Dong21

October 2026 One of the deciding factors in continuing this managerial journey onward following our league win, was that I wanted to continue the development of the young talents I have coming through at the club. Therefore, our victory against Boavista at the start of the month was extremely satisfying thanks to two nineteen year olds. Forward Silvério scored his first career hat-trick and centre back Cerqueira had a great performance, including a goal for himself. After the game I decided to reward Cerqueira with a new five year contract. Silvério continued his form by scoring a brace in the Taca de Portugual against Alverca, but indeed much more impressively he bagged his second hat-trick of the month in a Taca de Liga fixture against Vitoria. The Alverca match was almost a source of great embarrassment as we went 2-0 down at the start of the match. Left back Vinagre gave away a sloppy penalty for their second. I was starting to think maybe I'd gone too far with playing youth - in addition to Silvério, Cerquiera, Freitas and Lovell, I had given a debut to 15 year old academy defensive midfielder Heffernan - until we cam roaring back into the game. First Silvério's brace took us level and then veteran Icardi delivered his own in extra time to win the cup tie. Against Vitoria things were simpler as Silvério's goals all came in the first half. Young midfielder Freitas set up the first and was fouled for the penalty that gave us the third. Perhaps with his recent form fresh in the selectors mind, Silvério was announced as the Portuguese U21 Player of the Year. He dedicated the award to his manager. We took the lead against Dortmund in just three minutes and could be forgiven for starting to think "is this competition easier than I was expecting?". However the German side then began to assert their dominance and two gaols from midfielder Ozcan, to secure a deserved win. After the game, out of pure intrigue, I decided to enquire as to how much Ozcan would cost in the current market - is agent told me he is seen as a £180m player! Understandable then, perhaps, that we couldn't control him. On paper, a 1-0 defeat away at Benfica can be considered understandable. The scoreline doesn't tell the story, however. The goal we conceded was laughable. Our goalkeeper passed to defensive mid Silva who then passed it to their striker Strelec to score from 10 yards. To make things worse, with thirty minutes still to play, Silva managed to get himself sent off. A terrible day at the office. As depleted as we felt, we finished the month second place in the league table, only one point behind Benfica. In what feels like a retro 'blast from the past', throughout the month the media speculated once again that owner Evra may step away from the club. In the end, and once again, he spoke out to deny this and things have gone quiet on this front. November 2026 I was bemused to learn that Jose Mourinho had succeeded Pep Guardiola to become the next Man City manager - quite the change in direction! We were nervous to be facing a side featuring Haaland, Foden, Silva, Kimmich, Frimpong, Dias, etc. In the end though, it was not the thrashing we expected. In fact, the pundits described the penalty that they scored to beat us as 'contentious'. It was a scrappy affair in which Barco, Relvas and Vinagre all had to be removed from the field with knocks. My players determination to self-destruct continued in our league fixture against Vitoria. Once again we gave away a penalty - this time Barco was the culprit - and in another unforgivable repeat a woeful back-pass from White gave them their second goal. 62% possession doesn't mean anything when you are so careless in defence. This frustrating defeat means we fell down to 5th in the league table. Two of Victoria's goals were scored by a 19 year old wonderkid forward called Gata who certainly caught my attention. Luckily we had an international break then to pause and reflect. We restarted strongly beating Moura 7-0 in the Portuguese Cup. Icardi was the man of the match, with the press rating him 10/10 for his performance. Even more importantly, we returned to winning ways in Europe when facing off against Club Brugge. To stand any chance of progressing, we have to get points against the teams ranked around our level and that we did. Striker Mina followed in Icardi's footsteps by also scoring a hat-trick and getting a 10 match rating, albeit this was in the league against Estoril. We end the month disappointed to be in fifth place, but rational enough to realise we are only two points off top and therefore all is still to play for.

