Sporting CP: Welcome to the Jungle

http://i65.tinypic.com/noasgl.jpg

The Algerian striker, Slimani, signed a new deal with Sporting until 2021.
Islam Slimani have scored so far 16 goals in 23 matches, and assisted twice, this season.
The 28-year-old striker will have a salary of €130,000 (£95,500) per month.

Slimani is going to represent Algeria in the next CAN, playing in the next two months.
But, Slimani as still to recover from an injury he got in one of the last games of the year, and won't be able to play for Sporting, before the end of the algerian campaign on CAN..
Due to the injury news, it's believeble Sporting's coach, Jorge Jesus, have asked for a new striker to President Bruno de Carvalho.
Portuguese press, puts Arsenal's striker, Álvaro Morata in the top of the list. The spanish young striker is not happy with the small amount of time he've been spending on the pitch. A deal might cost beetween €30 (£22M) and €40M (£29,5M) to the Lions.

1

1

http://i64.tinypic.com/14blxg7.jpg

(A) 0-2 Nacional - Primeira Liga, Round 12

(A) 2-0 Boavista - Primeira Liga, Round 13

(H) 1-0 Vitória FC - Primeira Liga, Round 14

(H) 1-1 Belenenses - Primeira Liga, Round 15

(A) 2-0 Braga - Taça da Liga, Group Stage

2 - Porto, 29 Points
3 - Benfica, 28 Points*
4 - Vitória FC, 28 Points*
5 - Belenenses, 27 Points
6 - Nacional, 25 Points*

* less 1 game played

http://i68.tinypic.com/107uqnc.png

Sporting will play Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League - Round of 16.
The draw gave the same result as last year's. And the Lions will deslocate again to Ukraine in the first leg, and receive Dynamo in the second.
Last season after a 2-2 draw in Ukraine, Dynamo would beat Sporting 2-1 in Lisbon, after a Lions advantage at the half-time by 1-0.
The ukranians then reached the final, where they lost to Paris Saint Germain.

(H) vs Moreirense - Primeira Liga
(A) vs Santa Clara - Primeira Liga
(H) vs Gil Vicente - Primeira Liga
(H) vs Estoril - Taça da Liga
(A) vs Paços de Ferreira - Primeira Liga
(H) vs Arouca - Taça da Liga
(H) vs Rio Ave - Primeira Liga

http://i64.tinypic.com/rvjchs.jpg

http://i63.tinypic.com/wbs2on.jpg

Slimani
Islam Slimani was chosen as the Player of the Year, from the Stromp Foundation.
The algerian striker have shown the best of him this year of 2016. He made a great run at the beggining of the year, but he would eventually be out for months after a bad injury took him out of the pitch.
He returned only for the last couple games of the season, and scored twice in the last match, having one of these goals chosen as Goal of the Year for the fans.
Since the beggining of the new season, Slimani have took the spot of the front of the attack, which is only one now, after a tactical change from Jorge Jesus from a 4-4-2, to a 4-3-3, and has scored many and very important goals for the team.
Slimani is at Sporting since 2013, when he arrived from algerian side, CR Belouizdad, for a fee of €0,3M (£0,2M).

http://i64.tinypic.com/6omvib.jpg

Jorge Jesus
Jorge Jesus won for the second time in a row the Coach of the Year - Stromp Award.
With though competition from sporting coaches of handball, futsal and hockey, Jesus got the award, probably due to the fantastic league campaign.
Sporting's coach archieved this year, one of the most expected things from Sporting fans - the Primeira Liga title.
14 years later, Sporting became portuguese champion again, and the captain of the the boat was Jorge Jesus, who was at rivals Benfica in the year before.
In other competitions, Jorge Jesus's Sporting, was eliminated from the Round of 16 in Champions League, and won the Taça da Liga, on a final against Desportivo das Aves.

http://i66.tinypic.com/mi14qw.jpg

Ricardo Esgaio
Although Esgaio is not new to the first team, this year he outdone everyone's expectation.
He reveal himself as a player that can be of extreme importance for Sporting's success.
During the year, Esgaio took João Pereira's place in the right side of the defence, and entered the new season as the absolute boss of the place, not letting Miguel Lopes have much chance to get it.

http://i68.tinypic.com/erhriw.jpg

Porto's striker, André Silva, have signed for the Lions.
The young portuguese player is seen for some years as one of the greatest portuguese prospects for the position Portugal's National Team has more trouble finding good players.

Porto's coach, the basque Julen Lopetegui, have played André Silva only once, as a substitute in a Champions League match last season.
The striker have played for Porto's B team, and was one of the targets for Sporting in the Summer, just before the Lions signed Sergio Díaz.
André Silva scored so far this season 15 goals in 21 Segunda Liga games. Last season he played 45 Segunda Liga games and scored 23 goals.

