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| Wednesday, 04 July 2012 10:42 |
Gelson Fernandes: “I’ll give my life and heart for Sporting”Sporting present second new face in two days Sporting yesterday unveiled a second new signing in as many days. Midfielder Gelson Fernandes, who was born in Cape Verde but has Swiss nationality, has signed a four-year deal at the Alvalade, with a release clause of €25 million. Like Zakaria Labyad, he has signed on a free transfer.Fernandes is known as a polyglot – he speaks six languages fluently – and he was quick to make sure the first impressions among Sporting fans would be positive as he spoke eloquently about the move.
“I’m happy and very proud to have this opportunity. I did everything to make it happen. From the start of the negotiations I made it crystal clear that I wanted to come to Sporting. I was born in Cape Verde, but in Switzerland I socialised with lots of Portuguese and I saw their love of the country and the club. I promise to give my life and heart for Sporting,” said the 25-year-old. Gelson Fernandes has played in four different countries (Switzerland, England, France and Italy) and his career includes spells at Manchester City and Udinese. He is a regular for the Swiss national team and scored the winning goal as Switzerland stunned Spain with a 1-0 victory at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
As a defensive midfielder, he is likely to compete with Rinaudo and Daniel Carriço for a place in the side. “Competition for places is good for the team. We are all fighting for the same goal. It’s not worth talking much. What’s important is to work hard and sweat.
“Sporting did not lack much to win the title. The club just needed to be more consistent. The coach knows what to do, after analysing last season,” added Fernandes, who is the cousin of ex Benfica and current Besiktas midfielder Manuel Fernandes.
The acquisition of both Labyad and Gelson Fernandes would appear to indicate that speculation surrounding the possible loaning of Adrien Silva to Blackburn Rovers will come to fruition.
Even before the duo were brought in, Sporting had a surplus of midfield options comprising Izmailov, Stijn Schaars, Elias, Matias Fernandez, Rinaudo, Daniel Carriço and André Martins.
Tom Kundert
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Wales winining 4-1 he played the final minute
Bulgaria drawing 0-0 he came on after 17 minutes (73 minutes)
Bulgaria winning 3-1 he game on for the final 2 minutes
Montenegro winning 2-0 he came on for the final 5 minutes
How can they justify a cluase of 25 million for a player that was bought by Man City for 6 million Euro and then sold for less than half that to St Etienne who got relegated and then farmed him out to three clubs?
I see more hope of the Sunil being a success in the B team.
I have never blamed Portuguese youth or Benfica's youth or for that matter any other teams youth for the Seleccao's or leagues demise.
First, what Seleccao demise? We are highly rated and have done well in the last few competitions.
Second, our league has earned back a third CL spot with all of these foreign players.
Third, I can remember having a SuperLiga full of only Portuguese and our Seleccao not sniffing a tournament. Better players brings better competition. I know that Sporting found Cristiano and helped him, but to say he wasn't developed at Man United is just stupid.
You can blame Benfica, by the way your club Braga has done nothing, or whoever else you want. The fact is that we are a "selling league". Even our biggest clubs are "selling clubs".
Let me ask you, is it Benfica's fault that Fabio Nunes just signed with Blackburn from Portimonense?
If he becomes great or fail, is it our fault?
I'm a Benfiquista, and I root for my club. I may like certain players and dislike others, but I love my club.
That doesn't make me any less a Seleccao fan. If you saw any of my posts, you would have seen that.
I hope Benfica wins the Champions League the SuperLiga the Taca and even the coffee cup.
I also happen to root for other Portuguese teams when they compete in Europe. It only accents our teams and our league.
We, the fans, would love to have awesome Portuguese players playing in our squads, but not all our players are awesome.
We've killed Ricardo Costa for not being good enough for the Seleccao, and we all know he didn't play at Valencia, yet I guess it would be ok for him to play at Benfica or Porto or ... Then he would be awesome, I guess.
It doesn't work that way. Players develop and show their wares and earn spots.
Again, I'm positive this post will definately be a big mistake. I actually should apologize to Bryan, for even responding.
Any chance Carrico will be moved back to CB? If not, that DM position will be crowded. Adrien would likely compete more with Schaars and even Matias, wouldn't he? Can't understand after the season he's had why he wouldn't get a chance to show his stuff in his last contracted season.
Andre Martins has shown good signs and should be given a shit, but I think it's time to cut ties with Izmailov, as skillful as he is he'll always be a question mark physically.
NJ, Benfica's academy is getting funded for a reason. Millions of euros are placed into their youth projects but where's the end product? If you want to discuss portuguese players not being ready or them getting beat who is responsible for that? Isn't it the youth coaches responsibility ? You're consistently blaming Portuguese youth for your club's stupidity at the youth level. Vieira doesn't know what he's doing and Benfica fans are blinded by stupidity. Vieira been promoting his youth projects (and still is) and yet they have consistently failed. I don't see you blaming him for the lack of talent at the youth level.
It's not a clubs job to develop players for the Seleccao.
It's the players job to excel and succeed wherever so they ay be selected for the Seleccao and wear the shirt with pride.
If players get beat out for a spot, whose fault is it anyways?
I think the biggest difference between last seasons and hese two signings is that Sporting will own 100% of these payers (still checking), and they came as free transfers.
By all accounts, two very good prospects.
Sporting has to qualify for the CL this season. I would make that their number one priority.