1.6 The fall and rise of Bruno de Carvalho - Sporting's darkest hour looms

In the last part of the fall and rise of Bruno de Carvalho we left on the news that he'd been re-elected as club president in March 2017 for a further four year term. Whilst with taking 86.13% of the vote things for de Carvalho were seemingly still looking positive, on the pitch Sporting had failed to win a single title last season under the mister Jorge Jesus, the previous Benfica coach, now in his second season as coach of the lions and €11m better off for it. Well, before taxes anyway. He had been de Carvalho's choice to replace the popular young coach Marco Silva who had led Sporting to victory in the Taca de Portugal only to be sacked four days later. To remind you all, Jesus' first year contract came with a €5m a season salary, a big chunk of change had he been managing in the Premier League let alone for a club in the Portuguese top division. Being the Liga's highest paid coach is in itself no guarantee of success as it proved when he won just the Supertaça in his first twelve months in charge. Now remember that both the misters Leonardo Jardim and Marco Silva had been given their marching orders after just twelve months. Jesus however got not only a contract renewal, but his basic salary was increased to €6m a season. Nice work if you could get it clearly for no reward. I have been promising you fireworks and you're going to get them with a vengeance in the season 2017/18. A timely reminder why you shouldn't let children play with matches or leave egomaniacs alone with social media.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

Bruno de Carvalho not satisfied with going to war with football agents in previous seasons, in particular Portuguese super agent Jorge Mendes, had now decided to go into a very public war of words with Premier League West Ham United. It began with the breakdown of a deadline day move for midfielder William Carvalho. Sporting had set their price at £37.5m, West Ham claimed to have sent an email with an offer well below the asking price of €25m (around £23m), paid across three instalments, plus add-ons, an offer that the club president disputed was ever made despite West Ham providing evidence to the English media evidence not longer after. Bruno de Carvalho gave an interview to Sporting TV about the situation in which he referenced the fact that some West Ham fans called the then owners David Sullivan and David Gold the somewhat disparaging nickname of the 'Dildo Brothers.' Now I had always thought that it was de Carvalho who had come up with the term, just goes to show that journalists will happily use parts of quotes without the full context. Nevertheless it was headline news in the English media and even the then West Ham Manager Slaven Bilic found time to laugh about it in his pre-game press conference when asked about the failure to sign his number one summer transfer target. "David Sullivan likes to talk," Bilic said. Sounds like someone else we know. When pressed on whether he had seen de Carvalho's comments he pretended not to have done so before laughing. "Which comment? I thought about coming here with a lawyer today. There have been issues. Come on, say it. It's funny. It made me laugh but look, I don't like to talk about somethings." He would go on to add "I wanted Carvalho. Fuck it now, you know what I mean. I have a good team." It's fair to suggest that Bilic's relationship with David Sullivan was as tempestuous at the time as de Carvalho's had been with both Jardim and Silva during their reigns.

In de Carvalho's interview he's quoted as saying at various points

"Instead of spouting off, West Ham's offer should be shown. Where is it? What proof is there? What has happened here? The chairman [Sullivan] is very happy with the coach [Slaven Bilic], who was the person who wanted William. The man wanted to give the coach the player he wanted as much as I want to give a Christmas gift to my enemy. I did not want to give you anything! West Ham supporters call Mr David Sullivan and his brother the dildo brothers."

Quite why he thought people with different surnames were brothers I'm not sure, although presumably in Portugal they'd had they both been players they'd have had David on their shirts so…

Sporting's Communications director Nuno Saraiva also apparently accused Sullivan in a Facebook post of being a liar and a parasite.

Saraiva said: David Sullivan lies. At Sporting Clube de Portugal, as has already been said by our president, no proposal was made for our player William Carvalho. The football industry is not the set of an adult film in which all obscenities are allowed. So the boss of a club demands a lot more than this intellectual pornography. Mr David Sullivan has a duty to prove what he says. That is why Sporting Clube de Portugal challenges him to publicly show the proposals he claims to have been made as well as the evidence that Sporting CP received them.”

