Football Season Guide

Liga
Portugal
Liga
2016/2017
Vitoria de Guimaraes
Clean filter

Vitoria de Guimaraes

In


Marcos Valente (def)(Benfica), Nolan Mbemba (mid)(Lille), Francisco Soares (Att)(Veranópolis), Georgemy Gonçalves (gk)(Cruzeiro, on loan), Bongani Zungu (mid)(Sundowns), Ruben Ferreira (def)(Marítimo), Rafael Miranda (mid)(Ferroviária), João Aurélio (def)(Nacional), Marega (att)(Porto, on loan)

Out


Dalbert (r)(def)(Nice), Luís rocha (sp)(def)(Panetolikos), Cafu (k)(mid)(Lorient), Bruno Alves (sp)(mid)(Desportivo das Aves), Lima Pereira (sp)(def)(Varzim), Miguel Palha (sp)(gk)(Titus Pétange), Pedro Correia (sp)(def)(Académica), Fábio Vieira (sp)(mid)(Freamunde), Assis (sp)(gk)(Leixões), Isaac Cissé (sp)(att)(Titus Pétange), Otávio (k)(mid)(Porto, return from loan), Henrique Dourado (k)(att)(Mirassol, return from loan), Bouba (r)(mid)(end of contract), Licá (r)(att)(Porto, return from loan)

First season after the departure of extremely influent manager Rui Vitória, Guimarães struggled to find a good leader for the team. First, Armando Evangelista failed to give any sort of continuation to Vitória’s work. Poor results ended in him being quickly replaced by Sérgio Conceição, but the choice proved not the be the wisest, with former coach from arch-rivals Braga having a hard time to connect with players. As a result, a very embarrassing 10th position for a team that ought to be in European qualification places in every season. Expecially with such players as Otávio or Henrique Dourado in the squad. Both of them are gone, now, returning to their owner clubs, just like Licá. Important midfielders like Bouba and specially Cafu are also gone. It remains to be known whether the new signings – like Marega, João Aurélio, Ruben Ferreira or Rafael Miranda - are going to be able to be at the heights reached by players that left the club. The most positive aspect of this season would definitely be the hiring of Pedro Martins as the new coach. As a former Guimarães player, and as a recently successful coach at Rio Ave, Pedro Martins is thought to have what it takes to lead Guimarães back to the top 5/6 of the table.

Target


Repeating last year’s 10th place is absolutely out of the question. And even if important players are now gone, there will be very little complacency from fans towards another season like the previous one. The club needs to be actively fighting for the places that give access to European competitions, and it is expected that they will return to that level.