Football Season Guide

This will be some sort of year-Zero for Sporting, after the insanity of the end of last season. The now former chairman almost drove Sporting into the abyss, with many important players ending their contracts with the club spontaneously, and the club’s credibility in the world of football going down the drain. Fortunately, there’s a new group of people leading the club. Even if only as an interim board until new elections, the current board managed to convince most players to come back to the club and signing new contracts for free. Still, even if the likes of Bas Dost, Bruno Fernandes and Battaglia came back to the club, there were a significant group of players that indeed left Sporting: key members of recent seasons goalkeeper Rui Patrício and midfielder William Carvalho, as well as possible future stars Daniel Podence and Rafael Leão, didn’t return. The deepest blow was, however, the non-return of rising star Gelson Martins, who signed with Atletico Madrid for free. On top of that, iconic Portuguese manager Jorge Jesus has left the club after three seasons without getting the promised Portuguese league title. Experienced José Peseiro replaces him, but the fans aren’t completely convinced that former Guimarães coach will have the required fiber to rebuild the group. Other important players like full-backs Piccini and Fábio Coentrão are also leaving the club. That leaves a hard task for Peseiro, who will trust on the likes of returning Nani and exciting flamboyant wingers Raphinha and Matheus Pereira to bring some new blood and flair to the team. Italian Viviani and Brazilian Renan arrived to try to fill in the void left by Patrício in the goal. Something that time will most certainly prove to be a very hard job to do. Ristovski was never a comfortable option in the right side of defence, last season, but he will now have to step into the first team, with Piccini out of the team, Jefferson returns after a great season at Braga, but will try to do at Alvalade what he never achieved in previous attempts: to establish as a first team solid option. Wendel and Misic, barely used since arriving in January, might be considered new signings for this season, in this new scenario, and might assume an important role in the midfield.