David Sullivan Junior in a Twitter post responded by claiming "West Ham are commencing legal proceedings against the communications director of Sporting Lisbon as a written offer for the player was made. To Bruno de Carvalho the president of Sporting Lison to say we never made an offer is nonsense and serious libel." Good to see he has the fine vocabulary skills of his halfwit poison dwarf of a father. Oh and by the way it's Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Sporting went back on the war path claiming that William had been tapped up and threatened to report West Ham for an alleged illegal approach to FIFA meaning they would have potentially faced a transfer ban if proven guilty. The tapping up of others clubs players is nothing new though let's be fair.

By the December of 2017 everything seemed to have been sorted out behind the scenes when West Ham issued the following statement: West Ham and Sporting Clube de Portugal acknowledge that a breakdown in communication based in contacts between representatives from both clubs in respect of a possible transfer of William Carvalho was the cause of a misunderstanding. Subsequent to this, the clubs have had positive communications and the matter is now resolved. On this basis, friendly relations between the clubs will resume and there will be no barriers to both clubs negotiating or working together in the future.

Awww friends again and presumably someone told them in no uncertain terms if they called the club Sporting Lisbon it would all kick off again. Mind you have wouldn't have surprised me to learn that they'd sent the email to bruno.decarvalho@sportinglisbon.com

However with David Moyes now in charge of the club, a further move for William was never to materialise.

Players who did depart the club over the course of the season and one who almost did in the summer window but not quite are as follows;

Rúben Semedo went to Villarreal for €14m.
Paulo Oliveira to SD Eibar for €4m.
Ezequiel Scheltto to Brighton for €3m
Marvin Zeegelaar to Watford for €3m
Teófilo Gutiérrez to Junior FC for €1.83m
Ewerton to FC Nuremberg for €1.5m
Uri Rosell to Orlando for €402,000
Iuri Medeiros went on loan to Genoa for a fee of €670,000
Jonathan Silva on loan to Roma for a fee of €500,000
Alan Ruiz on loan to Colon for a fee of €200,000
Tobias Figueirdo to Nottingham Forest for a loan fee of €200,000

Miguel Lopes, Beto and Ricardo Esgaio were all let go on free transfers. Azbe Jug was released and 15 players sent out on loan.

The one who nearly departed in the summer? Club captain Adrien Silva. He would eventually join Leicester City in January for €20.50m.

If I'd been slightly gutted losing João Mario to Inter twelve months before, the announcement that we'd agree to sell Adrien on deadline day of the summer transfer window left me heartbroken at an age where I really should have been past having favourite footballers anymore. But to me he was the bee's knees and not only the club captain but the metronome of the side, its very heartbeat and maybe most importantly he announced he'd stay until he'd won the league title. Turns out he lied, sad times. Pouty McPout face from me over here. It transpired that I wasn't to be the only one. Perhaps it all stemmed from the William Carvalho debacle with West Ham. Someone somewhere in the link had caused an issue and whether that was our side or on Leicester City's I'm not sure. On September 1st, 2017 the Foxes announced they had agreed terms with both the player and Sporting and were awaiting international clearance subject to approval. All parties assumed the deal was done before the deadline of 2300 hours on August 31st. Turns out there was a problem. One document had failed to arrive by a reported 14 seconds. The deal couldn't be ratified. Sporting took the stance that from their side the player was now a Leicester player, not our problem. The Premier League side lodged an appeal to FIFAs Players’ Status Committee. The decision was made on October 3rd, 2017 and it was confirmed that the appeal had been unsuccessful and Silva would be ineligible for selection until the January transfer window opened. Finally on January 1st, 2018 Adrien was officially announced as being a Leicester City four months later during which he'd at least been allowed to train with his new club. That I'm sure was scant consolation to him and his family. As a lion he'd make 168 appearances scoring 32 times. He'd make just 14 appearances for City. In fact over the course of the following 7 seasons, with spells also at AS Monaco, Sampdoria, Al Wajda, Rio Ave and finally Dubai United before he announced his retirement from the game, he'd only play another 160 games, 8 less than he'd done during his time at Sporting.