August 2026 We kicked off the season-proper away at Arouca and delivered a comfortable win despite the absences of Relvas (injured), Silva (suspended) and Tenas (injured) - plus the early withdrawal of Ederson after a knock. The next match was the important one. We beat Porto in front of 47,000 of their fans. We had more possession and created the better chances, although they did have a lot of shots. New striker Mina has already made himself a fan favourite by bagging a hat-trick with a stellar performance. Mina continued his rich vein of form by scoring early against Portimonense however disaster struck in the 36th minute when he was taken off with a twisted ankle and was subsequently ruled out for four weeks. This didn't impact this match - we won in a dominant display - but stopped my on-form striker in his tracks. We could have done with Mina in the next game! The blot on our otherwise perfect start to the season was a disappointing goalless draw against newly-promoted Famalicao. In this game it was striker Rodrigo's turn to go off injured in the first half. This created the opportunity for 19 year old high potential forward Silverio, fresh from a successful loan in the Championship, to come on and make his club debut. Mina was rightly recognised as both Forward of the Month and Player of the Month, and I was pleased to pick up Manager of the Month for the sixth time in my career. September 2026 In the league it was two wins out of two, with seven goals scored and none conceded, against B-SAD and Gil Vicente. With our debut in the Champions League front of mind, I gave playing opportunities to squad players. Centre back Cerqueira and midfielder Hall played both games. Goalkeeper Tenas made his debut in the Gil Vicente game and delivered a clean sheet. Striker Silverio scored a brace in his first start for the team. I am determined to give him opportunities to play and perform this season. Following in his peer's footsteps, Brenner was this month's recipient of Forward of the Month and Player of the Month. We enacted revenge against Famalicao when we played them in the Taca de Liga. Midfielder Tiago Freitas made just his fourth start for the club, as he continues his development. I was apprehensive ahead of our first Champions League fixture against PSV as it's hard to determine the relative strength of your team versus sides in other leagues. As far as debuts go, it couldn't have been much better. Well, perhaps if we didn't concede in the 91st minute! We stuck to our usual, attacking style of play, with marauding full backs who delivered all three assists. Our impostor syndrome was diminished. Ahead of the tie with Celtic first-choice 'keeper Valdimarsson and midfield maestro Ederson were both ruled out injured. Their replacements, Tenas and Garner, had good games though and our growing home fan base got to see a dominant win in Amadora. This was Mina's first game back from injury and he was instantly back amongst the goalscorers. Along with Mina - Costinha, Barco, White and Brenner were all excellent. As I always say at this stage of the season; it is early days and you can't read too much into the league table at this time. That said, I'm certainly pleased with how things are going and we seem to be in contention for another crack at the league title.

Thanks @warlock! One whole year of, admittedly on and off, playing and I've completed four seasons With today's announcement, perhaps this will be dragged out for another year!

Portuguese Super Cup: Estrela da Amadora 4 - 3 Sporting Lisbon The Portuguese Super Cup served as our, and the countries, curtain raiser for the 2026/27 season and saw us face off against our local rivals and fellow title contenders Sporting Lisbon. I expected a close contest, but what we got was a thriller for the neutrals with seven goals shared between the sides. Things couldn't have started much worse as we were 2-0 down within 40 minutes. Centre back Comas had a poor game, giving away the pen for their second. New striker Mina, scored on his debut just before half time to give us hope that we had a chance. The equaliser came not long into the second half and was set up by Diomande, who we had just recently recruited from our opponents. Mauro Icardi signed a contract with the agreed squad status of 'impact sub' and make an impact is exactly what the experienced Argentine did! I thought that his first goal might have been the match winner. This goal was set up by another debutant, Brazilian midfielder Ederson. Sporting equalised late on and the worry was that after all our hard work coming back into the game and taking the lead, that we would then squander all this by losing a penalty shootout. Icardi had other plans, however, securing the accolade of Man of the Match after scoring a sublime winner in the third minute of injury time. There are often debates as to whether super cup's count as major trophies. Whichever way you look at it, it was a great way to commence the season and we start the league campaign with momentum.

