Comments on: Personal Nastiness to Keep Veloso from Manchester?

By: Pedro P

Pedro P — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:55:14 +0000

Persoanlly, I’d rather see Veloso staying with SCP. I’m a Sporting fan… But I’m an even bigger fan of Portugal’s National Team – Seleccao. The quality of Sporting’s Academy is undeniable. But on the big-fish competition level, the portuguese league is, what, maybe above the dutch and that’s it. Spanish, English, Italian, even the German leagues, are all of higher level. Therefor, if a player gets to go away to a team like Man Utd, or Barcelona, etc, it’s always good for his own development. His level, market price, etc, will boost up. Consequently, I believe they became better players. So, it’s good for the NT.

On the other hand, I also feel it’s about time for the good portuguese players to stay home and it’s also time the rest of the people (presidents, managers, etc) making money for themselves revolving around football, just actually make something positive about the league itself. Cos I don’t think it’d be that difficult to make it a notch or two up.

As for Sporting, the president came up with the policy of selling club properties, rather than players, in order to keep the competitive level up, as a tool to fight the huge economic crisis the club went through. They did sell C Ronaldo and Nani, but they didn’t sell much more. They didn’t buy, cos they’ve also been brilliant in buying without spending money (they actually don’t have).

So, the priority has been to cover the huge money hole and to mainly rely in the kids they form. With the natural consequences. That’s why you get eatern europeans nobody saw before but can actually play very good. With them, also brasillians that come into Europe through Portugal. Just compare Sporting with FCP and SLB concerning money… No compare the results… (it must be said Porto is very strong, this year).

If they do sell Veloso, it’d be a pitty. Although I feel he deserves more than what the portuguese league can offer, currently. I must say that since Paulo Sousa, we (PT) didn’t have such a good trinco” (holding mid), able to disarm the enemie with perfect timing, able to really start an attack, able to go up and cross as well… We have Petit and others, but they’re not so good with the ball and usually one always stays behind (Petit, Costinha) and the other only goes forward now and again (Maniche). In Paulo Sousa’s days, there was him and a midfield with Figo, S Conceicao (wings), Rui Costa and JV Pinto (2 attacking mids), in the Seleccao. He’s very good in all aspects of a centre midfielder.

By: BC

BC — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:29:13 +0000

The movie is fictionalized, avoids names and he is just called “mr president”. But it is based on the tell all book by his former mistress, who is now a witness for a whole lot of things. Among other things she told us all of his flatulence problem, and this is won´t be forgotten anytime soon, how Pinto da Costa celebrated the greece win in that final. PdC does not like Scolari. Or the national team if it includes players from clubs other than Porto probably.

The agents, I totally agree there is a major hype with Miguel Veloso, he is pretty, famous father and playing OK in Portugal and for Portugal. His agent, yes, spot on. Jorge Mendes OTOH has a history of very big transfers who sometimes go quite right.

By: BC

BC — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:03:31 +0000

The Porto president is the one who (allegedly. according to police investigations) bought referees prostitutes. He is not at all involved in Sporting´s current crisis, and neither is Benfica or any other club than Manchester United now, I just mentioned it because if both Queirós and Pinto da Costa, on separate occasions, acuse Soares Franco of being a drunk, it´s an interesting accusation from two very different unrelated sources.

Vieira? Sporting´s coach is Paulo Bento, a former player, famous haircut, and Quaresma´s old roommate according to an immortal first page of a sports paper (”they used to sleep together”. before a sporting-porto game). Liedson is a pain, and is sort of under control.

I think there is no specific age for a portuguese player to move, some have gone very young, some quite a bit older. Cristiano Ronaldo was 18, Ricardo Carvalho 26 and no comparison other than same sort of price. Regarding Veloso or Quaresma, any transfer in the summer might depend on how the euro goes and if/how much Scolari uses them. Veloso might even be gone earlier on winter transfer if Sporting needs to buy more players, but it´s hard to know for sure and his agent is not a very big name. He might be replaceable as well, there is a teenage kid getting some minutes now and then who might be made ready for that position. Quaresma is another matter, his agent is Jorge Mendes and Quaresma is very marketable, likely to be very very expensive (more than Pepe or Anderson), and he is not going to be willing to go just any club. Meaning, it is not unlikely if none of the clubs he would consider and who are able to afford him are willing to take a risk on him right this summer. The portuguese league is a bigger deal for Portuguese than it looks to foreigners and it seems very normal that he would prefer staying in Porto than go to the 5th or 6th best team in Spain or England or Italy. But there are other players perhaps even more likely to be transferred soon.

