1.2 The Rise and Fall of Bruno de Carvalho - The Only way is up

In part one of the Rise and Fall of Bruno de Carvalho we learned how the Mozambique born, great nephew of a former Portuguese Prime Minister left the country of his birth aged four bound for Lisboa with his family at the time of the countries independence. It is said, although how true it really is only he would know, that as a child he declared his intention to one day become club president of Sporting Clube de Portugal. In 2009 de Carvalho was one of those responsible for reactivating the clubs roller hockey team and would then go on to become the divisions vice-president. In February of 2011 he ran to fulfil his alleged childhood dream of becoming club president but lost the election by 360 votes to Luís Filipe Fernandes David Godinho Lopes. At a time of crisis during the 2012/13 season, club members André Patrão and Miguel Paím managed to get the General Assembly to call a meeting in a bid to oust the board. Despite Lopes best attempts to dissuade them from their action, he would eventually resign his position on February 6th, 2013 and fresh elections were called to be held on March 23rd, 2013. Bruno de Carvalho re-stood for election as one of three candidates and on March 26th, 2013 his election to the position was confirmed at the age of just 41 years old.

We begin part two not in Portugal, but in Italy. If you're new to my posts you'll soon learn that my mind flies off in many different tangents so I apologise in advance but given my readership is largely based in the US, added context is often beneficial when discussing the Jogo Bonito…

In 2002 the BBC filmed a documentary series called Foreign Fields which followed some of the Worlds most notorious ultras, amongst them Lazio's Irriducibili led at that time by Fabrizio Piscitelli. In it Fabrizio is asked the question 'how come you have all this power?' Sat in his car he looks surprised by the question and laughs at the suggestion. 'What do you mean power? This isn't power, the politicians have the power.' He's asked a follow up question 'Yes, but if you want, you can go and see the players?' to which Fabrizio he replies 'Of course! Can't you do that in England?' The mere fact that the power the ultras wield on Italian clubs wasn't replicated in other countries was clearly lost on him and came as a huge surprise. So vast was the power of the Irriducibili at Lazio at that time that they even had an office at the Stadio Olimpico where the club play their games. I mention this because if you're reading this in English, there's a chance that you may not be au fait with the culture of supporters groups of teams on the European mainland and the influence and power some groups have held over their football clubs over the years. It certainly has never been the case in the English game and as the story of de Carvalho progresses we'll learn more about the influence of certain Sportinguista's (the general name afforded to Sporting's fans). The power wielded by fans of Italian groups is probably some of the most infamous in world football but it's a widespread problem and as we'll learn one that even extends itself to the relatively small nation of Portugal.

In Portugal ultra groups are known as Claques. Sporting Clube de Portugal have four main groups, the oldest of which is Juventude Leonina (Juve Leo) followed by Torcida Verde, Directivo Ultras XXI and Brigada Ultras Sporting. It should be noted that de Carvalho was once a member of both the Juve Leo and Torcida Verde and that a small section of the claques will play a very pivotal role in the story of de Carvalho's reign as president and his eventual downfall. It's probably worth noting in addition that Juve Leo, which was formed on March 11th, 1976 was done by the Rocha brothers who were the sons of the then Sporting CP Club President João Rocha. That would certainly help with direct access, in exactly the same manner as having one of your former members now as the club president.

Sporting ended the 2012/13 season of the Primeira Liga, then known as the Liga ZON Sagres, in a lowly 7th place. They lost in the 3rd round of both the Taça de Liga and Taça de Portugal. Their highest attendance of the season came on December 10th in the Dérbi de Lisboa attended by 35,114 spectators. Their lowest attendance came a month later when just 6,157 attended the game against Paços de Ferreira. It is considered to be THE worst season ever in the club's history. In theory for the new club president, things could only get better after the lions had failed to qualify for Europe for only the second time in their history.

Note - If you're not a Sporting fan, the club was founded on July 1st, 1906 and yes you did read that correctly, finishing a lowly 7th in the top flight was genuinely considered their worst ever season.

On May 20th, 2013 de Carvalho hired Leonardo Jardim as the new mister who was still only 39 years old at the time and yet had incredibly been coaching clubs since the 1996/97 season. His stock continued to rise and by the 2008/09 season had taken over at Chaves, from 2009 to 2011 he coached Beira-Mar, then took over at Braga, left Portugal to take over Olympiacos in Greece before coming back to take over the lions, signing on a two year deal. Five months into his reign as coach after a 4-0 win against Vitoria de Setúbal he's quoted as saying "We are here to work, promote new players and help the club develop," as he struggled to temper early season expectations. The club in light of its ongoing  financial difficulties had renewed its focus on developing youth players from its academy and as an example, in this game against Setúbal fielded six graduates from their academy in the starting XI. This being the one timed famed academy that had produced such notable footballers as Cristiano Ronaldo and Luís Figo who would both go on to become future Ballon D'or winners during their career, as well as other notable names such as Nani who left for Manchester United.

Unbeaten in their first seven fixtures the win left them second place, two points off the league leaders FC Porto. On loan striker Fredy Montero was proving to be an instant hit since his arrival from Seattle Sounders having already found the net nine times. Jardim's message in full was as follows: "We can't get ahead of ourselves. We can only promise to give our best in every match, but we cannot forget what our mission is. Porto and Benfica made big investments this summer, so we should not delude ourselves. We are here to work, promote new players and help the club develop."

