Chapter 244: Chapter 243: Sporting Lisbon Needs a Youth Storm (Seeking Full Subscription)
But soon, Sa Sheng publicly stated, "Mr. Trigella has been my coach since the youth team, and his becoming the head coach of the first team is a result we’ve all been yearning for."
"I was the first to raise both hands in agreement!"
"I am willing to support Mr. Trigella as an assistant coach forever!"
This wave of teacher-student affection, simply showed everyone up.
Despite possessing greater strength, he was willing to play a secondary role, simply because the other party was once his mentor.
How many years has this respect for teachers and caring for the younger ones disappeared in Europe?
This is the shine of human nature!
"The Light of European Humanity—Maxa!"
"The top coaches, whether head coaches or not, can bring a positive impact to the team!"
"It doesn’t matter who the head coach is, what’s important is that Maxa is still here!"
"The gift Maxa gave to Trigella—Quaresma expresses his willingness to stay with the team!"
"Quaresma: Trigella and Maxa have both been my teachers, they helped me grow at different stages, and I am happy to continue working with them! I don’t have to go to Barça necessarily, I hope more teams will see my strength in the future!"
Truth be told, the fans were basically satisfied with Quaresma staying with the team.
Although the club said they would invest ten million euros in the transfer window.
But Quaresma is more or less worth that amount, so him not leaving is like the club earning ten million euros less.
The fans of Sporting Lisbon were quite satisfied with the end of this window.
However...
Trigella didn’t think so.
Previously, in his discussions with Deng Kai on the structure of Moreirense, he talked about the upper limit of a team.
The structural framework of Sporting Lisbon is at the level of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth in the Portuguese league.
Even with some major signings, recruiting well-known stars such as Schmeichel, it’s not possible to improve the team.
To achieve better results, a complete overhaul is needed!
So...
"Sporting Lisbon sells Abdulilah for 2.5 million euros, why would Trigella undersell a good asset? After two years of development, Abdulilah’s value is highly likely to double!"
"Selling the main defensive midfielder Delphim for 1.5 million euros, what is Trigella up to?"
"Selling George for 3 million euros, one of the best left-backs in the history of Sporting Lisbon! How dare Trigella!"
"Selling three players for 1 million euros in a bundle deal, the fans have been deceived, doesn’t Sporting Lisbon plan to spend money on signings this summer window?"
"Trigella announces: In the new season, we will build a whole new framework with young players such as Quaresma, Viana, Deng Kai, and C. Ronaldo as the main force! Sporting Lisbon needs a youth storm! Only in this way can we break Porto and Benfica’s dominance over the Portuguese league!"
"Maxa: Without destruction, there can be no establishment. To achieve better results, one must endure such pain. I believe Mr. Trigella will bring strong reinforcements to the team!"
"Bola newspaper: Trigella’s idea is good, but he neglects that the Portuguese league is only second-tier, and even if he had money, he couldn’t buy stars. Moreover, Sporting Lisbon is not that wealthy!"
The sale of some players by Sporting Lisbon provoked discussions in the Portuguese league.
Looking at the appearance table of Sporting Lisbon’s players from last season, it’s not hard to see that they had serious issues with an aging roster.
There were a total of eight players who appeared more than thirty times, six of whom are over thirty years old.
The rest of the main substitutes are mostly over the age of twenty-six.
This is the predicament of Sporting Lisbon.
Without these players, the performance with entirely new faces would only be worse.
To find players with a higher competitive standard who can also play consistently, you’d have to spend a lot of money to buy them.
Players of that caliber are generally already stars.
Porto is the club among the big three in Portugal’s Primeira Liga that is most willing to spend money, which is why they achieved a three-peat in the league.
Other teams would have to spend even more money to overtake them.
And it’s not just a matter of having money.
As Bola newspaper put it, leagues like the Primeira Liga and the Eredivisie, accused of being "feeder leagues," are attractiveto young players, but of little value to older players.
If one had a choice, no one would pick the Primeira Liga unless they were Portuguese to begin with, as the fallen leaves return to the roots.
Even Record Report, which has always been pro-Trigella, opened a column discussing why Trigella’s moves this summer were unwise.
In this column, Jiang Yunzhu dissected the biggest difficulties faced by Trigella now, "A youth storm is not an unattainable fantasy, especially after Sporting Lisbon retained Quaresma, Viana’s form improved, Deng Kai and Ronaldo were recalled."
Feng Te: I’ve gotten used to being excluded from your conversations.
Jiang Yunzhu: "But a youth storm is predicated on giving fans hope while also having a group of experienced veterans to lead the youngsters, teaching them things that can only be accumulated over time."
"To solve the fans’ trust issue, you need heavyweight signings."
"To address the latter issue, you need to bring in some experienced veterans. Currently, the only player on the team who fits these criteria is Schmeichel, but Schmeichel was last season’s signing and..."
"After being hit hard at the European Championship, Schmeichel has been contemplating retirement. One of Trigella’s important tasks is to keep Schmeichel; otherwise, his situation will become even more difficult!"
"Trigella’s moves have been very aggressive, showing a ’cut the Gordian knot’ attitude. Of course, he’s doing this for the betterment of Sporting Lisbon, but such aggressive actions are hard to understand and support."
"If he can’t address these issues, he might be dismissed before the new season even starts. After all, everyone knows that Maxa has the full capability to lead Sporting Lisbon to glory."
The problems of Sporting Lisbon are like a tangled mess.
But Trigella, methodical as ever, reaches out with a hand for 2.4 million euros from Benfica to bring in Joao Pinto, a member of Portugal’s Golden Generation and a seasoned veteran.
The fans can see that Trigella hopes Pinto will use his experience to help the team, but just Pinto alone is far from enough.
Soon after, Trigella again makes a move through player exchange, bringing in another peripheral player from Portugal’s Golden Generation, Paolo Bento, from Spain’s second division team Real Oviedo.
Yes, that’s the same Paolo Bento who was heavily penalized for snatching the red card from the referee’s hand during the European Championship, and who will go on to become the head coach of the South Korean national team.
"Is Trigella trying to assemble the entire Portuguese Golden Generation? If he can do that, then the fans should be satisfied."
"First of all, Figo is impossible—60 million euros, Sporting Lisbon cannot afford it, and Figo would not return even if they could."
"Rui Costa is also a lost cause; even if he wanted to return, the fans wouldn’t want him to demean himself like that."
"And Conçeiçao won’t come back either."
When the fans sorted it out, they realized that probably only these two of the Golden Generation would come to Sporting Lisbon.
You think you can fool us with just two pieces of the puzzle?
No way!
Impatient Sporting Lisbon fans, under the call of a former executive, launched attacks on Trigella.
However, everyone failed to notice one thing—Maxa, who many thought was Trigella’s successor, has not been in Portugal during this time.
...
England, Buckinghamshire, Duke Hotel.
Maxa stood at the entrance, taking deep breaths to calm his excitement.
He never imagined that one day he would be under the same roof as Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Matthaus, Deschamps, Guardiola, and others, sharing their thoughts on the future of the big teams for the upcoming season.
