Welcome to the fifth season of my Football Manager 2021 journeyman series, where Shama Deadman has reached a career crossroads.
In Part 17, the 2023/2024 season came to an end as Shama led Espinho to an unexpected Terceira Liga promotion challenge. No spoilers here, but if you’ve not read the last chapter yet, now might be a good time to catch up. ;D
It’s now the summer of 2024. England have won their first European Championship after an extraordinary comeback against Portugal. Meanwhile, back on the Portuguese coast, Shama has made a decision on whether to stay at Espinho or move to another club…
DECISION TIME
I left the last chapter on a cliffhanger, as my initial 18-month contract at Espinho was expiring, and I was considering whether to sign a new deal. As much as I wanted to build on last season’s impressive 3rd-place finish and hopefully lead us into the Segunda Liga, we were under major financial strain – so a fresh challenge at a wealthier club would potentially lure me away.
Eventually, in the middle of June (about a fortnight before my contract was up), I came to a decision.
I won’t lie – there were a couple of jobs available in Germany and Hungary that I was interested in taking on. But after waiting three weeks for the clubs to respond to my applications, I figured they weren’t that bothered about appointing me.
By contrast, João Gama was practically begging me to stay at Espinho. Having originally offered to double my wages to £1,100 per week back in March, the president upped his offer by £100 to sweeten the deal.
And with that, my mind was made up. Two more seasons at Espinho. I hope I don’t regret this…
When my players returned for pre-season training, they were understandably delighted that I was still in charge. Either that, or they were pleased that coach Edgar Davids hadn’t randomly decided to move back to London for a fourth time.
As ever, I downplayed expectations and told the lads that we were targeting another solid top-half finish instead of going all-out for promotion. Let’s see what Claudio “finishing 12th is unrealistic” Gomes makes of that!
Ah! Nice to see we’re on the same page now, Claudio!
You can probably see a name there that you might not recognise. That leads me nicely onto our summer transfer business…
TRANSFER WINDOW
After one season at Espinho, captain Abel Pereira retired from playing aged 34. The centre-back had been pretty mediocre for us and was on a sharp decline, so it was probably for the best.
I also said farewell to left-back David Santos and – with regret – the versatile Welsh attacker Liam Edwards. My former Cambrian & Clydach talisman never found much consistency in Portugal’s third tier (certainly not enough to justify a new £250-a-week contract), but I’d like to think we will meet again someday.
Teenage inside-forward Alberto Pinho also left us at the end of July. Pinho kicked up a huge fuss after I refused to let him join Benfica on a free transfer, and as his development had stalled, I decided to cancel the last year of his contract. Pinho ended up signing for non-league Sourense – a far cry from the Estádio da Luz! Be careful what you wish for next time, Alberto!
To alleviate some of our financial concerns, I sold three players for just over £90,000. Most of that came from strikers Daouda Guèye and Vasco Costa, who grabbed a combined 14 goals last season but weren’t the consistent scorers we needed. I was also delighted to get a healthy sum from Primeira Liga newcomers Casa Pia for 18-year-old midfielder Ibrahima Bah, plus 25% of his next transfer fee if he fulfils his potential.
Several youngsters left on free transfers, including striker Marco Silva, who joined Oriental de Lisboa [not to be confused with another Oriental club managed by a certain American FM YouTuber]. Promising playmaker José Fortes went to non-league Rebordosa to get some much-needed gametime under his belt.
I also agreed to sell right-back Godfred Twumasi to Feirense for £2,200 and winger Nélson Martins to Leiria for £1,000. However, those transfers hadn’t gone through by the time the league season started, so they’re not listed here.
With regards to incomings… this transfer window started very well for us, but then went pretty sour pretty quickly.
Two of the players we loaned in from Vitória de Guimarães last season – centre-back Sylvestre Costa and forward André Raposo – have returned for another year, with both men looking to kick on after patchy campaigns. They were joined at Espinho by another central defender in Tiago Aguiar, with Vitória generously covering the wages for all the loanees.
I actually made my first signing back in February, when Paços de Ferreira’s Simão Rocha signed a pre-contract agreement to be our new long-term left-back. Simão has come in looking as good as expected, but strengthening our attack was more time-consuming – and much more stressful.
I took a couple of talented inverted wingers on trial, but when the time came to offer them contracts, they demanded far too much money. That’s a frustratingly common theme with most of the free agents my director of football recommends me. Anyway, with the new league season fast approaching, I panicked and rushed in a couple of signings just to fill the gaps. Not ideal.
Looking for a new striker brought different issues, as I identified several targets but couldn’t convince them to join us. One of them was a Senegalese frontman (just like Guèye) who signed for Hapoel Haifa in Israel instead. After missing out on several others, I went back to Vitória, who let us take a fourth loanee in 18-year-old target man Lamine Fernandes.
SQUAD REPORT
Now it’s time for our annual squad report, and I’m quietly confident that the team we’ve assembled can push us even further towards the second tier. Let’s reintroduce you to the players who could perhaps make our dreams come true:
Kadú‘s sixth season at Espinho is a big one, as he is now officially our number 1 – and our new captain! The Angolan has been a consistent goalkeeper and a consummate professional since my arrival, and I wouldn’t want anyone else between the sticks right now. Cláudio Lascarim‘s time will come eventually, but for the time being, the promising teenager is happy to be Kadú’s backup and mentee.
