Welcome back. It is crunch time for Shama Deadman, as the Espinho manager faces a potentially career-changing few months.
The previous chapter saw the Tigres make a shaky start to the 2024/2025 Terceira Liga season, as inconsistent performances and even more erratic shooting left their promotion charge in tatters. They also exited the Taça de Portugal after a heavy defeat to Portimonense.
Quite simply, results HAVE to improve over the winter months, otherwise Shama will be shown the door. As a new year draws near, can he save Espinho from a relegation dogfight – and save his job?
DECEMBER 2024
Following a lengthy break, we returned to action in a 1-1 home draw against Vitória de Guimarães B. It was an eventful day for winger Tiago Gouveia, who scored a powerful equaliser late in the first half, had a second goal disallowed early in the second period… and then tore his hamstring.
Hey, we’re Espinho. Our best performers always get injured!
After that was a completely forgettable game at Valadares Gaia, which the newly-promoted hosts won with a single goal early in the second half. That continued our rotten run to five games without a win, which left us in a VERY grim position.
21st. Just one point off the bottom two. 19 points adrift of the top two. That surely only meant one thing?
Yep. The dreaded crisis meeting, where I had to basically beg the president not to sack me!
João Gama was prepared to give me more time – IF we hit form again before the new year. He set me an ambitious target of 10 points from our next five games, which I negotiated down to a more realistic 8 points. That’s three wins, or two wins and two draws – an achievable target, right?
The first of those key games was at home to Benfica CB, and disaster struck when our opponents scored from a rapid counter in the 11th minute. Six minutes later, though, winger Franculino Djú won us a penalty, from which Miguel Pereira scored just his second goal of the season. Miguel then flicked on an assist for attacking midfielder Rodrigo Gui just before half-time, and we held firm in the second half to record a precious victory.
A midweek fixture at 23rd-placed Pedras Rubras was postponed due to bad weather, so we didn’t play again until the following weekend.
Fellow strugglers Leça visited the Estádio Marques da Silva, and they went ahead after just four minutes from a direct free-kick. Kadú had now conceded in four straight matches since our captain and number 1 returned after the mini-break, but I was now wondering if I should’ve kept the more in-form Cláudio Lascarim in goal instead.
At full-time, though, it didn’t really matter. I subbed Agostinho on midway through the second half, with us still trailing 1-0, and the enigmatic striker changed our fortunes by finishing a couple of crosses from loanee winger João Pereira! Leça were stunned, but Paulo’s brace was a HUGE step towards saving my job!
We then paid a visit to Caldas, as we played another team that was returning to form after being dragged into a relegation battle. Naturally, it was an awful match, with neither team creating much at all in a 0-0 draw. At this stage, though, I was very happy to take a point – which left me needing just one more to hit my target!
After Christmas, we finished 2024 off by hosting mid-table Vitória de Setúbal… where we returned to our old ways and lacked any kind of attacking bite. We had only two shots on target in the entire match – but importantly, we made one of them count!
11 minutes into the second half, Rodrigo was upended by a Vitória defender in the box. Up stepped Anas Namri – a midfielder who was deputising at right-back for the injured Mica Conceição – to convert the penalty and give us a precious lead! Despite a few hairy moments, we held firm and ground out a third straight home win.
It wasn’t pretty, but with a game to spare, my job was safe… for now. We had pulled eight points clear of the drop zone, and for the first time in months, our fortunes were looking up.
JANUARY 2025
Interestingly, just as my job was coming under less pressure, I suddenly received a couple of offers from England. Barnsley and Preston were both struggling in the bottom half of the EFL Championship – but why they believed some random Brit struggling in Portugal’s third tier was worthy of a job interview, I do not know!
I was flattered, but I had to politely turn them down. I am NOT ready to manage in such a big league right now, and I certainly don’t plan to take a job in the English leagues until I’ve proven myself elsewhere first.
