Starting this thread early because we already have some details for the upcoming pre-season. Pre-season will begin June 27th, with a training camp in Switzerland from July 7-13. Presentation match at Alvalade will be either July 19 or 20th (unknown opponent). On July 22nd we will begin a North American tour, with a friendly against Liverpool in NYC on the 24th of July. We are also trying to schedule two other games to be held in North America.
Oh man, I hope they play on the 20th. I fly into Lisbon that morning, would be sick to catch the game that evening. Was gonna do the tour but this would be pretty cool. Hopefully they stop in Toronto while in NA.
Pre-season schedule announced: https://www.sporting.pt/pt/noticias...07/sporting-cp-vs-valencia-cf-dia-28-de-julho
Kinda off there isn't a second game in either the Eastern US or Canada around the Liverpool match. Would've cut down on travel. But having a match against the Scousers right now will bring eyes ( and $) to the club so that's a good thing.
Pre-season officially started today for the 2019-20 season! Several faces, new and old, appeared today, including new signings Luis Neto and Luciano Vietto. In total 22 players showed up for pre-season: Renan Ribeiro, Luís Maximiano, Diogo Sousa, Raphinha, Jovane Cabral, Luciano Vietto, Jérémy Mathieu, Miguel Luís, Ivanildo Fernandes, Daniel Bragança, Bas Dost, Thierry Correia, Tiago Ilori, Filipe Chaby, Iuri Medeiros, Luiz Phellype, Idrissa Doumbia, Matheus Pereira, Rodrigo Battaglia, Abdu Conté, Nuno Mendes & Luís Neto. Of course there are a lot of absentees due to international fixtures. Bruno Fernandes, Gonzalo Plata, Ristovski, Wendel are all scheduled to appear next week, while Diaby, Bruno Gaspar, Gelson Dala, Acuna, Borja and Coates are likely to appear later as they're still playing with their national teams.
29 players called to pre season training camp in Switzerland. Our first match is im 3 days vs a lower league Swiss team. Renan Ribeiro, Luís Maximiano, Diogo Sousa, Stefan Ristovski, Valentin Rosier, Thierry Correia, Ivanildo Fernandes, Luís Neto, Tiago Ilori, Eduardo Quaresma, Jérémy Mathieu, Abdu Conté, Nuno Mendes, Idrissa Doumbia, Eduardo Henrique, Rodrigo Battaglia, Daniel Bragança, Wendel, Miguel Luís, Bruno Fernandes, Rafael Camacho, Gonzalo Plata, Jovane Cabral, Joelson Fernandes, Matheus Pereira, Raphinha, Luciano Vietto, Luiz Phellype, Bas Dost.
10 players are training back at home while we try and resolve their futures - they're not in the plans for 19/20: Viviano, Andre Pinto, Jefferson, Petrovic, Ryan Gauld, Iuri Medeiros, Alan Ruiz, Leonardo Ruiz, Carlos Mane, Matheus Oliveira are all training with the U23s right now. Thats a lot of salary room there. Alan, Petro, Viviano and Andre Pinto especially.
First pre season match starting now against Rapperswil-Jona in Switzerland. Starting XI: Renan, Nuno Mendes, Luís Neto, Mathieu, Thierry Correa, Doumbia, Wendel, Bruno Fernandes, Raphinha, Vietto, Bas Dost Bench: Luís Maximiano, Diogo Sousa, Ilori, Eduardo, Rafael Camacho, Luiz Phellype, Gonzalo Plata, Miguel Luís, Ivanildo, Daniel Bragança, Matheus Pereira, Adbu Conté, Eduardo Quaresma, Joelson
1-0 at half time, penalty converted by Bruno Fernandes. Vietto definitely has quality, his first touch is unmistakeably good. He had a good chance to score too. Surprised with 17 year old LB Nuno Mendes, he's physically impressive.