When you read Jardim’s message back today you'd be forgiven for thinking that under both him and de Carvalho the club really were trying to promote a new future with academy players at the heart of the team. If you've already given the world Ronaldo, Figo and Nani then it stands to reason that you may be able to unearth plenty more talent. His quote however did nicely manage to thinly disguise the harsh truth that the clubs coffers were empty and that Jardim had little choice other than to put his faith in so many youngsters. In the summer they'd sold the clubs top scorer from the previous campaign Ricky van Wolfswinkel to Norwich City for €10m which at the time was a huge sum of money and much needed to plug the gap in the clubs coffers. The sale of Gelson Fernandes to SC Freiburg would add a further €500,000. Their only outlay was on Jefferson who signed from Estoril for €400,000. Maurício had joined on a free from Sport Recife in Brazil. Hugo Sousa came in on a free from the Cypriot side AEP Paphos and Weldinho on loan from Brazil's Palmeiras.

Notable names in that season's squad included Rui Patricio, Marcos Rojo, Islam Slimani, William Carvalho, Eric Dier, Fredy Montero and Adrien Silva who would all be fondly remembered for their service at the club. Well maybe not Rui Patricio but we'll get to why in a much later post.

The lions certainly started strongly, winning 5-1 at home to Arouca on the opening day and 4-0 away to Académica on Matchday 2. Round 7 brought a 4-0 home win to Vitória de Setúbal and matchday 11 a 4-0 win over Paços de Ferreira. However they weren't to be anywhere near as prolific for the rest of their league campaign in front of goal.

In the Taça de Portugal they beat Alba 8-1 in round 3 but lost a Dérbi de Lisboa in round 4 as Benfica won 4-3. In the Taça da Liga, despite finishing level on points with FC Porto it was they who progressed from the group phase and with no European football, any hopes of silverware now rested on winning the league. Despite their best efforts and only losing 3 games all season, they finished runners up to eventual winners Benfica by seven points with a record of: Played 30, won 20, drawn 7, lost 3, GF 54 GA 20. The league's early leaders Porto slipped to 3rd finishing 6 points off the lions. Importantly for de Carvalho finishing second brought with it the guarantee of qualification to the Champions League group stage whereas Porto would only have a place in the qualification rounds of the competition. Fredy Montero was the lions top goalscorer with 13 goals in the Liga and 16 in all competitions.

As an aside, fourth that season was Estoril on 54 points with a record of: Played 30, won 15, drawn 9, lost 6. GF 42, GA 26. This was the club's highest ever finish in the top flight and brought with it automatic qualification to the Europa League group phase. Make a mental note of that for part 3.

Given the new mister finished in second place with the automatic qualification to the Champions League and was unbeaten in 90% of his league games in charge with a squad that had no real investment, relied heavily on youth and remembering that they'd sold their top goalscorer the summer before, you'd think that Bruno da Carvalho would be satisfied. Especially as everyone said the previous season was the worst ever in the club's history. Two wins in every three would be considered an excellent return in the vast majority of leagues around the world.

Sidebar - There's your headline there if you're not familiar with Portuguese football and the dominance of Os Três Grandes (Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting CP) the collective name for the countries three largest teams who historically between them have won every single league title other than just two which were won by Boavista and Belenenses. Finishing seventh and no European football… Let me know when you've finished drying your eyes on your handkerchief and I'll carry on.

So the question at the end of the campaign would be how would Jardim do the following season? The answer wasn't to be found in Portugal but instead in the French top flight of Ligue 1. On June 10th, 2014 he was announced as the new mister of AS Monaco on a two year contract and would take them to two third place finishes. His contract was then further extended and he rewarded them with winning the French title. Jardim's side which was once more blended with youth, also reached the semi finals of not only the Coupe de France that third season in charge, but of the Champions League. Clearly Bruno de Carvalho was a good judge of talent, however he might have been better served had he kept the Portuguese mister in Lisboa. The problem was though he didn't have any choice. Jardim had quit the club. On the loss of the mister Bruno de Carvalho was quoted as saying “We have a feeling of friendship and respect for Leonardo Jardim.” He added “We spent a very good year together and we are not repenting of his decision.” Not repenting? Not sure I've ever heard a club say those words before in a club statement when they've parted with their coach. Clearly living up to Portugal's Catholic values it seems. “It's the end of an important cycle, however, we are saddened by his departure.” Just like the kids at young Bruno's school calling bullshit, sorry, liar liar pants on fire when he claimed that his Great Uncle was Prime Minister of Portugal, Jardim would surely be calling bullshit now. It is documented that his reasons for leaving Sporting were specifically due to heightened tensions between himself and de Carvalho and that he resigned, activating a release clause rather than being dismissed. It is also reported that AS Monaco paid €3m for that release clause so whilst de Carvalho’s words have a hollow ring to them, if that's true then the clubs cash register had a much chirpier ring to it.

So just fifteen months into the role things had at least improved on the pitch under de Carvalho in the league. The club had banked the €10m from the sale of its top goalscorer and had secured the income the following season from competing in the Champions League. All plus points. But in the space of 12 months his relationship with the mister had deteriorated so badly that Jardim chose to resign before being dismissed. Maybe it's too early to point the finger of blame squarely at de Carvalho for issues with coaches. After all it's a small sample size of one season and it does take two to tango. We'll see how he gets on in part three.

As another sidebar if you read the first post in full you may remember that at the end of this season I've sat through my first Sporting game even though I can't tell you what it was. But know, come the 2014/15 season with whoever the new mister will be, I'm about to become fully invested even if I didn't know it at the time.