Sporting and de Carvalho are already making headlines not just in Portugal but across Europe and not for the right reasons. The clubs remaining business over the course of two windows is as follows;

Bruno Fernandes is signed from Sampdoria €9.7m
Marcos Acuña from Racing Club €9.59m
Wendel from Fluminense €7.5m
Rodrigo Battaglia from Braga €4.5m
Seydou Doumbia from Roma €3.5m plus an initial loan fee of €500,000.
Cristiano Piccini from Real Betis €2.87m
Josip Mišić from HNK Rijeka €2.75m
Lumor Agbenyenu from Portimonense €2.5m
Mattheus from Estoril €2m
Stefan Ristovski from HNK Rijeka on loan €1.1m
Fábio Coentrão the boyhood Sportinguista from Real Madrid came on loan for a €1m fee
Leonardo Ruiz from Atlético Nacional for €500,000
Rúben Ribeiro from Rio Ave for €400,000
The triumphant return of Fredy Montero for free from Tinmen Binmen. Sorry TJ Jinmen Tiger
Jérémy Mathieu from Barcelona for free. Surely there's some mistake? For free?
André Pinto from Braga for free
Romain Salin from Guingamp for free noting I'd go on to become the only person to call for him to be the club's starting goalkeeper. It never happened.

Total outgoings €47.19m
Total incoming €49.8m
Net spend -€2.61m

To give de Carvalho his dues he'd not once spent more than he'd brought in for transfers over the course of any season since being voted in as club president.

If one failed deadline day move which threatened legal action from both parties, one failed move that sidelined a player's career for four months and a war of words on Sporting TV and Facebook gives you a forewarning of the type of season that's about to follow, then not one single person could have predicted the manner it would end, with Sporting Clube de Portugal's darkest ever day in their entire history, a stain on the legacy that lingers on even eight years later.

Bas Dost had proved to be an instant success in his first season since signing from Wolfsburg scoring 34 in the league and 36 in all competitions. The clubs average home league attendance was 43,148. A season high came against Real Madrid with 59,046 spectators. A low of 10,698 versus Arouca in the Taça da Liga. Hopes would be pinned on the big Dutchman recreating that form in front of goal and we waited to see what a 22 year old by the name of Bruno Fernandes could bring to the side.

As of June 30th, 2017 Sporting Clube de Portugal (SAD) reported a debt of £110 million. On March 14th, 2014 that debt had hit a high of £150m and as a sign of the times way back on June 30th, 2002 that debt stood at just £23.54m. Apologies for those figures being in £s that is my fault living in England and not being able to read Portuguese. I've only the debt figures, not breakdowns so I'm going to assume that a lot of that debt is actually owed in the relation to the work on the new Estádio José Alvalade which would make sense as to why it jumped so significantly.

Pre-season began with a 2-0 win over Cova da Piedade at Alcochete. Remember that location. Alcochete being home to what is now the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy. A 1-1 draw with Belenenses in Faro followed before flying to Switzerland for a second straight summer. They beat Fenerbaçhe 2-1, lose 3-0 to Valencia, 3-2 to Basel, fuck over to France to get done 2-1 by Marseille. Back on home soil a 2-1 win over AS Monaco is followed by another defeat, 3-0 to Vitória SC. But good news we won the Troféu Cinco Violinos 1-0 against Fiorentina. That €6m salary per annum for Jorge Jesus is really paying off in terms of silverware. I imagine it's like the urn won in the ashes and even if Sporting lose the game the trophy never leaves Lisboa.

