Cucu Cucurella drinks the Estrela

[bestbrother]

ESTRELA AMADORA

Apologies I hadnt noticed that there was another save using this team on these boards, a fantastic read by Dong and i can only hope to do him justice by having some fun with this team myself.

So for those interested, this is my take on taking on the Portuguese Elite.

[bestbrother]

Season 23/24: Beginnings

Pre-Season - 

It was all about putting names into shirts, basically no one at the club is really good enough and so the rebuild began in earnest.... We would wind up with a net spend of circa £12,000,000. 

Harry Toffolo came in for a club record £4.5m, whilst other additions saw Chelsea keeper Bettinelli sign for £2m, whilst a combined £5m saw us bring in Agazzi from Defensor and Lovric from Osijek.

Our total spend of about £15m was off-set by a few outgoings, notably a £1.1m loan fee acquired for Gaspar as he got a dream move to Sheffield Utd.

Liga Portugal Betclic (Part 1) - 

Off to a flyer we despatched Boavista in our opener 3-0 as we would slot ourselves into the Top 4 thanks to 4 wins from 6. The fixtures then went against us as back to back losses against Sporting and Porto stunted our run, leading to further disappointing home losses to Moreirense, Casa Pia and Braga, as come Christmas we found ourselves ensconced in 6th, solid but not in the European places as we had hoped.

January Window - 

Frailties in the squad were clearly exposed in the early stages of the season so we delved back into the transfer market to try and fill our gaps. £40m would be spent, as the club transfer record would be smashed 3 times during a hectic period.

Nathan Redmond came in first, his £7.5m transfer from Burnley lauded by the locals as an important coup. Mario Gila then joined from Lazio in a £8m + deal, before Fischer saw the club move into 8 figures with £12m going to Wolfsburg for the full back.

Further deals saw the club sign yet more ex-Premier League experience in Djenepro and a cheeky £100k saw Radamel Falcao come back to Portugal to potentially end his career with the club.

Liga Portugal Betclic (Part 2) - 

We hadn't drawn a league game all year until January, then we managed to draw 4 of the 5 fixtures we played. Our sole win coming against Boavista, again 3-0. February didnt change much, 2 more draws, this time a better outing vs Sporting saw us hold them goalless to earn a point.

Porto then tanked us again, but we reacted well this time, winning our next 4, putting us firmly in the race for 5th and a place in European football. Casa Pia stopped our run, but with 4 to play, we would pick up 10 points and do enough to squeeze into the top 4 and cap an impressive Liga campaign when many had the club favourite to go down.

Taca de Portugal - 

Short but not sweet, we beat lower league Trofense 5-2aet, before then losing in ET to Mafra in the 4th Round.

Allianz League Cup - 

Our season began with this competition and a stunning 8-1 drilling of poor old Belenenses. We then dinked Feirense 5-2 and things seemed so easy. Alas once in the groups, a 1-4 loss to Porto all but ended our hopes, though we beat Chaves 3-2 to go out on some pride.

Squad Recap - 

• Jose Pozo scored 15 goals to repay his meagre 200k transfer fee and win Fans Player of the Year.
• Falcao came in for the 2nd half of the season and promptly notched 8 goals in 15 games, as the ageless frontman rolled back the years.
• Mario Gila proved to be a success as he helped gel the defence in January alongside record signing Fischer.
• Lucas Agazzi would lead the team in assists with 11.

 

Edited August 20 by bestbrother

[Carambau]

Go for it! All the way  

[bestbrother]

Season 24/25: Estrela Excess

Pre-Season - 

The ride had just begun, £200,000,000+ spent in a rebuild of the squad that had over-achieved but lacked the consistency and depth to really challenge at the top.

Cheques flowed like win, Nottingham Forest reaped nearly £100m of the investment themselves as Ombadiele £40m (club record at the time) and Murillo £38m headed up the spending spree. Other notable deals saw us bring back Portuguese duo Jose Sa and Fabio Silva from Wolves. Young Archie Gray joined from Leeds, whilst highly rated Valentin Barco gave up a short stint at Brighton to move to Amadora.

