Post by penguin on Mar 21, 2011 9:35:19 GMT -5
Sporting is holding Presidential elections this upcoming weekend. Having elections when the club is in turmoil is usually a recipe for disaster - cases in point Jorge Goncavles' election in 1988 or Vale Azevedo's Benfica election in 1997. At times like this, the promises get wilder and everyone tries to line up old glories to support their candidacy.
Surprisingly, none of the candidates have promised specific players. However, they have all either officially announced or unofficially leaked the name of the coach they plan to hire. The list is pretty interesting. Here are the candidates and their coaches.
Bruno Carvalho (BC) - He is the outsider among the candidates. I don't know much about him, but he's a relatively young businessman with no ties to the previous regimes. He's lined up a $50 million Russian investment package to improve the squad. He's announced Augusto Inacio as his VP of soccer. And this weekend, he trotted out his choice for the next coach: Marco Van Basten! Van Basten even showed up for the announcement in Lisbon, wearing a Sporting scarf.
Godinho Lopes (GL) - GL is definitely the establishment candidate. He was Dias da Cunha's VP, he oversaw the building of the stadium, and has the backing of most of the recent presidents. To run the soccer team, he's bringing back Luis Duque and Carlos Freitas, who put together the last 2 championship teams. While he was initially linked with Scolari, the latest news is that they've lined up Domingos to takeover.
Pedro Baltazar (PB) - At one point, PB was the 2nd largest shareholder in the SAD. His choice for coach is Zico.
Dias Ferreira (DF) - DF is the guy who shows up on all the Sports Talk Shows representing Sporting. He's a shady lawyer who's been involved in different legal matter throughout the years. He's announced that turncoat Paulo Futre as his soccer Director and they've lined up Frank Riijkaard as their coach.
Sergio Abrantes Mendes (SAM) - SAM ran again Soares Franco 5 years ago and lost badly. He's got the longest odds of the 5 candidates. The word in the press is that he's bringing in Balakov to coach the team.
van Basten, Riijkaard, Zico, Balakov and Domingos. Considering the crap we've hired lately, that's a very interesting list. From what I've read, it appears that the election is going to come down to either Carvalho or GL, which means either van Basten or Domingos. While van Basten was a great player, he hasn't really done much as a coach. You could say he rebuilt the Dutch NT after Euro2004, but he never got past the quarterfinals in either 2006 or 2008. His one season with Ajax was underwhelming, too.
Domingos has done wonders with Braga over the past 2 seasons. However, I'm not sure how much of it was his work and how much of it was the result of Jorge Jesus' before leaving for Benfica.
Surprisingly, none of the candidates have promised specific players. However, they have all either officially announced or unofficially leaked the name of the coach they plan to hire. The list is pretty interesting. Here are the candidates and their coaches.
Bruno Carvalho (BC) - He is the outsider among the candidates. I don't know much about him, but he's a relatively young businessman with no ties to the previous regimes. He's lined up a $50 million Russian investment package to improve the squad. He's announced Augusto Inacio as his VP of soccer. And this weekend, he trotted out his choice for the next coach: Marco Van Basten! Van Basten even showed up for the announcement in Lisbon, wearing a Sporting scarf.
Godinho Lopes (GL) - GL is definitely the establishment candidate. He was Dias da Cunha's VP, he oversaw the building of the stadium, and has the backing of most of the recent presidents. To run the soccer team, he's bringing back Luis Duque and Carlos Freitas, who put together the last 2 championship teams. While he was initially linked with Scolari, the latest news is that they've lined up Domingos to takeover.
Pedro Baltazar (PB) - At one point, PB was the 2nd largest shareholder in the SAD. His choice for coach is Zico.
Dias Ferreira (DF) - DF is the guy who shows up on all the Sports Talk Shows representing Sporting. He's a shady lawyer who's been involved in different legal matter throughout the years. He's announced that turncoat Paulo Futre as his soccer Director and they've lined up Frank Riijkaard as their coach.
Sergio Abrantes Mendes (SAM) - SAM ran again Soares Franco 5 years ago and lost badly. He's got the longest odds of the 5 candidates. The word in the press is that he's bringing in Balakov to coach the team.
van Basten, Riijkaard, Zico, Balakov and Domingos. Considering the crap we've hired lately, that's a very interesting list. From what I've read, it appears that the election is going to come down to either Carvalho or GL, which means either van Basten or Domingos. While van Basten was a great player, he hasn't really done much as a coach. You could say he rebuilt the Dutch NT after Euro2004, but he never got past the quarterfinals in either 2006 or 2008. His one season with Ajax was underwhelming, too.
Domingos has done wonders with Braga over the past 2 seasons. However, I'm not sure how much of it was his work and how much of it was the result of Jorge Jesus' before leaving for Benfica.
