Paulo Bento: “Consistency the key to title triumph”

Sporting boosted by Liedson contract renewal

Having finished runners-up behind FC Porto in each of the last four years, Sporting coach Paulo Bento has targeted greater consistency from his team in order to finally overhaul the Dragons and win the Portuguese championship in the coming season.

“Sporting has always been in the mix to win the title right until the end of the season, apart from the 2007/08 season,” Bento told the Lisbon club’s official newspaper.

“It’s true that we have rarely been top of the table, which shows a degree of inconsistency, but we were always in the fight and showed we have the capacity to end up in first place.

“We have to seek to be more consistent and effective, above all in terms of attack. We’ve made ourselves a very difficult team to beat, but at times we found it difficult to get the victory. We now expect to be more consistent to take that last step forward.”

Another striker to be bought

Bento went on to reveal that Sporting will be contracting one more player in the close season – a striker to add to the current options of Liedson, Helder Postiga, Djalo and Saleiro.

The Lions were given a boost yesterday as the drawn out negotiations to extend the contract of star striker Liedson finally came to a successful conclusion.

Gilmar Veloz, the agent of the Brazilian marksman confirmed that all the fine details have been ironed out.

“It’s all sorted. Liedson will be a Sporting player for another three seasons. He’s very happy and now he will pay back the faith shown in him just as he has done these last six years.”

by Tom Kundert