A total of 14 deals would be made before the window closed as the Estadio Jose Gomes would not only be set to see European football this year, but a squad full of talent.

Liga Portugal Betclic (Part 1) - 

New faces, challenging start, heavy home wins over Tondela (4-0) and Vit. Guimaraes (6-1) were split by a draw with Famalicao and loss at Boavista. Wins soon started to roll in, notably a 3-2 win at home to Benfica as Fabio Silva endeared himself to the fans with a late winner, however we soon spun together a run of away defeats as surprise side Gil Vicente, then Sporting and Porto all put us to the sword.

Fortunately form at home continued to impress, Braga stuffed 5-2 formed a run of 4 wins to end 2024 with the team in 5th and still on the cusp of European football.

January Window - 

Spending edged close to half a billion as the ambition of the club continued to manifest itself in the transfer market. Excitingly the club transfer record would be smashed as Assane Diao joined from Betis for £75m, whilst 5 more players joined from the Premier League including Jefferson Lerma, Jhon Duran, Cameron Archer and youngsters Ugochukwu and Quansah.

Liga Portugal Betclic (Part 2) - 

Sadly the upheaval in January caught us by surprise and our season derailed hard and fast, 1 win from 7 almost wiped us out of the European race. The fortress Estadio Jose Gomes began to crumble with Famalicao and Boavista picking up rare wins on our turf.

Things had to change fast and fortunately Cameron Archer found a bit of form, a pair of 2-0 wins saw us get back to winning ways at home, beating Pacos de Ferreria and Mafra. A creditable 2-2 draw at Benfica would be the last points we dropped, as 9 straight wins shot us up into 3rd place, beating both Sporting and Porto 2-1 at home as we clinched a Europa League placing on the final day, beating Vizela 2-0.

Taca de Portugal - 

We cruised through the early rounds, beating lower league opposition in Marco and Beira-Mar 3-0 a piece. Then with a 2-1 lead at Benfica going into the latter stages of our 6th round tie, hopes of a first trophy looked up. Alas late goals killed us, Benfica finished the job as a 2-3 loss put paid to our chances.

Allianz League Cup - 

In and out as our opening group phase loss to Famalicao pretty much condemned us. A bounce back win over Nacional was nice for the fringe players to enjoy a comfortable night infront of the home fans.

UEFA Europa League - 

Into Europe we head and with the safety net of the Europa Conference League, we battled past Polish side Rakow before the experienced Swiss 'Basel beat us in both ties by a solitary goal.

UEFA Conference League - 

Nathan Redmond helped us qualify for the Group phase as he scored twice allowing us to edge Shamrock Rovers in the final qualifying round.

Once in the groups we made the most of our chance, winning 4 from 6, going unbeaten and doing enough to clinch a place in the last 16, setting up a tie with surprise Belgian title chasers Westerlo.

The Belgians would continue their domestic form in Europe, beating us 1-2 in both legs to cruise on into the Quarter Finals.

Squad Recap - 

• Jose Pozo once again proved to be a bargain, top scoring with 21 and continuing to impress the fans.
• Cameron Archer banged in 16 in just 12 games after his January arrival, as he passed Fabio Silva and Josh Bowler in the scoring list.
• Veteran GK Jose Sa returned to Portugal to lead the team with 19 clean sheets from his 51 appearances.
• The team ended with no red cards this year; whilst Cameron Archer scored after 21 seconds against Benfica to break a long standing club record.

 

[bestbrother]

Season 25/26: Billionarios

Pre-Season - 

Success was slowly coming the way of Estrela Amadora and to push on it was imperative to enhance the squad even further. Best part of 500m was spent bringing in 14 new faces. Jota Silva and Depu signed from domestic clubs, whilst money was heavily invested in more foreign talent; Kalimuendo 50m Rennes, Kerkez 40m Bournemouth, Bakayoko 42m PSV... and so on.

One of biggest deals would be for Summerville 75m from Leeds, whilst English Internationals Branthwaite (Everton) and Solanke (Bournemouth) also joined as the club pushed its wage bill past 2m per week.

Then as the window drew to a close, a 100m investment in Kephren Thuram capped off an impressive recruitment window.

