melhor. Convém relembrar que já na pré-época tínhamos sofrido golos nos descontos em dois jogos, contra a lazio e contra o al ittihad, tendo empatado ambos os jogos;
2. Individualmente - Há vários jogadores em sub-rendimento em comparação com a época passada. O Jefferson apesar de continuar esforçado, todos os golos sofridos na Liga têm intervenção dele, principalmente por falta de agressividade na abordagem aos lances. O Maurício está terrível. Parece querer ser o patrão da defesa e não está talhado para esse papel. Tem acumulado erros graves em quase todos os jogos, atingindo o expoente máximo no golo do maribor. O William Carvalho está uma sombra do que foi na época passada. Parece mais lento, passivo e, por vezes alheado do jogo. Basta ver a quantidade anormal de perdas de bola e passes falhados para ver que algo se passa. Em qualquer destes casos tenho a certeza que podem fazer mais;
3. Problemas de finalização - Quantos golos cantados já falhámos nestes 5 jogos? Ontem, o Mané falha um golo com uma finalização de cabeça na pequena área com um grau de dificuldade baixo, num lance semelhante a outro do Slimani frente ao belenenses. Em ambos os casos dá a clara sensação que o medo de falhar é tal que a única preocupação é tentar acertar na baliza, o que costuma significar níveis de confiança baixos. A isto acresce o facto de termos dominado de forma clara os dois últimos jogos (mesmo sem fazer exibições brilhantes) e de ambos sairmos com empates. Basta olhar para as estatísticas: belenenses - 68% de posse de bola, 25 remates (contra 4 do adversário) e 1 golo; maribor - 62% de posse, 22 remates (11 do adversário) e 1 golo;
4. Discurso do treinador - Quantas vezes já ouvimos Marco Silva falar em inexperiência na última semana? Com este discurso, o treinador parece estar a fazer um auto-diagnóstico do seu principal problema e que, ao mesmo tempo, parece estar a intranquilizar o plantel. A falta de experiência do Marco Silva está a notar-se, principalmente no discurso. Já houve várias conferências de imprensa este ano em que dei por mim a dizer: "este gajo não devia ter dito isto!". Essa é uma área em que o Jardim era bastante competente e a diferença tem sido óbvia. Na comunicação para o exterior, não tinha grandes tiradas mas também não dizia o que não devia. Tinha um discurso simples e superficial, mas eficaz. Marco Silva devia falar menos com o coração e mais com a cabeça e parar, de uma vez por todas, com a questão da falta de experiência.
É claro que há questões de qualidade em alguns jogadores que podem também ser discutidas, o mesmo se passando com algumas das opções técnicas que estão a ser tomadas, mas um dos principais problemas parece-me estar na cabeça e esse é um problema que cabe ao Marco Silva resolver.
Atenção que não quero com isto dizer que devemos começar já a pedir para rolar cabeças, até porque me parece que os princípios de jogo do Marco Silva são interessantes e que podem dar frutos a médio prazo. Os espaços estão normalmente bem ocupados, conseguimos dominar os jogos com relativa facilidade e criamos muitas situações de golo. Resolvendo os problemas de "cabeça" e ajustando algumas opções como, por exemplo, jogar com dois centrais lentos com o bloco defensivo tão subido como aconteceu contar o belenenses ou a insistência em alguns jogadores que não estão em bom momento e ainda podemos fazer coisas interessantes esta época.
