The Off-Season
The off season began and to be a competitive force in the league again, I knew we had to string a few deals together, whilst also clearing out the deadwood and un-needed players who were just filling up the wage bill. In recent seasons our financial situation had been poor, regularly the chairman told me about how we were in 'the red' and really needed to offload players.
So it was a shock to me when the chairman Jose Nabais told me about the transfer and wage budgets. At first I was expecting the same old miniscule fees, but I was surprised when he told me that for the first time under my reign we had a transfer budget! This would be essential in getting even better players, and it was maybe a sign that our finances were on the up, and out of 'the red'.
The first thing I did, though, was get rid of players.
Mauricio Vaschetto, our Argentinian midfielder, and
Sergio Mendonca were the first to go, as I felt that they had nothing to offer to the team. Mendonca was declining and ageing, and had never performed well in training, which is why he was on the transfer list. Next was striker
Ibrahima Balde, who despite top scoring really had nothing to offer and was complaining about the lack of game time.
Tiago Mota, a loyal servant to Oriental, was released on a free, as well as other right midfielder
Taroco, who also was essential in the promotion. The last person I decided to release was youngster
Socrates Pedro, who really had no potential any longer and was largely inconsistent in my time as manager.
The
youth intake in the last few seasons had been largely unimpressive but a promosing youngster by the name of
Luis Costa popped up. With three star potential ability, he could be a good profit making tool and maybe even feature in the first team. He was definately not going to crack it anytime soon, so I offloaded him to AD Carregado on loan in the third division.
Now I was ready for the arrivals, but we had to plan really carefully as we would need to be even better than last season. Portimonense and Beleneses had been relegated from the Liga Zon Sagres and we knew they were more than capable for this league. I was again looking to bring in more youngsters, to build a strong team for the future.