Plenty of players would also leave during this window, notably Valentin Barco who joined Leipzig for a club record 31.5m sale, whilst the experience of Lerma and Jose Sa also left the club as ambition outstripped their talent.

Liga Portugal Betclic (Part 1) - 

It all seemed to easy to begin with, no one could touch the Amadora boys with 5 goals scored in back to back away wins over Famalicao and Mafra, as we would win our opening 4 without much trouble. Benfica stopped the run, nicking a point of us, then a shock draw at Chaves slowed us down once more, but we would go through November undefeated and top of the table.

Heading into December our run came to an end as Sporting turned up and became the first team to stop us scoring, as they won 1-0 in Amadora, we would rebound with 4-0,5-0 and4-0 wins to end the year, but it would leave us just shy of Benfica in a developing 2-horse race.

January Window - 

The long and short of it was we had to try and kick on and ensure Benfica wouldnt race away with the title. The seasons investment hit £1.1 Billion, as the recruitment focused on young hungry players ready to contribute. Cole Palmer 100m arrived on the same as a M. Beier for 75m from Hoffenheim.

Then 300m would be spent a day later as another English prodige signed in Adam Wharton from Palace for 150m, whilst highly rated Moukoko joined for the same sum from Dortmund. Finally to round off the window we bought home Diogo Dalot from Man. Utd for 75m to add to our Portuguese contingent.

Again we sold players, Fischer went to Feyenoord for 46m, Beste also went to the Ere Divisie and PSV for 12.5m, whilst Solanke who signed for 50m would be farmed off out on loan to Lille (with a obligation to buy) to end the miserable time for the overpriced English hitman.

Other players who left quickly would be Taiwo Awoniyi, he would never don the shirt after his 25m signing, whilst last years Top Scorer Cameron Archer would go home to England for a cut price 5.5m deal to Leicester.

Sadly one sale we didnt want to go through was that of Assane Diao, signed for 75m, he wanted to leave once Nice came sniffing, so a 44m deal was concluded to allow him to leave for France after 1.5 years at the club.

Liga Portugal Betclic (Part 2) - 

Back to league action and with our rebuild in January in progress we would essentially hand the title race to Benfica, with home draws against Porto and Vizela stunting our chase at the top. Then Vitoria came to town and put a stake through our chances, beating us 0-1 as our hopes frittered away.

To the players credit we would not lose another game until the end of the season, finishing up undefeated away from home, racking up big wins over Moreirense 6-2, Portimonenese 5-1, Boavista 5-0 and Casa Pia 5-0.

The latter of the wins would be the game that sealed our place in 2nd, just 2 defeats all year ensured that we would give Benfica a run for their money, losing out by just a point but never really being in contention in the final weeks with Benfica dropping points on the final weekend.

However it means we make the Champions League... a miracle by anyone's standards.

Taca de Portugal - 

6-7-8, yes it went like that as our early rounds in the Cup saw us stuff lower league sides 6-0, 7-0 and 8-0 in that order. We then beat Benfica on their own patch 3-1 in the Quarter Finals as we looked to reach our first final. However Porto put paid to our hopes in a 2-legged Semi.

Allianz League Cup - 

Porto also thwarted our chances of a Final in the League Cup, their 0-4 romp leaving a bitter taste in our mouths.

UEFA Europa League - 

Ironically our first and last games in this competition would be against Rangers. However when we began our competition with a late draw against the Scots, no one would have predicted the fairytale in between.

5 wins from 8 in the group saw us beat European stalwarts AEK Athens and Partizan, but it would be our 1-0 in Madrid over Atletico that turned heads as we clinched a Top 8 finish.

Our first knockout experience saw us edge past Sturm Graz, before our Quarter Final hopes saw Rangers come back to haunt us, a 1-1 draw at home not enough as a ferocious Ibrox put their team over the line with a 1-0 win.

Squad Recap - 

• Kalimuendo scores 37 goals in an unstoppable campaign after his arrival from Rennes.
• Fabio Carvalho impressed with 17 goals on his return to Portugal.
• Carvalho also picks up the fan award stopping the run of Jose Pozo.

[Deisler26]

I do love your saves. So much cash thrown around.