Football Season Guide

Vitória is coming from a disappointing season, having finished 6th, 3 places away from their biggest rivals Braga and forced to play the playoff for Conference League. To make it worse, Vitória lost that playoff to a modest team from Slovenia and will be out of continental competition for the season. The irascible and emotional unstable Moreno will remain at the helm, which can be considered good news as there were some decent ideas felt in last season, that could use some better, mature use in current season. Bamba, the revelation of last season, left for a good sum, which allowed the club to have some financial stability to attack the transfer market for the new run. Telmo Arcanjo, Nuno Santos and especially João Mendes are humble but sensible additions to midfield, where Tiago Silva, Dani Silva, André André and the recovered Tomás Haendel are already good options. In attack, Adrian Butzke will provide different characteristics to a position where André Silva is expected to be more affirmative and decisive. For the back, Tomás Ribeiro is an excellent choice to replace Bamba, while Ricardo Mangas is a real addition for the left wing, provided he stays out of injuries for longer than in recent years. Highly influential but error-prone Bruno Varela will remain in goal; Rúben Lameiras, Nélson Luz are very talented, but keep failing to prove consistent and worthy of a long-run in the tarting XI. Jorge Fernandes and Bruno Gaspar are below the standards that the fans will certainly demand for the new season.