The season begins in some style with six straight wins; Deportivo das Aves are defeated 2-0 away on the opening day, Setúbal 1-0 at home, Vitória 5-0 away, Estoril 2-1 at home, Feirense 3-2 away and finally Tondela 2-0 at home. Back to back draws including a 0-0 in O Clássico at home means 4 dropped points but they respond with a 5-1 thumping of Chaves at home and a 1-0 win away to Rio Ave. Two more dropped points in a 2-2 at home to Braga followed by four straight wins. Two dropped points away to Benfica in the Dérbi de Lisboa in a 1-1 draw. Were the Portuguese media hammering Jorge Jesus as the man who can't win big games you have to ask yourself as they hammer Rui Borges now? Let's recap, that's 0-0 against Porto, 1-1 against Benfica and 2-2 against Braga. Well I never hey?

Two more wins, a draw and another win. Disaster on February 4th, 2018 as they finally lose their 20 game unbeaten run going down 2-0 to Estoril. Rui Borges at the time of writing has never lost an away league game as the Sporting mister, 30 undefeated and counting. I'm just making the point. Another three wins until a 2-1 loss at the Dragão in O Clássico. O Bugger.

Chaves - win. Rio Ave - win. Braga away round 28 - a 1-0 loss. What was I saying about the Portuguese media and not winning big games? Eek. Paços de Ferreira, Belenenses, Boavista and Portimonense all games won. They'd topped the table once all season after round 4. From round 21 onwards they'd remained consistently in third place. But don't panic, it'll all be fine because all they have to do is beat Benfica in the Dérbi de Lisboa and Marítimo in the last game and Champions League qualification and the runners up spot will be assured. But wait, before we get to that, let's rewind the clock back.

Remember in all those earlier posts mentioning how the lions have never managed to get out of the group phase of the Taça da Liga under Bruno de Carvalho’s time in charge? Stone the crows this season they did it finishing ahead of Marítimo, Belenenses and União de Madeira who they thumped 6-0 at home giving them their biggest win of the season in all competitions. On January 24th, 2018 back in the good old days when the semi finals were still in Braga they drew 0-0 with Porto… but beat them 4-3 on penalties. Season 3 and Jorge Jesus has finally led Sporting to a cup final even if it is just the Taça da Liga for now. They play Vitória Setúbal and last all of 3 minutes before going 1-0 down. It's OK though we've got Bas Dost who tucks a penalty away with 11 minutes to go and it's 1-1 at full time, to penalties we go. In order of takers for Sporting - Bas Dost, Bruno Fernandes, Mathieu, Coates and William. Five out of five converted. Podstawski misses the third for Vitória and the side called Victory ironically lose 5-4 on penalties. If you discount the Taça da Honra, Supertaça and three Troféu Cinco Violinos wins and yes I'm being flippant, Jorge Jesus has finally led Sporting to a title win. Did he have anything else up his sleeve that season? Maybe.

Let's switch to European competition shall we. He couldn't could he? No, don't be daft.

After a shaky pre-season and Champions League proper qualification at stake you can forgive Sporting for being somewhat nervous hosting Steaua Bucuresti at the José Alvalade. 0-0 it finished on August 15th. A week later on the 23rd any signs of nerves had completely vanished as they came away from Romania 5-1 winners and awaited to see who they'd draw in the group phase. Answer - Olympiacos, Juventus and Barcelona. Things started brightly enough, winning 3-2 away in Greece. They lost 1-0 to Barca at home, 2-1 in Turin but managed a 1-1 in the reverse fixture. Another win against the Greeks 3-2 at home but defeat in Catalonia 2-0 and the lions finish 3rd four points of Juventus and seven off Barcelona. Olympiacos finish with just the one point incidentally. Third place is however good enough for a place in the Europa League round of 32. In Kazakhstan they beat Astana 3-1 followed by a nervy 3-3 in the return leg but progressed through 6-4 on aggregate. Viktoria Plzeñ dispatched 2-0 at home in the round of 16. They lose 2-1 away but importantly progress 3-2 on aggregate to the Quarter Finals to take on Atlético Madrid. They lose in the Spanish capital 2-0 and despite a 1-0 win at the José Alvalade crash out.