Season 5 - Summer Signings & Squad Update The 2026 summer transfer window is one of the quietest I have ever presided over. Having just won the Portuguese league, my view was that the squad was in a good place to compete in the Champions League and in the league once again with only a handful of high quality additions. We have a number of talented youngsters at the club and part of my transfer strategy was to make sure I didn't sign players that block their development pathway. Below I will introduce the players I have added and summarise what the squad now looks like following the close of the summer market. Goalkeepers Arrival: One of three pre-agreed transfers who arrived in the summer, Arnau Tenas joins on a free transfer from Barcelona and will become our new second choice goalkeeper. Young enough to make improvements when he does get game time, the Spainard was happy to accept the squad role of cup goalkeeper. Departures: Goalkeeper Ivan Arboleda was signed in January to cover us until Tenas' arrival. Now that Tenas has walked through the door I proceeded to sell the Colombian to Nantes, making us a £1m profit on the man who previously joined us on a free. Additionally, we decided to move on long-term third choice 'keeper Mikki van Sas who departed to Farense for £60k. Interestingly, my staff rate Tenas as equal in ability to the well-established Valdimarsson. Despite this, I am currently firm in my view that Valdi will be my first choice 'keeper this season. It is reassuring, however to have a well rated second option. The only slight concern is a lack of viable third choice goalkeeper, however we will need to deal with that if a crisis ever arises. Right Backs Arrival: Our next signing is one for the future. I recruited this young Cameroonian right back from Real Valladolid for a fee of £13.25m and then sent him out on loan to Union Berlin to get first team experience. Michael Ngapandouetnbu will either succeed Couto as my next second choice right back or perhaps, if his development goes really well, he could even be heir apparent for Costinha. Ngapandouetnbu represented his country at the 2026 World Cup and was awarded Young Player of the Tournament. Despite interest in both and much to my delight, we retained both of last seasons right backs for the 2026/27 season. Departure: Last season I renewed the contract of Felipe Cruz, with the view to selling him this summer. The plan came to fruition when I sold him to Leganes for £900k in July. Left Backs Those who have read my end of season four summary will know how over-the-moon I am with my pair of left backs. This means I am really pleased that there was no activity at all, in relation to the left back position. Over the course of the summer first choice right and left backs, Costinha and Barco, both signed new five year contracts. Centre Backs Arrival: The next signing, I like to think, announces our arrival as a big player in Portuguese football. Signing one of our league rivals best players is a sign of intent. It is not just about the gesture, Ousmane Diomandé considerably improves our defence. We paid a club record £35m for the Ivorian, but given that he is 22 years old and has excellent attributes, I see this as a good deal for the club. Our scouts believe he is already worth £50m, just shortly after joining. Man Utd took Sporting's other first choice centre back (Ahmedhodzic), so they are weakened following the window. Departures: To balance the books I moved on two of our many centre backs. U.S.A international Owen Otasowie was sold to Brighton for £13.5m and young Englishman Zach Awe departed to Real Sociedad for £12.5m (rising to £16.5). Both deals saw us receive notable profits. I start the season with a very strong pool of six centre backs. The starting back three will be Comas, Relvas and Diomande, but I am very comfortable playing any of the other three in their place. Club captain McKenna will feel hard done by to lose his place, having been ever-present in recent seasons, but we need to keep evolving and his injury over the summer has set him back slightly. He's going to feel particularly hard done by that I had to leave him out of our Champions League squad. On transfer deadline day an agent indicated to me he could get us a bid of £20m from Fulham for McKenna. I said offer him out as, including funds I had in the pot, I was able to agree deals with either Calvin Bassey (£32m) or Armel Bella Kotchap (£38m). Both deals were delayed, waiting for this bid, and then eventually collapsed when it failed to materialise. One small positive is that Porto bought a £32m 'replacement' for Bassey on deadline day, only for him to remain, therefore I am hoping they have stretched themselves too far financially. Centre Midfielders Arrival: Ederson is another player I have already profiled when I arranged his pre-contract signing, but he is worth sharing again. Rated by my staff as the best player at the club, he was one of the motivating factors for me continuing with this managerial career as I'm excited to see what he can achieve in this team. Departure: I made the difficult decision to move on club stalwart Vladan Danilovic. Relegated to a second choice player last campaign, our now club record appearance maker needed to be moved on to create an opportunity for young George Hall to get first team minutes. After two seasons out on loan, Hall has returned, signed a new four year contract and is ready to make an impact. Danilovic departs being held in high regard by myself and the fans. Manu Silva starts the season as first choice defensive midfielder, with George Hall as his understudy. I have a magnificent starting pair of centre midfielders in Ederson and Harvey White. They will be ably supported by Filip Jorgensen and James Garner. During the summer we received a derisory bid of £28.5m from Porto for White. This was instantly dismissed and White was not unsettled by the encounter. Norweigen Jorgensen was another player to be rewarded with a new contract, signing a four year deal. Strikers Arrivals: Despite last season seeing goals galore, the striking department is the one that has seen the most turnover in this transfer window. With Fabio Silva's loan coming to an end, I knew I needed another top striker, especially as we will be juggling domestic and continental commitments this campaign. I believe I have acquired a player in his prime, and for a relative bargain, when I snapped up Santi Mina from Inter Milan for just £14m. The second recruit was an opportunity signing. Mauro Icardi is outside of the age profile of signings I have made over the last four seasons, but when I saw that he was comfortable with being just an impact sub I could not resist bringing in a player of such experience. Physically he is clearly declining, but mentally he is immense. I'm hoping he can make an impact from the bench at the end of tight games. Departures: I wanted to make room for young wonderkid Michael Silverio in my first team squad, which sadly meant sacrificing another player whom I am extremely fond of. Striker Junior Brumado has never let me down on the pitch. The Brazilian scored 60 important goals for us across three campaigns - an admirable return. However, it was time to move him on. Somewhat frustratingly he turned down more lucrative moves throughout the summer, to Watford (£26m) and Norwich (£30m) before finally agreeing a £19.5m move to Burnley. After his outstanding loan spell in the Belgian top flight Kyosuke Tagawa had plenty of suitors, electing to join Fulham in a £9.5m deal. We are blessed to have plenty of high potential young strikers currently at the club. Having selected Silverio as the cream of the crop, I decided to loan out the rest to aide their development. Martim Tavares (Angers), Joao Infante (Famalicao), Uros Sremcevic (Millwall) and Shaun Baloyi (Oliveirense) were all sent out on loan. When the Portuguese bookies announced the odds for top goalscorer in the season ahead they listed Brenner as second favourite, with both Mina and Rodrigo joint fourth favourites. Goals should hopefully be plentiful!

