Decided to make a new thread as this is going to be something that will probably be talked about for a long time. First of all, this kind of situation has never happened before in the country. The covers of tomorrows papers, the things that are being reported: Jornal Record - B team players to be called up for the match on Sunday at home vs. Paços Ferreira - Two players (Doumbia and Ruben Ribeiro) took down their posts against the president, reducing the number to 17 players - Official notices of disciplinary proceedings to be handed out tomorrow morning - Bas Dost admits he will leave if there isn't a face-to-face meeting Jornal A Bola - Jorge Jesus does not want to use B team players on Sunday and could step down immediately - Coentrao loan deal terminated and sent back to Madrid - Players received a warning letter via email - Players threatening to not show up for training and B team players may also miss training as a sign of union Jornal O Jogo - Coentrao is thought to be one of the instigators of the rebellion and risks being returned to Real Madrid immediately
Does this not all almost seem surreal? Like this is actually happening? If true the Dost, JJ and Coentrão news are devistating IMO. Not even necessarily for what is happening just how it’s happening.
It could all just be conjuncture - we will know more tomorrow morning as the players are supposed to have training. There needs to be a meeting a clearing of air. One way or another. But yes its surreal. The bad thing is all this is just lowering the value of our players. Even if we end up selling them no way will we get their market value. And apparently SCP shares dropped significantly
Is this real life? A complete disaster with long-term consequences unless BdC steps down immediately (which is unlikely given his personality). The brand is going to be destroyed - the value of players and club down the drain. This is #dire.
I do. The team needs to show up on the field not on the internet. I whole agree with president, the players showed poor concentration and erred beyond acceptable levels. I honestly contemplated the possibility that some were paid off .
Incredible irony that BdC refers to a "banana republic" on his FB post - and, yet, that is precisely what the club under his leadership has become. He needs to swallow his pride and walk away tomorrow. He can post whatever nonsense he needs to save face but if he wants to save the club he needs to get the hell out.
BdC is the head of an organization in free fall - whether you believe it's his fault or not, the fact stands that every step he takes is making the situation worse. Sporting has become a #banana_republic under his leadership and the buck stops there at the top. He has been fighting wars against everybody outside the club and now, turns inward, setting fire to the club itself. He sees enemies everywhere and then throws gas on every fire he sees, real or imagined. Can you imagine future players and agents looking at this situation and even considering coming to join the club at this point?
Like him or not, its the coach's job to tell that to the players. Or if he wants to speak to him, then go speak to them in private. As for the players responding via social media, its only fair that they react - if my boss criticized me in front of clients I would be supremely pissed off too. And lets not forget, we haven't heard anything from the coach. If he decides to show up to the press conference tomorrow, he won't be able to ignore all this.
If it was one player I could see him winning, but I don't see him winning against a whole squad. What if the B team also refuses because they want to support the senior players who they look up to? Whose gonna play then? The infants? BdC has to be the one to back down. The paradox is that even if he does back down and apologize, the players will never respect him after this. The logical option would be to step down from his position.
BDC has supported the coach thus far, so I'm inclined to suspect JJ will respond in kind. As far as criticizing publicly the players, I'm OK with that too. I felt they had it coming after that horrendous amateurish display by many of the players in Madrid.
Even if you feel the presidents opinions are right, he can’t call individual players out in social media. It’s a bad look for a club, and if you’re recruiting a younger player, or trying to sign an older established player, why would they choose Sporting over club XYZ if the president of Sporting could shit on them in social media.
Players can react with emotion and to a lesser extent coaches and be given a pass, but presidents have to keep a level head....I have always been a BDC supporter but I'm not sure he can survive this as he has crossed the line IMHO. We all have eyes and can see why we lost in Madrid the team sucked and a couple of player were embarrassing...But there was zero reason for him to head to Facebook and throw fuel on the fire. Force the coach to sit the crappy players internally and send a message that way is how you handle that as a president. Instead he flapped his gums on Facebook and has started a revolution withing the club....brutal
coming from a Benfiquista, this is all so ********ed up. I agree with the some of you referring to his as surreal, these are things that happen in the movies. I personally believe BDC needs to step the ******** down, at the end of the day, these players are not properly educated. They gave up education to pursue their dreams (good for them), and live in a virtual world that is all about social media. Presidents and coaches (though maybe not all educated) most certainly have more life experience and have been in more 'different' situations. They should know better. You can not have a president acting like a kid sharing his emotions calling our individuals on social media. You deal with it face to face.. you know? 'closed door' meetings.. like many of us have been accustomed to hearing about in North American sports.. for your clubs situation, i hope this shit gets sorted out quickly and properly, the way its going... Sporting Clube de Portugal will not exist in a years time.
andddd.. to further the blow.. the world cup is only months away... believe it or not.. like it or not.. situations like this will be carried over into the WC if not resolved immediately.. William..Bruno Fernandes.. Patricio..Coentrao..Gelson.. all potentially important players for the NT.. BDC.. step down!
Somehow after all this there is an understanding between the two parties after the meeting. Players will play on Sunday and all have boarded the bus to go train today. Doesn’t sound like anything changes. What a useless, useless series of events. Worse than useless even, damage is done
BdC appears to think he can just sweep this under the rug, like nothing happened. But the damage is done - for future players and current players. Future players won't want to join such a dysfunctional club and the morale of the current squad will be lower than low. The man needs to swallow his pride and abdicate. He'll kill the club rather than surrender it.
So the new rumour is that the meeting was very tense and no one actually backed down or apologized. Coentrao was also there (has been rumoured that he was the main "instigator" of the rebellion and that he would be returned to Real Madrid immediately). Seems like the players all went to training though and should be available for tomorrow. Don't think this is over yet but for the sake of the club's immediate future it looks like they will be allowed to play. The B team is already playing with their full team so they won't be available for tomorrow's match now anyway
lol doesn’t sound like anyone has owned up to anything during this meeting. No apologies. I’m not really sure how a resolve has been reached from this. But it doesn’t sound good IMO
I highly doubt everything is resolved. It may just be put on "stand-by" for the immediate future. However if nothing happens to BdC I could totally see a mass exodus in the off-season.