Hey there, readers, and welcome to season 4 of my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series!
Shama Deadman is currently managing Espinho in the Portuguese third division. In Part 13, Shama completed the 2022/2023 season by leading the Tigres to 14th place – but now he’s set his sights higher as he prepares for his first full campaign on the Costa Verde!
Today’s chapter is the 2023/2024 season preview, as Shama makes sweeping changes to his squad. We’ll also find out why Pitbull is playing such a big part in the next stage of this story. Fortunately, it has nothing to do with cringey Latino hip-hop!
NEW COACHES ON THE BLOCK
After nearly two months on holiday, the hard work was about to begin again. I arrived at the training ground car park at around 8pm, just as my assistant manager Luke Morgan arrived.
“Olá, Luke! How was your summer break?”
“Oh, it was cracking, Shama! I’ve got my National B Licence now!”
“That’s brilliant, congratulations! I’m actually studying for my UEFA C Licence now, but I’m sure you’ll catch up with me before too long.”
“Thanks. And if you could ask ‘O Presidente’ to pay for my next course, that’d be grand. I’d ask myself, but my Portuguese is still a little rusty, so I’m worried I’ll accidentally insult his dead mum!”
“Not a problem, mate. Now how’s about I introduce you to our new coaches?”
The backroom had undergone a massive transformation over the summer. Many of the coaches we had left over from the last regime were pretty rubbish, so I replaced them with the best staff members we could realistically afford.
Fitness coach Daniel Barbosa returns to Espinho, having spent two seasons in the Tigres midfield just over a decade ago. More importantly, he and goalkeeping coach Paulo Duarte each have the discipline and motivational skills I expect from all my colleagues.
However, Luke’s attention was drawn towards another new face in our ranks.
“Hold on a minute, Shama… is that… is that who I think it is?”
“Who do you think it is?”
“You know… that Dutch guy with the cool glasses?”
You’re not seeing things, Luke. That really is the 1995 Champions League winner, 1998 World Cup All-Star, three-time Serie A champion, and former Barnet number 1 – Edgar Davids!
The man once known as the ‘Pitbull’ for his aggression and tenacity in midfield had been rather less successful as a manager. Since being sacked by Olhanense two years ago, Davids had been living the high life in the Algarve, where I met him by chance while on my holiday.
The 50-year-old was keen to get back into the game, and after hearing about my new project at Espinho, he agreed to follow me up north – but only if we paid him £700 a week. That’s a fair bit more than I was earning, but I agreed. He’s Edgar bloody Davids, for crying out loud!
Bringing in Davids and co has given us probably the best coaching set-up in the Terceira Liga. Okay, so our goalkeeping coach isn’t the best, but bear in mind that some clubs in our division can afford two of those while we have to get by with just one.
TRANSFER WINDOW
Winger João Mendes ended his three-year spell at Espinho this summer after deciding to retire, aged 35. Midfielders João Hilário and Tiago Coelho also played their part in keeping the Tigres in the Terceira, but the time had come for them to move on as well.
My plan for this pre-season was to overhaul our midfield and attacking options. Naturally, I wound up having to replace my entire central defence!
José Santos had played in over 100 league games for Espinho in recent years, but he quickly fell out of my plans, so I wasn’t too sad to see him go. I also didn’t mind losing Rodrigo Antunes, who scored three goals from set-pieces last season but was too erratic for my tastes.
I had wanted to keep Filipe Relvas, but he had no desire to stay another season in the Terceira. Relvas issued a transfer request just before pre-season started, and he soon joined Greek second-division side Trikala for £75,000, which was a decent fee all told.
I also let a couple of my January signings leave. I made a mistake with ball-winning midfielder Adilson Sanches, who was so garbage that I allowed him to join his ninth club in as many seasons. As for Jamie Wilson, I realised that my former Cambrian striker wasn’t going to make it at this level. (Don’t worry; Liam Edwards is still around as a backup!)
