Sporting CP Finding Benchmarks

January Out

Al-Fateh came in for bids for Jota and Baidoo both wanted the move for financial reasons, so we agreed to let them go. United then signed Sudakov for €68m, I was quite happy as this has been a quiet window for outs.

January In

3 signings joined us this window, One for the first team and two future prospects.

The main signing was right winger, Teyssier, who came through the youths at Pacos de Ferreira in Portugal (slipped our scouts attentions) Before a €15.25m move to Basel where after just 18 months Young Boys signed him for €30.5m. 2 years later we brought him back to Portugal for €45m. Hes started his career here with 6 goals and 5 assists in 16 appearances.

Already performing well ranking high across numerous statical markings. So well I’ve already given him a new contract increasing his Release Clause to €80m.

Future Prospects

Costa Rician Left Winger Rojas joins us from Alajuelense for €1.8m. A loan to Club Brugge for the rest of the season was arranged for his development.

Competitions

We didn’t make it out of the Champions League qualifying so we dropped into the Europa League where we managed to get to the Quarter finals. A domestic cup double and a league title meant it was a treble winning season!

Our first title in 6 season since we won it in season 2 of the save. After finishing 4th the previous 4 seasons we needed a jump. Following a conversation with a fellow FMer, I realised a few benchmarks we needed to achieve. Porto had won 5 out of the 7 titles so far this save and were setting points totals far above what I was achieving and my first title actually came when Porto and Benfica both failed to get at least 86 points.

So this season I set out to achieve a minimum of 86 points again. We finished on 91.

How did we do it

Scoring goals, 110 goals fired us to the title, having top scorer Mateus in his breakout season helped 42 goal striker helps at any point.

4 players with over 10 assists this season, 7 with 6-10 assists. 4 players with more than 10 goals. Can tell we were much more clinical. The emergence of talents like Mateus and Whittle and Jiracek certainly helped. With the two CMs emerging we could lose Sudakov and it didn’t affect us where as in previous seasons a loss like that could hurt.

We also beat Porto 2-0 at home and 3-2 away and Benfica 4-1 at home and drew 0-0 away. So straight away we had 6 and 4 point advantages over the two rivals.

Summer Out

But the pitfall of success is you increase interest in your players and this summer we sold nearly half a billion Euros worth of talent.

Ukrainian Left Back left us after 18 months after Chelsea met his release clause of €45.4m, this is a €24m profit from the fee we paid. Guardiola spent last season on loan to Koln in the Bundesliga scoring 7 and setting up one, Napoli saw enough to pay his release clause a €29.25m profit on the youngster.
Not all signings are success stories we made a €7m loss on Debast who leaves for Saudi. Novakovic moved to Aston Villa for €20m a €14.75m profit on the fee we paid for him. Johansson a €1.3m signing from Mjallby 18 months ago spent the previous 18 months on loan at Alaves, FC Bayern saw enough to part with €48m a whopping €46.7m profit on the youngster.
I mentioned above about the emergence of Jiracek and that meant Dortmund came in with a €57m offer, €47.75m profit on what we paid.
The star boy, top scorer Mateus leaves us for a record sale €80m to join Barcelona. A €61m profit on the fee we paid for him. Whittle the other emerging star left for his €66m release clause to join Real Madrid, a €35m profit.
Jacobs is actually a long server for us, 4 seasons at the club before leaving for €60m to join Arsenal making us €41.75m profit. Jego returned to France for €40m making us a profit of €31.5m.

Summer in

Despite all the players leaving we signed one player for the first team and two youngsters for just €33m, the reason for this is the next class of players are on the verge of breaking through and I’m hopeful they can do it.

I’m excited about Capriati, 6 foot 5, Strong, carries the ball. I see him as a Yaya Toure type player for us. With us losing our midfield pairing he will be thrusted straight into the team and have to carry it on his back alongside a youngster.

Besic is a young Goalkeeper who will spend the season on loan to Serie A relegation battlers, Salernitana. A perfect place for him to learn his trade, being able to speak basic Italian as well.

Kei Ohara joins us from Kobe in Japan for €6m, A loan to Strasbourg looks a nice fit for him to be able to play this season and get some games under his belt. He’s already played 47 games for Kobe in the J1 League so I imagine he won’t be far off starting for us in 12 months time.

First team

Our young squad now looks like this, There is pressure on them to retain the title and step up and fill the gaps left open by the departures this summer. We have players returning from loans to help fill out the squad and hopefully become first team players.

Pedersen will have to try and fill the 42 goal void left by Mateus, Montanez can help him. Capriati comes in as hopefully our main midfielder. He will be flanked by Teyssier and Gomez on the wings. Rugasevic will be looking to take the DM slot from Luis as the season goes on. Cappiello will hopefully form a midfield pairing in the center with Capriati.

We still have plenty of talents out on loan waiting for their chance and developing.

Our tactic looks like this for the season. Following the departure of so many players I decided to drop back into a 4141 starting position just for a bit more security in numbers. I’m hopeful we still have the talent to go for another title challenge. I think 90 points is a good benchmark to aim for.