Though making so many transfers in the summer had wrecked our team cohesion (and arguably led to our current predicament), I had to bring in more new blood in January. While the obvious call was to strengthen our attack, there were a couple of defensive positions where I felt we needed more depth.
So that’s why I’ve taken Braga goalkeeper Eduardo Esteves on loan – to provide cover for Lascarim and Kadú, especially while the latter was on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Angola. The agile 21-year-old made his Primeira Liga debut for the Arsenalistas last season and looked to have a bright future.
I was also hunting for a new right-back, but after missing out on my main targets, I finally had some success with Dutch free agent Fons Gemmel. The former AZ defender was quick, determined, and a fine team player, though his crossing technique wasn’t the best.
We kicked off the new year with a fair 1-1 draw at Marítimo B. Miguel Pereira scored just his third goal this season from Sylvestre Costa‘s through-ball before our opponents levelled on the cusp of half-time. Despite taking a point, though, I wanted more…
…but it seemed that my players misheard me, because they gave me “bore”! Back-to-back 0-0 draws against Real and Amora suggested that we’d reverted to type in terms of lacking any potency up front. At least 17-year-old Lascarim filled in for the Guinea-bound Kadú by keeping couple more clean sheets.
A vicious strike from Djú ended our mini-drought to give us a half-time lead at 22nd-placed Pedras Rubras. Alas, our star defender Tiago Palancha made two key mistakes at the beginning and the end of the second half – mistiming a header, and then conceding a penalty to give all three points to our hosts. I expected better from you, Tiago.
I then made a misjudgement of my own, managing to annoy my team when I called a meeting and told them to up their game otherwise we would be dragged back into a relegation battle. Apparently, winning ONE of your last five games isn’t considered “poor form”!
With morale down the pan, we then made it NO wins from five games by losing 3-1 at Sporting CP B. In fairness, I used that match to try out a new 3-5-2 tactic and hand opportunities to a number of reserve and youth players, so it was always gonna be a struggle. And 18-year-old striker Bruno Miguel did score a fantastic long-range goal for us… which was something, right?
The board were deeply worried about our latest slide (we were now just six points above relegation again), so I was called into another meeting. Things had gone so badly that I actually offered to resign, but President Gama said he would give me one last chance. If we didn’t win our next home match against Berço, I would be FIRED.
And just like that, we suddenly snapped out of our rut! A couple of Miguel Pereira penalties put us in control at half-time before Berço pulled one goal back. We didn’t secure victory until the 79th minute, when – just three minutes into his senior Espinho debut – 16-year-old attacking midfielder João Patrício did THIS.
Patrício also found the net after coming on as a substitute at Salgueiros, but his header was ruled out as Miguel Pereira was obstructing the goalkeeper’s view from an offside position. That refereeing decision cost us just our second away win of the season, with the league’s bottom side having cancelled out Drago’s 30th-minute opener.
After that, we played out ANOTHER goalless draw – this time against Braga B. The Arsenalistas’ team included the former Roma and Everton goalkeeper Robin Olsen, which seemed quite unfair considering that our forward probably couldn’t beat a 15-year-old schoolboy, let alone a 35-year-old Swedish international!
I was half-expecting the board to send me on my way after winning just once in a busy January, but they somehow let me stay on! Maybe that was because we’d had a difficult schedule in Janu… oh, who am I kidding? We played FOUR of the bottom seven this month and couldn’t beat ANY of them!
FEBRUARY 2025
Things were now getting so desperate that I sold another player before the window shut. After just five months and 11 matches, in which he struggled to find a clear role in our midfield, Filipe Marques was off to Greece for just £10,000. Chalk this transfer off as a failure.
To replace Marques, I recalled José Fortes to the club. The 19-year-old playmaker had rediscovered his mojo, getting six goals and four assists on loan at non-league Rebordosa. With Rodrigo Gui desperately out of form, perhaps Fortes would be the attacking midfield presence we needed to re-energise this team?
