After Sporting’s historic 3-0 win at the Estádio da Luz on Sunday night, is it finally time for Sporting Clube de Portugal to capture their first Primeira Liga trophy since Mário Jardel was firing the Leões to the title back in 2002?
It has been a rough 13 years for Sporting fans since then. Only under Paulo Bento in 2006/2007 did Sporting really come close to regaining the league title. From that point on, Sporting will look back and wonder why they couldn’t build on that.
Back then, Sporting had a fantastic generation of young players coming through, Rui Patrício (19), Miguel Veloso (21), João Moutinho (20), Bruno Pereirinha (19), Yannick Djaló (21) and Nani (20) not to mention Daniel Carriço (18), Adrien Silva (18) and André Santos (18) developing in the youth team.
Transfer own goals
That should have been the basis for a fantastic team for the future but, as we now know, it wasn’t to be. Only Nani’s departure really gave Sporting any true financial benefit (€25.5m) for the club to reinvest. João Moutinho’s departure, of course, was an unforgivable mistake. As the cliché goes, hindsight is 20/20 but even then everyone knew selling João Moutinho to Porto was an idiotic decision.
Sporting were one point off the league title in 2007, but since then the Lions haven’t been much of a threat in the Primeira Liga title race. Porto strolled to the title the season after winning by a huge margin of 14 points. The year after that Sporting were just 4 points behind but after that they weren’t even close, only going as high as 3rd once, until 2014.
In that time there was plenty of turmoil on and off the pitch. New Presidents, a string of new managers and some players who were just not up to the required level.
Rock bottom
This led to the 2012/2013 season, a disaster for Sporting, when things hit an all-time low of 7th position. Sportinguistas will wince when they remember life under Franky Vercauteren. Godinho Lopes’ presidency at Sporting was a failure, with big players coming in on big wages (Elias, Jeffrén, Khalid Boulahrouz, Gelson Fernandes, etc.) and becoming big disappointments. Godinho Lopes’ best move though, was to bring in Jesualdo Ferreira to steady the sinking ship. It was his last appointment but it gave Sporting a new base to build from.
Godinho Lopes was soon ousted after the next set of club elections. The young Bruno de Carvalho, a man not shy to speak his mind, was elected. Bruno de Carvalho didn’t retain Jesualdo Ferreira, despite the professor helping the club avert disaster and bringing the likes of Tiago Ilori, Eric Dier and Bruma into the first team.
The new President had a new plan with Leonardo Jardim at the helm. This would be the first time Sporting finished 2nd since 2009. Sporting made far smarter purchases that summer. Islam Slimani, Fredy Montero, Maurício and Jefferson were huge improvements over their counterparts the previous season. A competent defence and a threatening attack at that point was a rare novelty for Sporting fans. Despite great improvements to the team and the first ray of hope in years, Sporting finished 7 points behind Jorge Jesus’ dominant Benfica team.
Imaginative management
Bruno de Carvalho and Augusto Inácio went to work again that summer. AS Monaco had come in and swooped for Leonardo Jardim so the young Marco Silva from Estoril was brought in as his replacement. Paulo Oliveira was brought in from Vitória de Guimarães to replace the departing Marcos Rojo but it was the loan signing of Nani from Manchester United that really captured the imagination.
Marco Silva never hit the ground running in the league that season, despite lifting the Taça de Portugal at the end of the year. His early decision to establish Maurício and Naby Sarr as a centre back pairing was an obvious example of why Marco Silva wasn’t able to create a winning team. With Sarr in defence and a ridged 4-3-3 system Sporting were vulnerable at the back and predictable going forward.
It was only when Paulo Oliveira became the rock in central defence alongside Tobias Figueiredo and then the signing of Ewerton that Sporting managed to string a good set of league results together.
The Taça de Portugal was not enough for Marco Silva the keep his job at Sporting, especially after a rift with Bruno de Carvalho. Those chances reduced to zero when Jorge Jesus became available.
Jesus coup
The shock departure of Jorge Jesus from Benfica to Sporting looks to have been not just a coup for the club but a newfound psychological boost for the players and fans alike.
And like that team that should have been the basis for a future title winning side back in 2007, Jorge Jesus has an excellent crop of youngsters to help develop. Right now Sporting have Jonathan Silva (21), Paulo Oliveira (23), Ricardo Esgaio (22), Tobias Figueiredo (21), William Carvalho (23), João Mário (22), Ryan Gauld (19), Bruno Paulista (20), Carlos Mané (21), Gelson Martins (20) and Matheus Pereira (19).
If it isn’t Sporting’s year this season, should they make better decisions with those valuable personnel as they could and should have done years ago then they should at the very least, under Jorge Jesus, be able to build an even more formidable side next season and finally recapture the Primeira Liga.
By Richard Cole
Related: Sporting stun Benfica in Lisbon derby
