Right, who’s ready for another installment of my FM21 journeyman series?
Last time out, Shama Deadman officially kicked off his new career at Portuguese third-division side Espinho. As you might have guessed, the first three months haven’t gone terribly smoothly… but it’s not been a total disaster. Yet.
Today, the 2022/2023 season comes to an end as Espinho look to secure a respectable top-half finish under their new manager. We’ll then look at some awards and statistics, before checking in on Cambrian & Clydach to see how they’ve fared since Shama left south Wales.
APRIL & MAY 2023
“Look… any manager worth their salt would love to have a playmaker with his qualities in their team, but let’s be honest. He’s 50 now, and I don’t think he has the legs for it anymore. Anyway, didn’t Real Madrid replace him with Marcelo Bielsa in 2021?
“Oh, wait… you’re talking about the Mozambican midfielder who plays for that team in Lisbon. In that case, no comment.”
Anyway, where was I? Ah yes. Espinho are 11th in the Terceira Liga as we head into the final 11 games of the season. With the leaders 21 points clear, and the bottom two sitting 16 points adrift, it looks like we’re heading for a comfortable mid-table finish. To be honest, the only thing to get excited about right now is our youth intake!
Portugal is always known for developing plenty of footballing talents, and it seems that we’ve got a couple coming through the ranks at Espinho too!
Cláudio Lascarim looks like a potential Primeira goalkeeper to me, as he already has excellent reflexes and handling skills for a 16-year-old. His ball distribution is a bit erratic and he’s not the most commanding presence, but give him a couple of years, and I reckon he’ll be in first-team contention.
And we also have a wide attacker who can actually cross the ball… kinda. Afonso Gonçalves is a hard-working inverted left-winger who works hard, has a professional personality, and is naturally fit. He’s another talent worth keeping a close eye on.
Neither of those two were ready for senior action just yet, but I would give opportunities to several other youth players during the run-in. Would any of them make an impression?
Well, that was a fun end to the season! And to think the run-in started so well… kinda. In truth, we only barely scarped past Louletano, thanks to this incredible stroke of good fortune!
Louletano tried to battle back after Jojo’s bizarre own goal, but it was… ahem… too little, too late. Sorry. [Get out. Leave. RIGHT NOW. -Fuller FM reader]
That was followed by back-to-back goalless bore draws. We wasted a host of chances at Rio Ave B, and were then lucky to survive a hatful of misses from Fafe – or should that be ‘Faff’?
It looked like we would record another 0-0 at title-chasing Beira Mar… at least until they eventually broke through in the 74th minute. We then had to counter-press our way back into the game, with one of our youth prospects – 17-year-old debutant forward Alberto Pinho – scoring a scrappy equaliser to save a draw.
Of course, the second appearance never lives up to the first, and Pinho was our worst performer when we whimpered to a home defeat against Vitória de Setúbal. We then made an encouraging start at Oliveirense, when Miguel Pereira ended his goal drought by chipping the goalkeeper. However, despite leading for 69 minutes, we faded badly late on and eventually lost 2-1.
Pereira bagged another early opener versus ARC Oleiros, before we went back to our choking ways (again) and were forced to settle for a draw. That made it six winless games in a row, and things only got worse when Marinhense put FOUR goals past us without reply (in fairness, goalkeeper Kadú was struggling with a shoulder injury).
Our fading hopes of a top-half finish effectively died against fellow mid-tablers Gondomar. A defensive calamity let in teenage midfielder José Fortes for his first senior Espinho goal in the 66th minute. 20 minutes later, however, the hosts’ right-winger slipped past our centre-half Guilherme Couto to stroke in an equaliser and extend our miserable run.
A third straight away defeat (to Vizela) meant that we faced Leça desperately trying to avoid ending the season without a win in our final 10 matches. Our opponents were still fighting relegation, so it was no surprise when they drew first blood nine minutes into the second half. Here we go again, I thought…
…but our response was much more encouraging. Three minutes later, Álvaro Milhazes‘ cross from the left wing was headed in by Marco Silva (not the ex-Everton and current Stoke manager, but a 17-year-old pressing forward playing in his third senior game). An inspired Milhazes then ran onto Liam Edwards‘ through-ball in the 85th minute to complete our comeback and end the season on a high note!
14th place. That’s just one place higher than where we were when I arrived on New Year’s Eve… but I’ll take it. After all, I was hired to keep us clear of relegation, and I guess you could say a 15-point gap is large enough!
Even so, we could have finished much higher in the table. If we’d picked up a few more wins during that rotten run-in, or even when we were choking like mad during my first few weeks in January, we’d have been a lot better off. We need to work on our defensive resilience next season, that’s for sure.
2022/2023 SEASON REVIEW
With my first half-season at Espinho now complete, I’d say things are going okay. We’ve met our short-term goal of avoiding a relegation battle, and are still on track to reach our long-term goal of… let me check…
…reaching the Campeonato de Portugal play-offs! Wait a minute… do the board want us to be RELEGATED next season?!
Financially, we’re still in a pickle. Despite initially slashing the wage bill, all my deadline-day signings sent it up to near enough where it was when I arrived. We’re still overspending on player wages by about £1,000 a week, but in my defence, at least we’re spending it on better players rather than on mediocre journeymen who clearly aren’t cut out for this level.