July 2026 Pre-season has been completed quickly, due to the fact we only chose to play four friendlies. I think this is the fewest amount of warm-up matches I've ever chosen to play. As you will see in an upcoming update, there has been the least amount of incoming signings in my managerial career and therefore there was less need for experimenting and team bonding. In fact, this is the first season where we didn't take a single free agent on trial. The reason for the relative stability is because this is a squad I have crafted over a number of years and the age profile of our players means that there has been little need to move many of them on. We decided to spend pre-season in the Bayern area of Germany, which is why three of our opposition were German. Four wins out of four. Not much more I could ask for. All good preparation for our next game, the Portuguese Super Cup against Sporting Lisbon. Stadium Upgrade Some readers may recall that last season I successfully persuaded Evra to purchase our stadium from the local council so that we could begin to be in control of our own finances. This completed in the summer and not long after Evra approached me to ask if I think we should expand our capacity. Our season ticket sales don't justify an expansion, but visits from large domestic rivals sell out easily. With at least four Champions League at our home this season, there is more opportunity for big crowds. With one eye on the future, I advised Patrice that I thought expansion was a good idea. The works, which will cost £1.9m and see our capacity increase to 16,466, will complete in July 2027. We have sold 6,574 season tickets for the upcoming season, up from around 4,500 last campaign. We are slowly starting to grow a fanbase. Expectations Evra has advised me that our success will be primarily measured by whether we once again qualify for the Champions League through our league standards. Luckily this aligns with what I already told the squad at the end of last season, in a speech that received a positive reception from the players. Objectives for the pair of domestic cups were looser, as I was told we should aim to "reach the latter stage" and the goal for the Champions League was almost suspiciously simple as I was told to "qualify for the Champions League proper", which I have already achieved by winning the league. We were given a transfer budget of £22m and a wage budget of £1.1m per week. This is a budget I can certainly work with, but is clearly not anywhere near what many of our Champions League peers will have at their disposal. Champions League So, who will we be facing in our maiden Champions League campaign? Man City, Arsenal, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund! As tough as it could have been, in my opinion. We will need to be at our best in the other four games to stand a chance of progressing. The fixtures against the top sides will be interesting challenges. If we manage to pull off a result it will be a thrill. I just hope that if we are beaten handily it doesn't bleed into our league form. Sack The Scouts? I'll finish this round-up with something amusing. If you want to get a view of the quality of the recommendations I receive from my scouting department during the transfer window, then you need to know that my Chief Scout has suggested my own player to me on three separate occasions. Barco is a great player, but I don't need a dossier from my scouts to tell me that. Great work guys

