Here we go again with the latest installment from my Football Manager 2021 journeyman career, as Shama Deadman kicks off the second leg of his European managerial adventure!
Shama has left south Wales behind and found a new job in Espinho – a Portuguese holiday resort that’s perhaps better-known for playing football on the beach than on grass. The local team have struggled in the bottom half of the Terceira Liga and need a saviour, so could he be their man?
Today’s chapter will take you through the first three months of Shama’s reign (from January to March 2023) as he looks to keep the Tigres da Costa Verde clear from relegation.
(I would recommend reading Part 11 first if you haven’t caught up yet, as that post explains how Shama wound up at Espinho before introducing you to his new team.)
MEETING MY NEW TEAM
“Hi, guys. My name’s Shama, and I’d like to introduce myself as your new manager.”
“Quem diabos é você?!”
“My name is Shama, and I’m from Guernsey in the British Channel…”
“ESTRANHO PERIGOSO! ESTRANHO PERIGOSO!”
Okay, maybe my introduction to the Espinho players wasn’t quite that awkward… but it’s fair to say they’re sceptical that some nobody has come over from the Welsh valleys and started calling himself the manager!
Because my reputation is so low compared to many of my new charges, I’m starting off with my managerial support at a ‘very poor’ level. I will need to get results and build up relations straight away, or chances are I’ll survive as long as Steve Coppell at Manchester City!
That state of affairs is also why I’ve decided not to change my captain or vice-captain yet.
Let’s face it – with such middling leadership, teamwork and determination, Mica Conceição is not a great captain for the long-term. He has been at Espinho for three-and-a-half years, though, and is loved by many of his team-mates. If I try to take the captaincy off him immediately, all that will do is needlessly rock the boat.
Likewise, I’m not going to demote Kadú as vice-captain. Because of his high determination and ‘model citizen’ personality, I’m much happier with the Angolan goalkeeper in a leadership role, even though his rating in that attribute isn’t the best. I might send him on a leadership course later to see if he can improve that.
Otherwise, we don’t have any long-term captaincy candidates currently at the club. João Hilário is perhaps our best option, but the midfielder’s contract expires this summer, so his future’s up in the air. I’ve got higher hopes for teenage winger Nélson Martins, who is already a strong leader for his tender years.
Before I can think about long-term issues, though, I should probably focus on fixing our short-term issues. It’s time to throw out the deadwood, slash the wage bill, and bring in some fresh blood!
TRANSFER WINDOW
There’s how you slash your wage bill! Eight players ‘sold’, one more loaned out, and around £1,400 per week saved in wages! We’re almost as good at clearance sales as DFS!
Most of these sales were mediocre 2* (or lower) players who we wouldn’t really miss. The best one to leave was probably Diogo Andrezo – the attacking midfielder had plenty of technical ability, but was earning £275 per week. We maybe shouldn’t be paying that much to a rotation player in our situation.
With our wage bill back under the limit, I reinvested our spare budget in some new players. I signed four players in January, including two who were generously loaned to us by Primeira Liga clubs at no cost.
First up, those two loanees. Named after one of Arsenal’s greatest ever French strikers, Wiltord Antonio was a quick young winger from Portimonense who could also play in attacking midfield. We also took in the strong-tackling defender Guilherme Couto from Paços de Ferreira for the rest of the season.
You know what I said about paying £275 per week to rotation players? Well… that’s exactly what I paid journeyman ball-winner Adilson Sanches to join us on a free transfer! To be fair to Sanches, he’s a determined character who I think will make a positive impact.
And, of course, I had to bring someone over from Cambrian, didn’t I? I wasn’t able to sign Liam Edwards (yet), though I did convince the other half of our fearsome frontline to join me in Portugal.
Despite hitting a rough patch after scoring 24 goals last term, Jamie Wilson‘s consistency and composure has convinced me to sign him again. The fans aren’t convinced, but I’ll give the 18-year-old a chance to see if he can hack it in the professional leagues.
I’ve also been joined at Espinho by my assistant Luke Morgan, who isn’t the best coach in the world but knows exactly what I want from my team (the Sammy Lee to my Sam Allardyce, basically).
Speaking of Big Sam and Little Sam, I’ve hired their old friend Ricardo Vaz Tê to be our new head scout. Hey, why not appoint a former Premier League striker as your talent-spotter?
JANUARY 2023
My tenure began with a midweek home game against high-flying Marinhense. We made a flying start after nine minutes, when João Mendes‘ right-wing cross was headed in by left-winger David Santos. We then faced a flurry of visiting attacks before conceding early in the second half, but a 1-1 draw was still a solid result to begin with.
We went one better in my first away game, taking a 2-0 lead at Gondomar. Rodrigo Antunes‘ header from an Álvaro Milhazes corner before half-time was followed up after the interval by a volley from striker Miguel Pereira. However, a 75th-minute long-ranger shook our defensive resolve, and when Gondomar scored again seven minutes later, another two points went begging.
6th-placed Vizela were next up at home, and for a while, it looked like history would repeat itself. We again led 2-0 through Antunes and Pereira, before Vizela roared back in the second half. This time, though, they only pulled one goal back, as we soaked up the rest of their attacks and made it third time lucky!
Sadly, our luck didn’t hold out in our next game. The pacey, powerful Pereira extended his scoring streak with this impressive opener at Leça, who then smashed through our defence twice before half-time. We tried to take the game to them in the second period, but ran out of steam before letting in a third goal. A 3-1 defeat meant the honeymoon was over.