SL
1. Como equipa - Em 2 dos 5 jogos oficiais nesta época sofremos golos nos descontos. Contra a académica o golo nasce num lance que inclui um corte patético do Carrillo para dentro da área e uma enorme passividade do Paulo Oliveira e do Rosell. Ontem, a um corte mal conseguido do Sarr (mas que ainda era possível emendar) Maurício tem uma ridícula abordagem ao lance, fazendo uma rosca que se torna numa assistência para golo. Em qualquer dos casos jogadores mais concentrados e focados teriam feito melhor. Convém relembrar que já na pré-época tínhamos sofrido golos nos descontos em dois jogos, contra a lazio e contra o al ittihad, tendo empatado ambos os jogos;
2. Individualmente - Há vários jogadores em sub-rendimento em comparação com a época passada. O Jefferson apesar de continuar esforçado, todos os golos sofridos na Liga têm intervenção dele, principalmente por falta de agressividade na abordagem aos lances. O Maurício está terrível. Parece querer ser o patrão da defesa e não está talhado para esse papel. Tem acumulado erros graves em quase todos os jogos, atingindo o expoente máximo no golo do maribor. O William Carvalho está uma sombra do que foi na época passada. Parece mais lento, passivo e, por vezes alheado do jogo. Basta ver a quantidade anormal de perdas de bola e passes falhados para ver que algo se passa. Em qualquer destes casos tenho a certeza que podem fazer mais;
3. Problemas de finalização - Quantos golos cantados já falhámos nestes 5 jogos? Ontem, o Mané falha um golo com uma finalização de cabeça na pequena área com um grau de dificuldade baixo, num lance semelhante a outro do Slimani frente ao belenenses. Em ambos os casos dá a clara sensação que o medo de falhar é tal que a única preocupação é tentar acertar na baliza, o que costuma significar níveis de confiança baixos. A isto acresce o facto de termos dominado de forma clara os dois últimos jogos (mesmo sem fazer exibições brilhantes) e de ambos sairmos com empates. Basta olhar para as estatísticas: belenenses - 68% de posse de bola, 25 remates (contra 4 do adversário) e 1 golo; maribor - 62% de posse, 22 remates (11 do adversário) e 1 golo;
4. Discurso do treinador - Quantas vezes já ouvimos Marco Silva falar em inexperiência na última semana? Com este discurso, o treinador parece estar a fazer um auto-diagnóstico do seu principal problema e que, ao mesmo tempo, parece estar a intranquilizar o plantel. A falta de experiência do Marco Silva está a notar-se, principalmente no discurso. Já houve várias conferências de imprensa este ano em que dei por mim a dizer: "este gajo não devia ter dito isto!". Essa é uma área em que o Jardim era bastante competente e a diferença tem sido óbvia. Na comunicação para o exterior, não tinha grandes tiradas mas também não dizia o que não devia. Tinha um discurso simples e superficial, mas eficaz. Marco Silva devia falar menos com o coração e mais com a cabeça e parar, de uma vez por todas, com a questão da falta de experiência.
É claro que há questões de qualidade em alguns jogadores que podem também ser discutidas, o mesmo se passando com algumas das opções técnicas que estão a ser tomadas, mas um dos principais problemas parece-me estar na cabeça e esse é um problema que cabe ao Marco Silva resolver.
Atenção que não quero com isto dizer que devemos começar já a pedir para rolar cabeças, até porque me parece que os princípios de jogo do Marco Silva são interessantes e que podem dar frutos a médio prazo. Os espaços estão normalmente bem ocupados, conseguimos dominar os jogos com relativa facilidade e criamos muitas situações de golo. Resolvendo os problemas de "cabeça" e ajustando algumas opções como, por exemplo, jogar com dois centrais lentos com o bloco defensivo tão subido como aconteceu contar o belenenses ou a insistência em alguns jogadores que não estão em bom momento e ainda podemos fazer coisas interessantes esta época.
SL
quarta-feira, 17 de setembro de 2014
Regresso de férias
Depois de umas férias que foram curtas mas que souberam "a pato", o regresso ao trabalho tem sido violento e com pouco tempo disponível. Vim apenas deixar aqui algumas palavras para lembrar o pessoal que o blog está vivo e prometer alguns posts, sendo que aquele que me vai dar mais gozo escrever será o post onde vou relatar o a primeira ida do meu filho de 5 anos ao Estádio de Alvalade.
SL
SL
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