The transfer was made by a record of €20M (£14,7M), making this the highest buy from Sporting's history.
The inflationated price is, according to the press, due to the lack of desire from Porto's direction, that André Silva was sold for a rival.

The 21-year-old striker was at Porto since 2011, where he traded Padroense for the blue and white team.
He played in 2016 Olimpic Games, for the Portugal under23 team, and have already made his debut for the Portuguese main National Team, where he also scored in the only match he did.

The portuguese press stated in the last days that Sporting tried a large number of players, but failed to make the deals.
From those some sources talk about a failed loan proposition for former Lions player, Teo Gutiérrez, that have only played 6 matches this season, and only 2 of those in the starting eleven.
Other supposed targets were Martial, which is believable the Red Devils accepted a €45M offer, but the high salaries made the transfer impossible. Álvaro Morata, that was transfer listed by Arsenal, after a poor first half of the season, when he played only 5 games. But the salaries have probably stopped this deal too, after a €35M offer from the Lions.

http://i64.tinypic.com/1rsw7a.jpg

Serbia centre back, Nikola Maksimovic, signed for Sporting.
The former Chelsea player was unhappy in the London due to the lack of use by José Mourinho, and the Lions advanced for him.
The deal was made for €11M (£8M), a fee much lower than what Chelsea had payed to Torino a year and half ago, when they paid €29M (£21M), for him.
Maksimovic had only made one match at Chelsea this season on a cup game. While last season he made a total of 45 games, and even scored 3 times.

On the way out is Naldo, who will be on loan in Austria to represent Red Bull Salzburg until the end of the season.

http://i67.tinypic.com/2957m2o.jpg

Goals

Mané 25' 36' pen 56', Zivkovic 34', S.Dìaz 47'. S.Cissé 78'

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrtht3.jpg Assists

João Mário (2), Esgaio (2)

Injuries

Balanta (1 week)
Wallyson (3/4 days)

Man of the Match

Mané

http://i67.tinypic.com/2957m2o.jpg

Goals

André Silva 45'+2 82', Gelson 46' 57'

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrtht3.jpg Assists

Jonathan (2), Mané, Maksimovic

Injuries

Adrien (1 week)

Man of the Match

André Silva

http://i67.tinypic.com/2957m2o.jpg

Goals

Iuri 40', André Silva 43'. Cristian 56'

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrtht3.jpg Assists

André Silva, Zivkovic

Man of the Match

Esgaio

http://i68.tinypic.com/2qsw0uv.jpg

Goals

Matheus pen 57', S.Dìaz 65', Mané 79'

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrtht3.jpg Assists

D.Dìaz, Barbosa, Lopes

Injuries

Adrien (10 days)

Man of the Match

Lopes

http://i67.tinypic.com/2957m2o.jpg

Goals

Gelson 82'

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrtht3.jpg Assists

Iuri

Man of the Match

João Mário

http://i68.tinypic.com/2qsw0uv.jpg

Goals

S.Dìaz 4' 62', Iuri 64'. Mariotto 32'

http://i63.tinypic.com/mrtht3.jpg Assists

Lopes, Barbosa, Palhinha

Injuries

Gauld (3 weeks)

Man of the Match

Barbosa

http://i67.tinypic.com/2957m2o.jpg

Man of the Match

Wallyson

http://i67.tinypic.com/29x64jl.jpg

(H) 5-1 Moreirense - Primeira Liga, Round 16

(A) 4-0 Santa Clara - Primeira Liga, Round 17

(H) 2-1 Gil Vicente - Primeira Liga, Round 18

(H) 3-0 Estoril - Taça da Liga, Group Stage

(A) 1-0 Paços de Ferreira - Primeira Liga, Round 19

(H) 3-1 Arouca - Taça da Liga, Group Stage

(H) 0-0 Rio Ave - Primeira Liga, Round 20

http://i64.tinypic.com/6omvib.jpg

Jorge Jesus won the Primeira Liga - Coach of the Month Award. The Lions coach managed to win 4 out of 5 Primeira Liga matches this month, only conceeding the draw in the last one. A total of 12 scored goals, and 2 against, making 13 points out of 15 possible.

2 - Benfica, 39 Points*
3 - Porto, 37 Points
4 - Nacional, 35 Points
5 - Belenenses, 34 Points
6 - Vitória FC, 33 Points

* less one game played

2 - Arouca, 3 Points
3 - Braga, 3 Points
4 - Tondela, 3 Points

Sporting will play the Semi Final in Estádio da Luz. The Lions will visit Benfica on a one-match semi final.

Balanta signed a new deal with Sporting until 2021. The centre back wanted is salary reviewed after a offer from Bayern of €12M (£8,8M) was rejected.

(H) vs Marítimo - Primeira Liga
(A) vs Dynamo Kyiv - Champions League
(A) vs Braga - Primeira Liga
(A) vs Arouca - Primeira Liga
(A) vs Benfica - Taça da Liga
(H) vs Tondela - Primeira Liga