FC Porto: Gold on blue (and white)

With Vítor Pereira on his way to Al-Ahli SC (Jeddah), FC Porto was forced to appoint a new manager. Lacking the famous mystique within the squad, was with no surprise that we saw Jorge Costa being selected for the manager role.

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Jorge Costa is the epitome of that mystique. He played almost his entire career in Porto. Among his trophies at FC Porto lies a UEFA Champions League (2003-04), UEFA Cup (2002-03), Intercontinental Cup (2004), several Portuguese Leagues, Portuguese Cups and Portuguese Supercups.

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I hope you guys follow my story and enjoy it! Keep in mind that this is my first story, so I will appreciate any advice from you guys.

Really like the start of it mate :). Costa played under Mou, if I'm correct? Anyways, great start, and would like to see this story develop

No advice needed.. great start and good luck

Good start! Keep it up!

2013-12-26 03:58#151230 Pauker : Really like the start of it mate :). Costa played under Mou, if I'm correct? Anyways, great start, and would like to see this story develop

Thanks, mate! Yes, he was the captain of that team.

2013-12-26 07:45#151236 Walter : No advice needed.. great start and good luck

Thank you!

2013-12-26 08:31#151239 AAN : Good start! Keep it up!

Thank you!
Today I will post more, stay tuned.

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Squad:

This is my senior squad. At this moment I have 5 GK, this is, obviously, a problem for me. I would like to sell 3 of these GK and buy a hot prospect. That way I would have 3 GK.

I have 3 natural DC and 1 natural DM who can play DC too. 4 DC, that's the ideal for me. Diego Reyes can play DC but he is a natural DM, I think that he will perform well as a DC so I'm happy with the DC I have. Unless I have a great deal to sell someone, I will not make changes here. This is understandable if you know the philosophy of the club.

The fullback positions are a problem right now, if you follow Porto in real life you will know this. Right now I have 3 valid options for this positions but the ideal for me would be 4. Changes will, surely, be made in this positions.

3 natural DM is what I have for that position right now, so it is unlikely that I will make changes here.

Right now I have two CM. That's short, I would like to buy one hot prospect for this position, if possible.

I'm happy with the AMC I have too, I have 3 natural AMC in my squad. Quintero and Josué, to me, seem very capable of doing a good job.

Now, wingers are a position I would like to strengthen. A lot of players, in this squad, can play on the wing but they are not natural wingers and that's not the ideal for me. I would like to buy two wingers, if possible.

In this squad I have 4 natural strikers, this is a good number since Kelvin can play on the wings and that's where I want to play him. This leaves me with 3 strikers. I want to buy a hot prospect and sell one of my strikers, that's my plan.

If all goes as planned my squad will have 26 players. That's a good number, since we have 5 competitions to play.

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Youth:

I'm counting with the B team and my U19 squad. I will not go into much depth about this subject, I'll just point the players that, I think, could be useful for the first team in the future.

U19 squad: Tomás Podstawski, 18 year-old from Portugal, DM; Belinha, 18 year-old from Portugal, CM.

FC Porto B squad: Marko Pavlovski, 19 year-old from Serbia, AMC (on loan from OFK Beograd); Gonçalo Paciência, 18 year-old from Portugal, ST.

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Transfers:

Players on loan: Rolando (Inter); Abdoulaye (Vit. Guimarães); André Castro (Kasimpa?a); Tiago Rodrigues (Vit. Guimarães); Djalma (Konyaspor); Juan Iturbe (Verona); Walter (Goiás).
On their return I want to sell Rolando, Abdoulaye, André Castro, Djalma and Walter.

Players I want to sell: Sinan Bolat; Matos; Kadú; Jorge Fucile; Marat Izmailov; Kléber.
And I want to send Tozé and Ricardo to FC Porto B.

Possible transfer targets: Jan Oblak (Benfica); Jonathan Silva (Estudiantes LP); João Cancelo (Benfica); Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (FC Bayern); Zakaria Bakkali (PSV); Rodrigo Gómez (Argentinos).
This list might change. The market is very unpredictable so I might change my transfer targets.

Good detailed start!

Great start mate, enjoying it. You might get a nice deal when Rolando returns, if he makes a good job at Inter. Nevertheless, good luck, and I'll be following

2013-12-26 17:24#151307 Storrie : Good detailed start!

Thank you, I hope you enjoy the story!

2013-12-26 17:25#151308 Pauker : Great start mate, enjoying it. You might get a nice deal when Rolando returns, if he makes a good job at Inter. Nevertheless, good luck, and I'll be following

That's exactly what I expect from the players loaned out.
Thank you for following!

A great choice of club that need to return to the European stage! Good luck with the rest of the story.

nice start , like porto very much
what are you plans with quintero ?
if you looking for a good new defender i would keep my eye on doria
you can buy him and loan him back till next season f.e

2013-12-26 18:26#151315 Jamesg237 : A great choice of club that need to return to the European stage! Good luck with the rest of the story.

Thanks, mate!

2013-12-26 18:44#151320 Vidic92 : nice start , like porto very much
what are you plans with quintero ?
if you looking for a good new defender i would keep my eye on doria
you can buy him and loan him back till next season f.e

Right now I'm thinking of keeping him on the bench, as I'll probably play with a DM rather than a AMC but we'll see what works better for me, this pre-season. Thanks for the Dória suggestion but right now I'm not looking for more DC.

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CSKA Moscow 2 - 4 FC Porto
Played Fernando from the start, no goals conceaded. Substitued him for Quintero, conceaded two goals. It looks like a DM suits better my team.

Venezia 0 - 3 FC Porto
Same thing as the other game. Started with Fernando, no goals conceaded once more. Substitued him for Quintero, no goals conceaded and Quintero scores one. Solid game for Quintero but CSKA Moscow were a better opponent. Also, a note for my first signing Gastón Gil Romero, who I'm inclined to play instead of Herrera on my first eleven.

Tourizense 1 - 6 FC Porto
Easy game, easy win. No surprise at all. My team created a lot of chances, we could easily have won with more goals. We conceaded a goal with Quintero on the pitch and none with Fernando. Gastón Gil Romero with a great game, again.

Karabükspor 1 - 3 FC Porto
Martínez scores the first but we conceaded a goal, it was an error of Gastón Gil Romero but Martínez scoared again to put us on the front, again. We should have won by a bigger margin and we keep conceading goals, which is very frustrating.

FC Porto 1 - 1 FC Barcelona
We end our pre-season at home, against a great opponent, one of the best teams in the world. Licá soon got injured so we had to change our tactics, it turned out very well as we managed to score a goal. Too bad we conceaded a goal. In this game I could test my team with a DM and a AMC, with two CM, two strikers and no wingers.

Five games, five goals conceaded and seventeen goals scoared. Four wins and one draw. Not bad but it worries me that we concead goals almost every game. Good pre-season, now we have a Supercup final agains Vit. Guimarães to play.

A very nice preseason, with some very nice results.

Interesting observations about the Fernando/Quintero tactics. Maybe a good idea is for Quintero to play against smaller sides like Olhanense and Fernando to start against big clubs like Benfica?

A very good pre-season!