Great advice, as always. The fun continues in the suburbs of Lisbon! It's time to get stuck into season five... Summer Staff Assessment I always start each season by reviewing the club's coaching, medical and recruitment teams. I analyse who is available to me from outside of the club and if they are an improvement on what I have, then I release my current employee and recruit the upgrade. If I cannot find someone who exceeds the incumbent's abilities then I will happily offer a contract renewal - indeed I renewed six preexisting staff members contracts this summer. Even though we have just one the league, it is no time to rest on our laurels or show blind loyalty. Things can always be improved. The most notable additions were two first team coaches, who both arrived from Premier League clubs. This demonstrates the growth in stature of our club. Tim Jenkins was a respected coach at Bournemouth and Graeme Carrick was that well regarded that he had just spent the last 150 days as interim manager of Newcastle, following the sacking of Eddie Howe. To make way for these arrivals I released Paul Young, who has been with me since season one, and didn't offer Darko Vargec (another of my first recruits) a new deal. Vargec has chosen to stay around on a month-by-month contract, which has created an accidental hack where I now have more coaches than the board would normally permit. We have also notably improved our Performance Analysis department by recruiting Italian pair Igor Quaia and Gianmarco Pioli, to work alongside their compatriot Giovanni Cerra. Both our U23s and U19s also received a new performance analyst, with Baden Kinsey-Wellings and Ben Warner arriving. The medical team was enhanced through the hiring of yet another Italian. Federico Genevesi has spent the last nine years working at Manchester City, whilst also juggling stints with Argentina and Ukraine. He is a clear improvement on his predecessor. We also added a new Sports Scientist to the team, recruiting Matt Prestridge from West Brom for a small fee. The recruitment team also got two new additions. First is young Scot, Ruben Sammut who arrives from Charlton Athletic and the second was recruitment analyst Lee Mooney who's background includes time spent at Man City and then time at Anderlecht alongside Vincent Kompany. Another man with Anderlecht experience is new U23s physio Tim Vollon. I decided to replace both my U19 and U23 managers with experienced English football league managers. I'll acknowledge that it was harsh to replace Dejan Durdevic after he won the U23 Premier League. however I just could not turn down the opportunity to get a coach of Mark Robins calibre. Matty Taylor currently has somewhat of a redundant role as the U19s continue to not feature in any professional competition. I was praying we would be invited to join a league, but the invite didn't arrive. I've done some research and can only see that this sometimes happens and you just have to wait, as the league is full. Any advice how to prompt an invitation would be appreciated. In the meantime, Taylor will focus on training and friendly fixtures.

Loan Report In addition to the players already profiled in the first team and U23 squad, we also had a number of players out on loan. The majority of these were on loan to get game time which in turn should help them fulfill their potential. A few of these players have high potential and I am invested in seeing them progress. I will spotlight below a few of our players who spent time away from the club last season. In just four short years we have built a tradition at Estrela of signing English centre midfielders. Hall was acquired on a free transfer from Birmingham two years ago and is personally seen as a long term project. Last season he had a disappointing spell at Sunderland, but fared much better this time around, playing 52 times for Bristol City. As Danilovic has begun to plateau, I am tempted to move him on and make Hall my second choice defensive midfielder for the season ahead. Striker Silvério was signed for just £325k from Beleneses and I'll admit I don't think I realised the calibre of talent I had bought. Only 19 years old, the Portuguese striker took the Championship by storm. His 16 league goals for Preston made him the fourth highest scorer in the division and has rocketed his transfer value to around £30m. As you can see from the above, the high level of playing time has meant he is growing all aspects of his game continuously. As much as I am passionate about the development of young striker Baloyi, centre back Cerqueira has a special place in my heart as the first high potential graduate of the Estrela academy under my oversight. I kept him around in the first half of the season, as you need to play two home-grown players in each Taca de Liga game, but after our elimination I sent him out on loan in January. His time at Rio Ave seems to have positively benefited his development. I am going to have to think carefully about whether Cerqueira stays or goes out on loan again next season. Mahomed Vezo is not a player I expect to have a full first team career with Estrela. Firstly, we don't play with wingers and secondly I think he has a ceiling lower than where we have got to as a club. That said, I wanted to feature him here because before going out on loan in January he made a notable contribution to our league campaign. In just four substitute appearances, the 18 year old achieved four assists. I will be making sure he receives a winners medal! It's nice to celebrate successes, but I need to balance this update out with a mention of a loan spell that didn't quite work. Striker Tavares was signed for a hefty £10.5m eighteen months ago and therefore is a major development project for me. At the time, he was considered high potential. Now either that hasn't played out, or the quality of the other strikers at the club has improved, as our scouts no longer rate him that highly. Probably a bit of both. Bundesliga 2 side Bochum let me down, as they only gave him one start whilst on loan. I blame them for stunting his development. Despite his dip in forecasted potential, he is a Portuguese forward who I have spent a lot of money on, so I am tempted to give him a shot in the upcoming season. The final loanee that I wanted to mention is unique in that he was not a player I loaned out to develop him. I wanted rid of Tagawa but nobody would make a reasonable bid. In the end I had to settle for loaning him out to Genk. The reason he is worth mentioning is because he was hugely successful in Belgium. The Japanese attacker scored 11 goals, got 7 assists and was named the Pro League's Player of the Season. Hopefully this means he attracts a decent transfer fee this summer!