So these are the players we’ve brought in – all THIRTEEN of them! I’ll introduce you to most of them in the squad report later.
This summer, I’ve made a more concerted effort to sign players who have good (at least above-average) ratings for Determination, Work Rate and/or Stamina. It was clear from last season that we need to work harder at putting our opponents under pressure, as well as seeing games out.
I’ve loaned in four players – including three from Vitória de Guimarães, who are our new senior affiliate. They let us have central defensive stopper Sylvestre Costa and teenage playmaker José Maçãs without paying a penny in wages, though we did have to stump up for inverted left-winger André Raposo‘s salary.
Otherwise, most of our players were signed on free transfers. The only signing we paid a transfer fee for was our last one – an exciting 22-year-old from Mafra whose technique and creativity would bring some new energy to our midfield.
Naturally, Rodrigo Gui sprained his ankle in his first training session, so I’ve not had a chance to see him in action yet!
SQUAD REPORT
With my new-look Espinho squad now pretty much complete, it’s time to take a closer look at some the men who could make or break our season:
A top-class goalkeeper can arguably win you as many points over a season as a quality striker, and for my money, Kadú is one of the best in this division. Our ultra-determined vice-captain has few glaring weaknesses, and at 28, he’s just coming into his prime. João Gonçalo isn’t a terrible backup, but this will probably be his last season with us.
The first of our three Vitória loanees, Costa is an aggressive stopper and an excellent man-marker who surely has regular top-flight football in his future. He is expected to be a regular in the centre of our defence alongside 33-year-old Abel Pereira, who has arrived from Berço to be our new captain. What Abel lacks in pace, he makes up for with a never-say-die attitude.
If this ‘youth and experience’ partnership doesn’t quite work out, at least we have two more fine options at centre-half. Tiago Palancha is strong in the air, but his tendency to dive into tackles could lead to some disciplinary issues. Dylan Collard is an Australian-born giant on loan from Marítimo who has a resolute personality and can also play in defensive midfield.
We’re blessed with three reliable left-backs. Gonçalo Cardoso is entering his sixth season with Espinho, which speaks volumes about his resilience and work ethic. He will again face stiff competition from the versatile Álvaro Milhazes, as well as David Santos, who is naturally a left-winger but will probably be used in a deeper role this term.
Mica Conceição has lost the captaincy and had an injury-ravaged pre-season, and it looks like his days as our starting right-back might be numbered too. We are very excited about the potential of ex-Benfica youth player Martim Ferreira, who’s smart beyond this years and has energy to burn but is still developing his technical skills.
Central midfield was arguably the weakest area in our team last season, but not anymore. This summer, I’ve recruited three quality midfielders who can all give us some much-needed impetus. The most exciting of them is probably on-loan Vitória playmaker Maçãs, who’s very skilful and has a cool head on his young shoulders.
I’ve also signed ex-Fulham youngster Ben Davis, whose creativity and consistency on loan at The New Saints helped them to win yet another Cymru Premier title last season. If Davis can step up to a higher-quality league just as impressively, he looks set to become Thailand’s finest footballing export since Supat Rungratsamee.
And of course, we will have Rodrigo Gui once he’s recovered from that ankle injury. The 22-year-old is an impressive left-footed dribbler who will mainly feature either in attacking midfield, or alternatively as a mezzala.
Speaking of players with fine dribbling skills, that brings me onto the last member of our Vitória loan brigade. Raposo might be the youngest member of our first-team at just 17, but the pace and technique he shows cutting in from the left wing can be potentially devastating.
On the right flank, we have another exciting youngster joining us from Benfica’s youth set-up. Franculino Djú isn’t the most exciting attacker to have come out of Guinea-Bissau (that, of course, would be Barcelona and Spain superstar Ansu Fati) but he too can be an explosive and flamboyant presence on his day.