By: Martha

Martha — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:47:35 +0000

Jeeesus. Thank you, Nuno. Will never make that mistake again.

Is the movie a documentary? Because if so, that’s fantastic. Please don’t tell me he’s an actor, too.

By: Nuno

Nuno — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:44:01 +0000

Martha…. Vieira is Benficas president…
Bento is Sporting trainer. And we will see if he has lost control over the team after Christmas, also called the time when brazilian footballers, and particularly Liedson, try to expand their holidays and spend that extra time in the sun.
As for Veloso, personally I think an important part of the hype sorrounding him has been created by his agent, whose players do not tend to stay in one club for long. Veloso is a gifted player, without a doubt, bur over the past few weeks he has been everywhere… Its like there are no other players in the portuguese league…
As for your regards towards FCPorto president, yes, he is that one. And he is also the star of the movie which leads the portuguese box office for the last two months, appropriately called “Corruption”. Oh, and did I mention he looks like the bad guy from the Smurfs?
As for your prediction on Quaresma and Veloso out of Portugal over the Summer, hope your right…fingers crossed.

By: Martha

Martha — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:10:16 +0000

BC, that is madness. Jesus. The Porto president is the totally sketched out one, right? The one who bought hookers for officials and stuff? And he and Sporting’s president are at one another’s throats? Awesome.

What’s the general opinion about Vieira — has he lost the team, or is Liedson just a pain in the ass?

Hype aside, Veloso seems like he’s at the point at which Portuguese players generally leave the Liga. United alleged interest aside, are there any other possible destinations? I sort of assume he and Quaresma will be gone over the summer — is that safe to say, or no?

By: BC

BC — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:17:35 +0000

Sporting, that is more like 20 volume saga of which I just read 30 pages and did not pay enough attention in class. Sporting´s “president” is the guy who supposedly drinks, according to hints from Queirós and Porto´s president, which is quite a pair. Another influential figure there, an ally of his is pretty influential in a lot of their not-particularly-good buys this and in other summers and now quite unpopular with some supporters. This summer, they bought a bunch of players, mostly eastern european, none seems to have been particularly sucessful yet. And Sporting has been losing games, they tied Nacional in Madeira, they lost 3-0 to Braga, they lost to Roma and Man Utd quite unfairly particularly in the Roma case. The coach is under a lot of pressure, and nobody is playing well, including Liedson. Liedson just got suspended by the coach for this last weekend´s game because of attitude during penalty kick practice. This weekend they actually won a game, a cup game 4-0. The Sporting “claques”, ultras if you would like, spent the whole time making their criticism of the club´s current form very explicit( not they object to winning, 4-0 is respectable enough even against Louletano). At the end of the match they harassed players, there was even confrontation between a player and fans. Now there is talk of “sócios” getting expelled. There is an awful lot of politics and alliances going on. It´s very complicated.

Miguel Veloso has been getting a lot of media attention this season specially from the celebrity press in Portugal which is probably why his names is being so hyped around. Miguel Veloso probably wanted to go to Manchester and be invited to Cristiano´s parties and his agent probably wants a big transfer. Sporting will probably need to sell somebody soon. Man Utd apparently was not that interested or they would have tried to get him in the summer, but they were probably not denying their interest in case it raised MV´s price to another club. When Carlos Queirós replies to portuguese press that of course he had been following 5 different young portuguese players, Sporting´s president starts whining and then Queirós has that sharpish reply about after a certain time of the day the president does not know what he is talking about. Day after, the persona non grata declaration, then a couple more exchanges. Regarding Miguel Veloso transfer, I do think it was just a media mirage other than real interest…

By: Martha

Martha — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:53:36 +0000

Awesome, thanks BC — it’s great to have you weighing on this stuff. How did the tapping up thing get involved in the story? Is that something the British press came up with on their own?

And what’s the Cliff Notes version of what’s going on at Sporting?

By: BC

BC — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:44:54 +0000

That is all like a storm in a glass of water, compared to the inner crisis Sporting is actually going through right now.By the way the persona non grata was 10 days ago and is only now making the english news – Queirós did not insult Sporting, the problem and cause of this reaction is that he insinuated that Soares Franco was a drunk.

I doubt Manchester United wants Miguel Veloso, where would he play anyway in their scheme. All Queirós has said was that they of course had observed Miguel Veloso, João Moutinho, and Ricardo Quaresma, Bosingwa, Bruno Alves, to which Porto did not remark at all, nor had they anything to remark. I would bet if they are following anybody portuguese it would be one of those Porto players who seems a lot more like what Manchester United really need and whose contract is apparently ending soon.