But let's rewind to the defeat in Spain. I promised you fireworks in this series. Stand well back folks they're about to be lit.

Post game Bruno de Carvalho took to Facebook threatening to suspend all 19 players. Yes you read that correctly. Now before we get into the finer details let's make it abundantly clear that whilst there might be things that go on behind closed doors at football clubs that we're never party to knowing, such a huge public reaction against your entire playing squad is as rare as rocking horse shit and hens teeth combined and there's an obvious reason for that. I could only think of one example of anything as high profile and that came way back in 2002 when the then Portsmouth owner Milan Mandaric, best friend of George Best, told his manager Graham Rix, coaching staff and his players that he wouldn't be paying them because of poor performances after they lost 5-0 to West Bromwich Albion stating he would not pay for lack of effort. He expressed his frustration at high salaries compared to effort, noting he himself had earned his money “the old-fashioned way.” On March 1st, 2002 he backed down following a meeting with club officials and player representatives with wages being paid as normal that afternoon. A good example of what-the-fuckery? but that was 16 years ago.

So how did the players react? Well as you'd imagine they didn't take it lying down and they refused to train and their rebukes on social media to the criticism is what prompted their initial suspension. Bruno de Carvalho later deleted the post and Jorge Jesus’ press conference ahead of the Paços de Ferreira game was postponed for three hours with media reports that they would field a reserve team. De Carvalho had not helped his own cause when he singled out Sebastian Coates and Mathieu for extra criticism.

By the Friday the club was denying reports that the players had refused to train. The players message on social media repudiated de Carvalho's comments.

We always fight for our club, for our supporters and ourselves. For this reason, we express in this message our displeasure at the public comments of our president after a game in which we did not get the result we wanted.

The players would also complain of the - lack of support from the one who is supposed to be our leader, pointing the finger to publicly blame an athletes performance when a group is ruled by its combined effort.

No matter what the situation, all such matters should be resolved within the group.

All 19 players in a show of solidarity posted the message to their social media accounts.

In response from de Carvalho -

All the players who wrote the message below are suspended with immediate effect and will face the club's disciplinary procedures. I'm fed up with spoilt children who don't represent anything or anyone. This time, my patience has run out for those who think they are above the club and any sort of criticism.

The basic claims de Carvalho was insinuating is that Coates and Mathieu were so bad they were basically playing with 9 men on the pitch, then he claims that Fábio Coentrão and Bas Dost got themselves booked to deliberately avoid the second leg.

It's reported at this time that back in 2015 when Marco Silva was in charge de Carvalho harshly criticised his players after a 3-0 defeat to Vitória SC. He also stormed the dressing room after a defeat to Chaves. Such erratic behaviour is clearly not a new occurrence but it has steadily risen and you could argue that de Carvalho is not a well man at this juncture.

Rather incredibly some 420 weeks later the post is still on Rui Patricio's Instagram account -

Somos Sporting Clube de Portugal, em nome do plantel, somos a informar o seguinte... Suamos, lutamos e honramos sempre a camisola que vestimos.

Não somos perfeitos e não acreditamos em jogadores perfeitos, porque queremos sempre evoluir!

Não existem jogadores nem equipas perfeitas, mas quando as coisas não correm como queremos, sabemos assumir as nossas responsabilidades. Todos nós temos de o fazer!

Quando vencemos, empatamos ou perdemos… sim… porque no Futebol estes são os resultados possíveis, a responsabilidade é sempre de todos!

Somos uma equipa! Somos um grupo unido de um Grande Clube onde o respeito é uma das bases necessárias a essa união. Não podemos pensar apenas no “Eu”, mas sim “Nós” e sempre na equipa, porque só assim poderemos vencer.

No nosso Clube, nas seleções nacionais que representamos, sempre damos e continuaremos a dar o nosso melhor, porque o querer é uma constante.

Somos profissionais, somos humanos! A nossa integridade e o nosso compromisso são sagrados! Esforço, dedicação, devoção e glória sempre!