Or perhaps not. It was another bad day on the attacking front at Vizela. Though Miguel Pereira scored once and had another goal disallowed, we didn’t create enough good openings. We were rightly punished when Vizela secured a 2-1 win via an indirect free kick six minutes from the end.
A week later, in a must-win game against Marinhense, a mistake by Palancha saw us fall behind after just eight minutes. I immediately replaced the centre-half with namesake Tiago Aguiar… who then gifted Marinhense a second goal just before half-time.
The visitors then made it 3-0 before Agostinho’s lob over the onrushing keeper added some respectability to the scoreline, but the worst was still to come. Rocha twisted his ankle before two goals in the last eight minutes saw us fall to a 5-1 home defeat.
A couple of hours later, I was called into my third emergency meeting in as many months. It was also my last.
President Gama didn’t sack me – indeed, he offered to let me stay if we took nine points from our next five games. But with the club bleeding money, the team desperately out of form, and the fans calling for my head, our situation was looking incredibly bleak. I fell on my sword and resigned instantly.
After barely two seasons, my time at Espinho was over – and frankly, I was glad to be out.
As I said last time, this situation is largely my fault. After such a great end to last season that ended with us just falling short of promotion, I should have kept most of my team together and made only a small number of signings. Instead, we had another busy summer in the transfer market, which resulted in me inadvertently ruining team chemistry while barely improving our weakest positions.
Also, if I was thinking purely from a selfish perspective, it probably would’ve made sense to leave Espinho last summer, while my stock was still quite high on the back of our overachievement. Things have now flipped 180 degrees, as we’ve performed way below our increased expectations, and I’m now a laughing stock who was lucky that he got to jump before he was pushed.
So where do I go for here? I’ve now resigned from two jobs midway through the third season, leaving my clubs not much better off than when I’d joined them. I HAVE to get this next move right.
I got my UEFA B Licence back in mid-December, which has improved my reputation to 35% (just over 1.5*) and boosted my attributes a fair bit. I’m quite the disciplinarian, as you can see!
I should perhaps be aiming to apply for jobs at 2* or 2.5* reputation clubs in a decent second division, if not a low-end first division somewhere in Scandinavia or Eastern Europe. I could maybe even afford to drop down to a 1.5* club, provided they have the resources to kick on that Espinho lacked.
At any rate, I’ll probably be patient and bide my time instead of jumping straight back into work. Unless I’m offered an attractive job opportunity without actually having to apply for it, I’ll probably take the next few months off. It’s quite late in the 2024/2025 season, and the summer leagues will be starting shortly, so it would make sense to wait until the off-season in May or June before actively looking for another role.
Then again… I could return to Cambrian & Clydach!
Ah, what’s the point? The Cam Army just sacked Josh Wright after falling to 6th place in their first season back down in the Cymru South, and the team’s almost unrecognisable – they’ve only kept six of my old players. Even Harry Churchill has gone, for goodness sake!
Anyway, I’ll hopefully be back in management soon. “Don’t know where, don’t know when,” as Dame Vera Lynn used to sing, but we will meet again.
SHAMA DEADMAN AT espinho
31 December 2022 – 8 February 2025 (769 days)
Played: 107. Won: 39. Drawn: 37. Lost: 31. Win Percentage: 36%.
Goals For: 122. Goals Against: 112. Goal Difference: +10.
Competitions Won: 0. Awards Won: 0.
That ends the Portuguese leg of Shama’s journeyman career, but where will he go next? Please come back next Monday for Part 21, where Shama will begin a new job hunt – and we will look back at what’s happened in the major leagues and competitions over the first five years of this save.
With the European Championships now upon us, I’ll be posting some new FM21/Euro 2020 content over the coming weeks. That means story updates may not be quite as frequent for the next month or so – but I will make sure there’s always one new post every Monday at least.
Thanks for reading… and adeus, Espinho.
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