We completely changed the team at half time, with the following players: Luís Maximiano, Eduardo Quaresma, Ilori, Ivanildo, Abdu Conté, Eduardo, Miguel Luís, Matheus Pereira, Gonzalo Plata, Camacho, Luiz Phellype And now we're losing 2-1... some bad defending there
It was a totally new team in the 2nd half but yeah... Plata has a lot of technical ability. Matheus Pereira looked decent in the middle. But not much else. Ilori was exposed on both goals. I expect cuts to happen soon. Edit: Eduardo looked really good too. Him and Doumbia will be a good fight for the #6 spot.
We had our 2nd pre-season match against a Swiss top tier side in St. Gallen. The match finished 2-2 with goals by Bruno Fernandes and Wendel in the first half. Again a slew of changes in the 2nd half revealed a lot less ability to control the match and we ended up allowing 2 goals. Now the team returns to Portugal to continue pre-season training. We should be seeing some cuts from the team. So far from the tour in Switzerland the highlights have been: Nuno Mendes - a 17 year old LB has been probably the biggest surprise so far. Two games and he showed maturity beyond his years and really good physical ability to get up and down the left flank. I can see him make the jump to the U23 and even get some minutes in cup games. Eduardo - had a mistake in one of the goals but overall he seems to be good at passing and vision, hopefully as fitness levels go up he can make more of an impact defensively as well, could be a great pick up for us. Bruno Fernandes - looks like he hasn't been on vacation, picking up right where he left off. Question is: will he stay or will he go? Negatives: Tiago Ilori - awful two matches and I'm starting to see that this was a flop signing. He's athletic but his concentration is a joke. There's a reason why even in English 2nd division he never stood out. Bas Dost - Anonymous except for a chance in the first match where he missed from 2 metres out. At this point 10-15M for him would be good, in this tactical system he offers absolutely nothing. Not being ungrateful for all the goals he scored, but he just doesn't suit us anymore. Still missing quite a few players who will for sure be starters or fighting for a spot: Coates, Acuna, Borja.
I'm worried that we don't have the firepower to compete with the other big 3 for the title. We need goals from more than BF. If he stays, do we have any money to bring in reinforcements?
Benfica is out there making $120 million off of one player, partly because the Portuguese media continues to overhype anything that comes out of Seixal. Imagine how much we could sell Bruno for if we got his fair value in today's market.... With that $120 million, Benfica bought Raul De Tomas for $20 million. We would never be able to afford a player for $20 million. I bet he becomes an absolute stud. We definitely need more firepower up front if Dost continues to be a useless pylon. Otherwise, there's no wya we're competing.
RDT is a good ass player man, he will light up the Portuguese Liga. And you are right that we aren't in any position to sign a player like that. Gonna be hard to compete unless we make some really shrewd moves.
Vietto is still an incognito. He's been playing sort of on the wing and cutting inside. IMO he's a striker, he should be playing centrally, preferably with a partner up front but if Bruno is behind him as an attacking mid (and if we sign this Almada kid who can play there too) he could bag goals. His first touch and dribbling are definitely miles ahead of most of the squad, I think he just needs to play up front and bag some goals for confidence. Dost would only work in a 4-4-2 where he'd be a poacher. In this 4-3-3 he's useless. We should sell and reinvest in another striker now, his value will only keep dropping. We could get away with Vietto + Phellype + new signing
Is Gelson Dala getting a chance to play? I missed both pre season games. I was hoping the kid would get some playing time. And I'm not too keen on Phellype yet. He had a strong finish toward the end of the season last year, but I'm curious to see how well he does playing a full year for us.
I haven't seen Dala at all. As for Phellype, he looks to have come back 5 kilos heavier. Too much picanha.
Damn, i was hoping he'd get a spot. He'll most likely get loaned out again. And Brazilians have a knack for gaining some extra pounds, lol. He better be in shape come August.
Just checked, he was playing for his country in the African Cup of Nations and he's joining up later along with Diaby, Acuna, Coates etc
22 players called for the pre season friendly against Liverpool in the USA. No Matheus Pereira again, its looking ever more likely he'll move on. Abdu Conte also left off (don't think he's got enough to play for SCP). Eduardo Quaresma at 17 is impressing more and more at CB. Acuna, Gaspar and Gelson Dala are staying behind as they only just came back from vacation.