Damos o máximo pelo Sporting Clube de Portugal, damos o máximo por nós próprios enquanto equipa, individualmente enquanto atletas. Lutamos pelo nosso Clube, pelos nossos adeptos e por nós, sempre!

Não há outra forma séria de estar no Futebol Profissional que não seja esta…

Por esta razão, em nome de todo o plantel do SCP, espelhamos neste texto o nosso desagrado, por vir a publico as declarações do nosso Presidente, após o jogo de ontem, no qual obtivemos um resultado que não queríamos… a ausência de apoio, neste momento…, daquele que deveria ser o nosso líder. Apontar o dedo para culpabilizar o desempenho dos atletas publicamente, quando a união de um grupo se rege pelo esforço conjunto, seja qual for a situação que estejamos a passar, todos os assuntos resolvem-se dentro do grupo.

Saibamos ver que, por maiores que sejam as dificuldades, ainda há muito para disputar. Temos uma recta final em várias competições e vamos, haja o que houver, unidos e coesos, dar o máximo pelo Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Somos Sporting Clube de Portugal.

What are you looking at me for? I've already told you I can't speak Portuguese. *Tsk.

Don't hate me but we've still got more ground to cover…

Let's rewind back again, this time to October 12th, 2017 and Sporting are away to the Portuguese equivalent of Accrington Stanley, one Oleiros. Oleiros? Who are they? Whoever they are 2 goals from Palhinha, Oliveira and Leão (yes that would be Rafa Leão latterly of AC Milano and Portugal fame) help them to a 4-2 win. Goals from Coates and Bas Dost see off Famalicão in round 4 as Sporting won 2-0 at home. Against Vilaverdense (not a clue either sorry) Doumbia scores a hat-trick and Gelson the fourth in a 4-0 win. Quarter finals away to Cova da Piedade (fuck me who did de Carvalho bribe for those draws? That's a joke before someone gets the lawyers involved) and Bruno and Bas Dost the goalscorers in a 2-1 win.

Semi finals and perhaps de Carvalho had run out of favours as Sporting were drawn away at the Dragão for an O Clássico with a place in Jamor at stake. They promptly lost 1-0. But it's OK because in the Portuguese equivalent of the FA Cup semi final you play two rounds. I know right? Madness isn't it? Still it did give them a second bite of the cherry and what would you know, a Coates goal 6 minutes from time makes it 1-1 in a game played on April 18th, 2018. Now if the notion of a two legged semi final makes no sense, they came two months and eleven days apart. Fucking ridiculous isn't it. Sorry, on with the game. Full time whistle and with the two sides unable to be separated it ends with penalties. The lions may well have been practicing for the previous two months and eleven days because just as they had done in the Taça da Liga final, they hit a perfect five from five. Marcano missed Porto's first and despite scoring their remaining four, Bruno, Ruiz, Mathieu, Coates and Montero had booked the lions place at Jamor for the season's climax in May. Look at that, Sporting in both finals that season. This game came ten days after the win over Paços de Ferreira away where if de Carvalho had gotten his way they'd have fielded a team made up of academy players and others from Sporting B. This despite the potential it could cost them a place in the Champions League the following season. Talk about putting your ego before the club’s interests.