Senegalese striker Daouda Guèye has many qualities I want in a lower-league poacher – he’s quick, good in the air, and knows how to finish. With that in mind, regular frontman Miguel Pereira will surely need to up his game. Though ‘Drago’ scored 18 goals in 44 games last season, he lost his way over the last few weeks.
Vasco Costa could potentially join either Daouda or Miguel up front. The 32-year-old is a brave and committed pressing forward, and he’s also our highest-paid player – on £500 per week. To be fair, Costa is our only player who has experience of scoring in the Primeira Liga… even if that was eight seasons ago for Vitória de Setúbal.
Tactics-wise, this is the 4-2-3-1 I’ll be starting off with in many of our home games (or away games against defensive teams). The segundo volante experiment was a bit of a flop, so I’ve pushed the two defensive midfielders up a bit higher, which should hopefully address the disconnect between the front four and the other seven players.
Also note that I’ve taken off the counter-attacking and ‘more direct passing’ instructions for this tactic. I want us to be a little more measured with our attacking play, instead of needlessly wasting energy or possession by always looking to counter.
The 4-3-3 is relatively unchanged from its original look. Unlike the 4-2-3-1, this is still very much focussed on keeping opposing attacks at bay and then striking on the counter. That’s partly why I’ve focussed on signing players with higher work rate and endurance, who should be better prepared whenever a good opportunity to strike arises.
PRE-SEASON
This wasn’t the most exciting pre-season campaign, but it was certainly productive. We started off by thrashing non-league Beira Vouga. The man who scored our fifth and final goal was Ivo Lucas – a striker who joined us on trial, played one match, and then buggered off to another club!
Our next two friendlies were more of a struggle, as we only managed five goals in 180 minutes against Vila Real and Pevidém. At least Drago sharpened up with three of those goals, while our defence was relatively untroubled. That would soon change.
Our first home match saw us bravely shut out Nacional da Madeira – who finished 9th in the Primeira Liga last season – for 89 minutes. Of course, being Espinho, it then went horribly wrong in the dying moments as Nacional struck twice in three minutes to deny us a fantastic result. Damn it.
Vitória de Guimarães also beat us fairly comfortably, as Slovenia striker Andraž Šporar [one of the heroes/villains of my FM20 Sporting series] scored two goals and had a penalty saved by Kadú. We did at least avoid a total blowout, even pulling one goal back when Davis scored a scorcher from distance!
We then narrowly scraped a 1-0 win at newly-relegated ARC Oleiros, who had two second-half goals disallowed for offside after our backup forward Adilson Silva broke the deadlock on 41 minutes. It took us much longer to break through against Spanish visitors Ponferradina, wasting several scoring chances before Palancha and Santos eventually got the job done.
As for our expectations, the board are again being conservative. Despite massively increasing the wage budget, the president is still only looking for us to stay clear of relegation. Personally, I want nothing less than a top-half finish. That would continue this club’s upward trajectory and perhaps justify me staying here beyond my initial 18-month contract.
Our media prediction has fluctuated wildly as pre-season has progressed and we’ve brought in new faces. We’ve been tipped to finish somewhere between 12th and 19th, with our championship odds being as low as 16-1 at one stage. To be honest, anybody who’s putting any Euro on us winning the Terceira might as well have burned their banknotes!
We enter the Taça de Portugal at Round 2, and the board want us to win our first match at the very least. The Primeira Liga teams don’t come in until Round 3, so if we can get that far, there’s potential for a lucrative tie against one of the ‘Big Three’ of Benfica, Porto or Sporting CP. That really would help the finances!
I hope that’s got you excited for the campaign ahead! Please come back on Friday for the next chapter, in which we play through the first four months of the 2023/2024 season. Can Shama’s new boys turn Espinho into challengers, or will they be pulled into a relegation dogfight?
As this is a new season, I’d like to remind you again that you can follow the blog by hitting the little ‘Follow’ button below. I’m also available on Twitter @Fuller_FM.
Thanks for reading! Now take it away, Pitbull!
Fuller FM 
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