Opinion
Opinion by João Rosado. Vítor Bruno’s resignation does not make the president’s life any easier and puts a lot of things at risk.
In 48 hours, Sérgio will be back at Dragão. Once Vítor Bruno’s dismissal is complete, Porto fans will focus their attention on the team’s performance in Thursday’s match. And perhaps many eyes will appear in the direction of the one who was once at Nantes and ended up leaving FC Porto for Italy, something typical of the Sérgios who built a history in shades of blue and white.
Currently, Sérgio Oliveira represents Olympiakos, as does David Carmo, another name that not many months ago caused a lot of ink and a lot of money in Invicta. Both would have left under the management of Pinto da Costa due to lack of sporting performance consistent with the salary costjudging by the level of use of the defender who cost 22 million euros and also judging by the famous results of the audit carried out on the club’s accounts over the last 10 years.
In view of what was published, Sérgio Conceição himself would have agreed to Sérgio Oliveira’s departure in September 2022, the year in which David Carmo was hired from Sporting de Braga for a record sum and almost at the rate of one million euros for each challenge played in the first category. The central defender who opted for the Angolan national team has no more than 27 games with the FCP shirt, in contrast to the 40 games for one of the emblems that allows multimillionaire Evangelos Marinakis to play football on an intermediate level between the Ave River and the Nottinhgam Forest.
Evangelos and levels of entertainment aside, the truth is that nowadays either David Carmo or Sérgio Oliveira would be two undisputed players in the eleven who will be coached by José Tavares in the penultimate round of the Europa League. And this would be one of the major conclusions of the audit that the current administration forgot to carry out on the FC Porto squad and which would override all others aimed at investigating responsibilities of an accounting nature.
By dropping Vítor Bruno and the promises of a new paradigm and a new way of being in football, André Villas-Boas (AVB) fled his responsibilities on Sunday night who took over when he pretended to be disruptive and promoted the deputy to the leading figure of what seemed to be a project supported by the careful choice of the department’s fundamental pillars… fundamental. At the moment he bet on the man who left Conceição, he knew better than anyone else the difficult conditions and scarcity of resourceswhich in itself suggested bulletproof complicity and unconditional protection from the coach.
The president and the two directors who often took part in the electoral campaign, Jorge Costa and Andoni Zubizarreta, were fully aware that the first year after Pinto da Costa would be marked by a terrible phase of transition and adaptation to new realitieswith perhaps severe costs from a sporting point of view.
NANTES AND AFTER
In an institution bent on a financial restructuring invented to be able to survive month after month in the wake of accumulated debts and mortgages, was and continues to be inhumane asking the replacement for FCP’s most successful coach to do an unblemished job and always above the performance of direct rivals.
Paying attention to your past, Villas-Boas had an obligation to realize this and ignore outside pressure which did not cease until Vítor Bruno’s head was delivered. Above all others, this was THE mistake made by the leader of the dragons, an even more unacceptable mistake considering the courage shown when he literally gave his chest to bullets during the race to the polls. To the whip the technician mercilesslyin the space of three weeks, turned the personality he seemed to exhibit inside out and proved to be a leader like so many othersdisciple of the old choice that allows even the last soldier to fall in an attempt to prolong the power achieved over time.
With a Super Cup in its pocket and four points from the lead at the beginning of the second round of the championship, this FC Porto required a reflection that did not confuse structural decisions with the dismissal of those who simply trusted that there was a year zero.
What the leadership should have understood is that giving in to those who think that everything can be washed in blood will end up ricocheting in the medium term. If the root of all the evils was just in Vítor Bruno, if the team reaches May without achieving its objectives, then it will be left to André Villas-Boas who should have opted for a move forward that would allow him to add talent to a group work marked by marked imbalances.
It is true that this effort could never be executed without a financial miracleit would be better if it is impossible to effectively reinforce the squad to keep everything the same and raise this shield at the end of a season that runs the risk of being closed below what is admissible.
From now on, AVB lost its defense witness and became the sole target of the prosecution. You can believe that you will be able to disenchant a Houdini capable of transforming Neuhén Pérez into Ricardo Carvalho or Otávio Ataíde into young Marcano. But most likely, the man who follows will already be happy in the event of discovering a second David Carmo.
The original, under the command of Sérgio who made a name for himself at Nantes and then at FC Porto who he would switch to Italy, was rarely part of the solution. It was seen as a problem as high as those who sit in the president’s chair.
