Minervino PietralI
1976-86
Defender
313 apps, 24 goals
Pietra was signed from Belenenses and spent the rest of his career with Benfica, winning 4 league titles and 5 Portuguese Cups. He also earned 28 caps for Portugal, scoring once and in the game he was my assistant manager until this season when he retired.
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JANUARY
Lineup - Cerqueira, Ongoiba, Dias, Sebahattin Sahinoglu, Grimaldo, Luis (Almada), Camara, Antony, Felix,
Everton*, Mbappe
We kick-off 2025 in fine style as we smash 8 past Maritimo which is the second time we have won 8-0 in our last 3 league matches. Amazingly we scored 8 goals and Mbappe didnt get a single goal! I was pleased that Antony got a brace - he needs to score more regularly this season as last year he got 18 and he has 7 so far this term.
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Lineup - Cerqueira, Ongoiba, Dias (Ferro), Sebahattin Sahinoglu, Grimaldo, Luis (Sanches), Camara,
Antony*, Felix (Almada), Everton, Mbappe
No 8 goals here but Antony netted again.
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Lineup - Cerqueira, Ongoiba, Dias, Sebahattin Sahinoglu, Grimaldo, Luis, Camara, Tsygankov (Lasso),
Felix*, Everton, Mbappe
A comfortable victory. Ronaldo Camara got a goal which he needs to do more often as he got into double figures last season. My old player, Henrique Jocu, got sent-off against us here which made things easier.
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Taca de Portugal Quarter-Final
Lineup - Cerqueira, Tavares (Matos), Strijbosch, Ferro, Ramirez, Bernardo (Salas), Sanches, Tsygankov,
Almada*, Lasso, Petric (Ramos)
We storm into the semis with this 5 goal victory. Lasso also had a goal disallowed so it could have been 6-0.
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Lineup - Cerqueira, Ongoiba (Tavares), Dias, Sebahattin Sahinoglu,
Grimaldo*, Luis, Camara, Antony (Tsygankov), Felix, Everton, Mbappe
Alex Grimaldo got his first goals of the season here as he starred in this match. We have kept 7 clean sheets in a row now in the league.
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Allianz Cup Semi-Final
Lineup - Cerqueira, Ongoiba, Dias, Sebahattin Sahinoglu (Ferro), Grimaldo, Luis,
Sanches*, Antony (Petric), Felix (Almada), Everton, Mbappe
We struggled here but we won thanks to Zoran Petric who came off the bench to score the winner.
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Allianz Cup Final
Lineup - Cerqueira, Ongoiba (Tavares), Dias, Sebahattin Sahinoglu, Grimaldo,
Luis*, Camara, Antony (Tsygankov), Felix, Everton (Petric), Mbappe
We win the Allianz Cup in yet another tight match. The game was settled when Joao Felix converted a penalty. Thereafter we huffed and puffed but couldnt add to our tally.
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Lineup - Cerqueir,a, Ongoiba, Dias, Sebahattin Sahinoglu, Grimaldo, Luis, Camara, Antony, (Tsygankov) Felix (Almada), Everton, Mbappe (Petric)
We put in another poor performance here and salvaged a point when Tsygankov headed in in stoppage time. It was a great moment and kept up our unbeaten start to the season.
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SUMMARY
We started this month on fire but performances dropped towards the end of the month but we still managed to get through the month unbeaten and we picked up the Allianz Cup which was a nice boost.
There were a few transfer moves. Kaio Jorge was signed on a pre-contract deal and was immediately sold on for £20m. I really needed to raise some funds as with £283m of transfer fees being spent and with increased wages etc the clubs bank balance was deep in the red for the first time.
With that in mind I let Paulo Bernardo join Spurs for £73m. To get such a fee for my 4th choice CM is quite something and considering he only played 32 times for me I was happy to cash in. With Alfonso Salas in the squad we have adequate cover.
As for signings I brought in 4 cheap regens for my B team while the best one is this lad.
In other news the stadiums expansion work was completed and our capacity is now up to 80,000 which will help the bank balance a bit.
At present the clubs bank balance is at £22m so unless we win the Champions League again we will probably end the season with a debt of £30-40m. However I have players to sell on such as Moussa Dembele and Lucas Robertone while decisions will have to be made on Diogo Nascimento, Jonny Budinauckas, Umaro Embalo, Hugo Lasso and Joao Resende amongst others.
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
RONALDO CAMARA
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