Defensive stopper Tiago Palancha was one of our most impressive signings last season, with his strength and determination earning him a new long-term contract. He is likely to be partnered in the centre of our backline again by Costa, who is back for a second season on loan from Vitória.
Costa’s fellow loanee Aguiar – an intelligent man-marker who perhaps lacks a bit of jumping power – will want to make his mark at Espinho too. Another new arrival is former Boavista defender Richard Abazaj, whose father was an Albanian international in the 1990s.
You can see why I wasted no time in signing Rocha, can’t you? Simão has solid attributes in all the right places for a wing-back, and he also has a long flat throw that could cause defences real problems. Fellow left-backs Gonçalo Cardoso and Álvaro Milhazes could have plenty of work ahead of them if they want to stay in the team.
The latter stages of last season saw Mica Conceição regain a regular starting berth. The hard-working former right-back might have lost the captaincy 12 months ago, but he is still a very influential presence in the dressing room. Martim Ferreira could yet be his long-term successor, but after a difficult first campaign at Espinho, it’s time for the energetic youngster to deliver consistently.
Tough-tackling defensive midfielder Gomes’ arrival in January helped turn a season of mid-table mediocrity into one which almost ended in promotion. Sadly, he’s missed the whole of pre-season with a thigh injury, which will make it even more vital that holding midfielder Ibrahima Guirassy and new ball-winner Anas Namri start the league campaign strongly.
Further upfield, the twinkle-toed Rodrigo Gui is ready to establish himself as our chief creator, either as an attacking midfield or occasionally as a second striker. However, Ben Davis will be hot on his heels, with the flamboyant Thailand international having been promoted to vice-captain aged just 23.
Raposo only showed glimpses of his extraordinary talent last season, but the Portugal Under-19s starlet has been brought back on loan to prove a point. I’ll be giving him more freedom to run at the opposition and exploit gaps in their defences. André will be backed up by ex-Benfica youth product Tiago Gouveia, who also has pace to burn.
On the right wing, we have the ‘boys from Bissau’. Explosive winger João Pereira has signed on loan from Belenenses SAD to provide competition for Franculino Djú, who has bags of technical ability but has also encountered more injuries than a hospital ward. And after a season out on loan, diminutive Brazilian teenager Francisco Régis will hope to see his fair share of senior action.
And then we meet our three frontmen, starting with our fourth and final Vitória loanee. Fernandes is a jovial and unflappable character off the pitch, but is a deadly-serious target man on it.
Paulo Agostinho scored four goals in 14 games after signing for us in February, but I fancy the young frontman to really kick on now. With his pace and technical skill, he might be the man who displaces the enigmatic Miguel Pereira, who has scored 52 goals in four seasons at Espinho but often goes through long stretches without finding the net.
Tactically, I’m sticking with the 4-4-2 that was the backbone of our impressive away form last season, particularly from February onwards. It’s solid at the back and in midfield, gives us a fair amount of attacking width, and the front two work pretty well together. That said, we do tend to get easily overwhelmed when other teams pack the middle.
I’m also keeping faith in the 4-2-3-1 for home games, though there are still plenty of questions I need to ask. Which role combination would best suit Rodrigo in attacking midfield and either Paulo or Drago up front? How can I get the wide attackers more involved?
I experimented with using two inside-forwards/inverted wingers in pre-season instead of an out-and-out right-winger, which would effectively turn this system into a 4-3-3. However, the two triallist inside-forwards I tried out on the right flank didn’t do enough for me… and they wanted too much money to sign permanently.
PRE-SEASON
Look… I’m not going to dwell too much on this pre-season campaign. It was about as exciting and enjoyable as a dental appointment.
While we won all our away games against non-league opponents, our performances were not impressive at all. Despite producing plenty of good scoring chances, we wasted a lot of them and only managed 2 or 3 goals each time. If that’s a sign of what’s to come in the league, we’ve got a long season ahead.
Our most impressive attacking move actually came in our first home friendly. Agostinho scored a spectacular goal against his former club Sporting CP – albeit only after they’d already scored twice early on. They would later find the net twice more to record a comfortable 4-1 victory, while our parent club Vitória de Guimarães also made light work of us.
We did end pre-season on a fairly positive note, with Djú giving us a narrow win against Cultural Leonesa – a Spanish third-division side with a higher reputation than us. Again, though, we could have beaten them more convincingly had it not been for our misfiring attackers.
Unsurprisingly, the board aren’t getting carried away. Rather than expecting a repeat of our 3rd-place finish from last season, they merely want to see us another respectable campaign in the top half.
The bookmakers do rate us rather higher than they did 12 months ago, as they’ve priced us at 20-1 to win the title and expect us to finish around 8th place.
I actually think it’ll be slightly more difficult to challenge for promotion this season, and not just because we’re struggling to score goals or because opposition teams will be taking us more seriously after our recent overachievement. Varzim have just come down to the Terceira (barely two years after they were in the Primeira Liga) and I fully expect them to go back up at the first attempt, which would realistically leave everyone else fighting for the other promotion spot.
So Shama is staying at Espinho… but will his big gamble pay off with promotion to the Segunda Liga? Please come back on Friday for Part 19, where the Tigres will officially kick off their 2024/2025 Terceira Liga campaign.
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Thanks for reading!
Fuller FM 
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