All that means our debt has swollen to £270,000. While our financial status is still classed as ‘Okay’, we clearly cannot afford to keep spending beyond our means. Summer sales are inevitable.
| Fans’ Player of the Season | Miguel Pereira |
| Young Player of the Season | Miguel Pereira |
| Signing of the Season | Adilson Silva |
| Goal of the Season | Miguel Pereira (vs Leça, 25 January) |
| Top Goalscorer | Miguel Pereira (18) |
| Most Assists | João Hilário (6) |
| Most Player of the Match Awards | Miguel Pereira (4) |
| Highest Average Rating | Miguel Pereira (6.95 – YIKES!) |
In terms of matters on the pitch, one player stole the show for Espinho this season – and his name was Miguel ‘Drago’ Pereira.
When I took over the club, Pereira was floundering on four goals for the season. However, my counter-attacking tactics seemed to make full use of Miguel’s pace and finishing ability, as he hit the net 12 times in my first 13 matches. Sadly, he then went off the boil over the next two months, adding only a couple more goals to his tally, but at least we know the ability is there.
Take Pereira out of the team, though, and you’ll struggle to find any real firepower. Left-winger David Santos was the only other Espinho player to reach five goals, and the only team who scored fewer Terceira goals than us was Marítimo B, who barely avoided relegation.
It’s clear to see that we struggle to create chances, and also struggle to convert them. We rank 18th in the league for our shot conversion rate, 19th for expected goals, and 23rd for shots on target. That’s a problem, all right.
We also have one of the worst pass completion rates in the league. Teenage playmaker Francisco Guedes – who arrived on loan from Porto in February – was among our most accurate passers, but in terms of creativity, he was a huge disappointment. A return of just one assist in 19 matches, with an average rating of 6.69, is simply not good enough.
Midfielder João Hilário was our most prolific assister, creating six goals – but only one of those came during my tenure as he drifted out of my plans. Hilário will be one of the major casualties of my big summer rebuild, as I focus on beefing up our midfield and our attack in particular.
Defensively, we were actually quite solid, conceding as few goals as champions Beira Mar. One of the main reasons behind that record is vice-captain Kadú, who has been ever-present in goal for me so far. The Angolan has the odd blips (not least at Marinhense, where his injured shoulder was hampering him so much that I subbed him off at half-time) but is otherwise a very reliable shot-stopper.
I wish I could be so positive about captain Mica Conceição, who came down with a nasty case of FM21 Full-Back Disease and saw his average rating collapse as the season developed. I’m pretty certain now that I will take the armband off Mica this summer, and give it to someone who actually knows how to lead a football team.
There’ve been times during those first few months where I wondered what the hell I’d got myself into at Espinho. There were even days when I thought about quitting, but that would have been against my self-imposed rules. I still have to complete one full season with this team before I can consider moving on.
2023/2024 will be my first full season with the Tigres, and I’m feeling a lot more optimistic, not least because…
…the president has suddenly increased my wage budget five-fold to £30,000 per week! Christ on a bicycle!
Does he even know we’re a quarter of a million in debt? I’m not sure I even need that much money for my summer rebuild, but okay!
PLAYER-BY-PLAYER STATISTICS
CAMBRIAN & CLYDACH: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Before I leave you, I just want to have a quick look and see how my former club are doing. After I resigned as Cambrian & Clydach manager in October, they gave the job to a local lad named Josh Wright, who had no previous coaching experience.
So… I left Cambrian sitting 8th in the Cymru South, nine points adrift of top spot with 13 matches to play. Surely this ragtag bunch of inconsistent part-timers would just meander to an unremarkable mid-table finish, right?
WHAAAAAAAAAT?!?!
You’re telling me that Josh could simply take over my old team and IMMEDIATELY lead them to the TITLE?!
They didn’t suddenly become brilliant either – just a lot more consistent. After a rocky start under Wright, Cambrian recorded nine wins from their last 11 matches, only suffering a couple of home defeats to Llantwit Major and Port Talbot.
Cambrian lost seven home games in the league this season, but it looks like it was their outstanding away form (31 points from 15 games) which saw them through. Wright’s switch to a 4-4-2 diamond also seems to have suited this team, and it’s finally getting some decent performances out of their full-backs. Is that something for me to consider?
The Cam Army are now getting ready for their first ever season in the top flight. Staying in the Cymru Premier for a second term will be a massive ask (they’ll need to massively improve their home form, for one thing) but I wish them all the best.
I’d like to think I laid the foundations for Cambrian’s promotion, which will hopefully inspire me to similar success with Espinho. Either that, or I’ll get sacked in November and end up crawling back to Clydach Vale, begging Phill Williams to give me my old job back. Who knows?
Well… I don’t think we were expecting that! Maybe Shama was too quick to walk out on Cambrian & Clydach?
I’ll be back on Monday with another chapter, in which Shama will overhaul the Espinho squad as he looks ahead to his first full campaign in Portugal. Could 2023/2024 be a season to remember for the Tigres da Costa Verde?
Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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