So quick recap, de Carvalho has gone to war with West Ham, insulted both their owners and now they're all friends again. Adrien Silva saw his move fall through to Leicester because club employees were slagging off West Ham instead of paying attention to the Adrien transfer (*pokes tongue in cheek). Facebook is being used in a manner that suggests they're not aware it came with a privacy setting or that it's not a good idea to use it when under the influence… of bad results. My lawyer will thank me there I'm sure when the court papers come in. We've won the Taça da Liga, everything's fine nothing to worry about. Sure we can't get out of third place in the table and we got knocked out of the Champions League again but we're storming the Taça de Portugal early rounds because we're playing the nation's dustbin men, posties and bricklayers. Still wins are wins and we've been to Kazakhstan and beaten Astra-bloody-GuGu and like de Carvalho I'm now nicking lines from West Ham fans - BOSH! Come on you Irons. Oh no wait, wrong club, come on you lions. Oh wait that works. 48 years old and just found that one out. Hey, am I starting to sound crazy and neurotic, does it possibly remind you of anyone? Suspend everyone. Fucking suspend the lot of the cunts. Coates you're fucking shit. Mathieu you're fucking shit and all. You cunt. Bas Dost you nine foot steak of fucking piss. You got yourself deliberately booked cause you're a yellow bellied wanger. You melt. And as for you Fábio and your poncey fucking barnet. You're the fucking worst of em all. Fuck off out of my sight the lot of ya and don't bother coming to Paços cause your names not on the fucking list…or words to they effect. Me no-e speak-e Portuguese-e. Those might not have been Bruno de Carvalho's actual words. He did delete the post so I've had to paraphrase. Eek!

It'll be fine though and fast forwarding us back to where we were in the league season with two games to go starting off with the Dérbi de Lisboa, note that Sporting have the most successful coach in the Dérbi’s history in charge of them. What do you mean that was as coach of Benfica? Oh cock.

If Bob Marley were still alive today he'd tell you - don't worry about a ting, cos every little ting gonna be alright. I'm sorry Bob, but you'd be fucking wrong. It's all going to go proper fucking Pete Tong my son.

May 5th, 2018 at the José Alvalade completes a miserable run of the so called big fixtures in the league for Jorge Jesus as his side can only manage a 0-0 draw. Just to recap for any Rui Borges haters reading, that was 0-0 and 1-2 in O Clássico. 2-2 and 0-1 against the Fraggles. 1-1 and 0-0 in the Dérbi de Lisboa. Well at least we didn't lose to Benfica. I mean we didn't win any of the six fucking games but still…

It probably came as quite handy that the lions last game would be played just shy of 1,000 kilometres away and the need to hop on a plane because at least the number of away fans would be limited for what turned out to be a disastrous last day defeat and the catalyst for events that would send shockwaves around not only Lisboa and Portugal but the world stage.

Sidebar - Turns out, Portugal - really fucking tiny country. But, it does have island territories such as Madeira and the Azores and so not only will you face teams within your countries natural land borders but depending on who's in the league on any given season you could find yourself frequently island hopping. Think Santa Clara, Marítimo, Nacional and others. And no that's not a Christmas themed club, it reads as St Clare in English. It took me until this season to have noticed that to be fair to you all and I think this is their second season in the top flight.

Now cast your minds all the way back in previous posts when I kindly laid the breadcrumb trail for you to follow in relation to the supporters groups better known by the vernacular of Claques. Bruno de Carvalho had been a one time member of both the two largest groups, Juventude Leonina (Juve Leo) and Torcida Verde. In England fans chant 'he's one of our own' in support of home grown players and here in Bruno de Carvalho's case they may have had cause to sing the same, just at the club president. Don't forget that in the case of Sporting's oldest and largest group the Juventude, it had been founded by two sons of the Club President at the time. Therefore connections between senior board members and ultra groups not only existed, they were some of the strongest in all of Portugal. We're about to find out it's a very dangerous connection indeed.

But first back to Maderia where the lions need a win and hope that Benfica lose their last game. Half an hour gone and the islanders made it 1-0 through a Joel goal. If Sporting were panicked it didn't show, 1-1 just a minute later through Bas Dost. But then an hour where neither side could break the deadlock until Gevorg Ghazaryan made it 2-1 Marítimo in what must be the only time a Gevorg has scored against Sporting CP. It would be the winning goal which sparked a disastrous run of consequences for the club, Bruno de Carvalho but most importantly the players. As a side note, the winner is owed to a howler from the Sporting keeper Rui Patrício. Whilst I'm sure you're eager to find out what happens next I also appreciate that time is a precious commodity and to cover it all cannot be done in a couple of paragraphs. I can confirm that the shit is quite literally about to hit the fan.