We then outdid ourselves by losing the lead TWICE against Trofense before conceding a third goal in stoppage time – and that was just the first half! The hosts struck again shortly after the break to seal the points. Had it not been for Kadú in goal, Trofense could have easily won by a lot more than 4-2!
Despite climbing as high as 13th during my honeymoon period, we finished January having dropped four places. Though we were still 11 points clear of the bottom two, we needed to find consistency quickly to avoid being dragged into a relegation dogfight. Time for some last-minute transfer business…
FEBRUARY 2023
After back-to-back collapses, I felt major changes were still needed. As we had a surplus of left-backs, I agreed to sell youngster Felipe to a Brazilian third-division club for around £24,000. I also brought in another four players on deadline day.
If you can take a couple of prospects on loan from Porto for little money, you bloody well do it! Francisco Guedes is a promising 18-year-old playmaker with great technique and impressive vision. As for Tiago Carvalho, he’s strong in the air and is a good decision-maker for such a young centre-half.
We also signed a couple of forwards, with Adilson Silva joining Kadú and Wiltord as the third Angolan in our team. Silva is pretty quick, can play on either flank as well as up front, and he has scoring pedigree – netting seven Terceira goals for Trofense last season.
And last, but not least, I finally managed to bring Liam Edwards to Espinho!
I really do love this lad. Liam’s got solid if not spectacular attributes, and has shown that he can be a threat from out wide, in attacking midfield, or even as a pressing forward. Whether he can do it at this level remains to be seen, but I’m optimistic.
Well, I was feeling optimistic until we kicked off February with another disastrous result. 1-0 up against Amora after 22 minutes… lost 2-1. It seems as if whenever Pereira scores, the rest of our team suddenly decides to switch off!
Prior to our next game, I put my chokers through an intense week-long ‘boot camp’. Squad morale dipped quite low and a few players picked up injuries, but I didn’t care – only the strong-willed survive boot camp.
After that, we travelled to second-from-bottom Berço – and adopted the novel tactic of letting our opponents score first, so that we didn’t have a lead to throw away! However, our opponents took 69 minutes to break through, leaving us with not much time to fight back. With Pereira having a rare off day as well, we slumped to a fourth straight defeat – and fell to fourth-from-bottom.
At least our losing run ended there. After a creditable goalless home draw against Braga B, we faced another close contest at Tirsense. Veteran winger Mendes scored his first goal this season after 24 minutes, but we choked again by conceding an equaliser after the half-time break.
Then we hosted mid-table Alverca, in what would be my most stressful game yet! Pereira poked in a long throw from Godfred Twumasi to give us the lead, only for us to let our guard slip again. An error by midfielder Álvaro Milhazes allowed Alverca to equalise from a counter-attack, before a less impressive Twumasi throw let them complete the turnaround!
Facing a 2-1 loss at half-time, I was at breaking point. I’d already subbed Milhazes and Twumasi off after their mistakes, and I would soon make another change as I brought Edwards on and switched to a 4-2-3-1 gegenpress tactic.
We were a completely different team in the second half. Wiltord summoned the spirit of Sylvain to stroke in a 78th-minute leveller… and nine minutes later, Edwards was involved in the counter-attack that resulted in Pereira winning us the game!
Our fighting spirit was evident again at Caldas. After conceding a penalty in the 6th minute, we turned the game around with a Filipe Relvas free-kick and a header from the on-form Pereira. Caldas banged on our door in the second half, but we held on to record my first away win… and keep ourselves clear from danger.
MARCH 2023
March began with an incredible game at home to Real (not Madrid, obviously). Pereira scored a couple of penalties in the second half to put us in control, and he even looked like completing an impressive hat-trick when we won another spot-kick nine minutes after the break! Real’s goalkeeper had other ideas, but Miguel did secure his treble from an Edwards through-ball soon afterwards.
That put us 3-1 up… but disaster struck when Wiltord tore his hamstring after we’d used all three subs. Our remaining 10 men conceded a second goal late on, with only a superb injury-time save by Kadú stopping Real from stealing a late draw.
We put in another backs-to-the-wall performance when we faced leaders Sporting B on their turf. Though the Leões bossed possession and had more shots at goal, we not only held firm, but we snatched an unlikely victory in stoppage time! Silva’s point-blank shot from Guedes’ cross was spilled by the keeper, and Pereira poked it home to continue his incredible scoring run!
Miguel couldn’t make it 13 from 13 against Marítimo B, as it was our centre-backs who stole the show in a grandstand finish! Antunes broke the deadlock by flicking in left-back Gonçalo Cardoso‘s free-kick in the 81st minute, only for the visitors to retaliate in the 90th. But just as it seemed two more points had slipped away, another Cardoso set-piece won the day, as Relvas headed in his corner to lift us into the top half!
We then recorded a SIXTH win in a row – our fourth at home – by shutting out promotion-chasing Olhanense. Cardoso produced another match-winning assist, this time to give 17-year-old winger Nélson Martins his first senior goal!
Mind you, with all our recent wins coming by a single-goal scoreline, I feared it wouldn’t be long before we were knocked back down. Sure enough, our month ended in a disappointing away defeat to Benfica CB. Our counter-attacking game fell apart against a stubborn defence before the hosts pinched a winner 15 minutes from the end.
Even so, it had been a positive start to my new job in Portugal. With 11 matches remaining, we were on course to finish well clear of relegation in the top half. I’d overcome some early teething problems and was winning over some of my sceptical players. Leaving Wales might have been a wise move after all!
So far, so good(ish) for Shama at Espinho! Can he keep it up and round off his first season in Portugal with a top-half finish? Please come back on Friday for the 2022/2023 season finale!
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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