Youth Success As alluded to in previous posts, success at Estrela da Amadora in 2026 has extended further than just at first team level. When I took the reigns at this fledgling club there was no youth set-up. I started by hiring specialist youth coaches, I harassed Evra near-monthly for continuous improvements to our youth coaching and recruiting facilities and I proactively signed players who I thought would compliment our U23s side. I'm pleased to share that this approach has bore fruit. Of course, I can't take complete credit for this success as I didn't manage each of their fixtures, but I can certainly feel satisfied with my contribution to the outcome. Success began for the U23s in the first half of the season when we topped the table in the U23s Premier League South, including two victories over Porto and 3-0 win against local rivals Sporting. This qualified the team for the U23s Premier League, where points from the first league phase were halved. Our league success was resounding as we finished six points ahead of second place Gil Vicente and seven ahead of the famed academy of Benfica. League success was much more than we were expecting but things got even better at the end of the season when we were entered into the U23 Cup. We won our group, including a 1-0 victory over Porto and then met Sporting Lisbon in the Semi Finals. It was a close affair, across two legs, but we ran out 1-0 winners on aggregate. The crucial goal was scored by 18 year old striker Aymoré and it was the young man again who scored the winner in the 1-0 Finalvictory over Porto. So we beat all of the big three to claim the trophy! Aymore is a relatively low potential player who will not go on to claim an Estrela first team berth, but his heroics will certainly be remembered. Let's take a look at the players who shone throughout the season and have a chance of breaking through in future seasons. Striker Baloyi is a product of the Estrela academy and my coaches consider him the player with the highest potential at the club. I am personally motivated to support his development as much as possible. You may have seen in the post above, the South African came off the bench nine times for the first team and managed to score two goals which I think is extremely impressive considering he is only 17 years old. Baloyi was the U23s most frequent match winner. Current plans are to keep him around and give him opportunities in cup competitions next season. Baloyi has recently turned pro, but unfortunately a sports hernia ruled him out for six weeks and the final stages of the U23 Cup campaign. Baloyi was a product of the academy whereas midfielder Lovell was signed by the club on a free transfer as part of a batch of signings I made primarily to bulk out a thin youth squad. The primary objective was for these players to enable the growth of our home-grown players, so the fact Lovell has managed to star this season is a complete bonus. Due to a relatively small pool of centre midfielders, Lovell ended up having the opportunity to feature for the league winners on six occasions. The young Guyana international did not look out of place in the side. As an attacking midfielder he doesn't really fit into my tactical approach, but had adapted well when played as a centre midfielder. The other gem in our youth academy is Portuguese midfielder Freitas. Recruited from Benfica in the prior season, he has already made 15 first team appearances (three of which were starts). This number would have been higher had it not been for a three month injury at the start of the campaign. Luckily it does not seem to have set his development backwards. There has been plenty of transfer interest in our starlet, all of it has been rejected and this will continue to be the case this summer.

Thanks @Hootieleece! Squad building is definitely my favourite part of the game.

2025/26 Squad Performance Following the conclusion of our fourth season, I will take a moment to reflect on the performances of my squad across the campaign. As they are league winners I am going to be somewhat indulgent and profile each of the first team players. Goalkeepers After sharing the first choice shot stopper role last season, this year Valdimarsson was our undisputed number one this time around. The Icelandic international conceded less than a goal a game across the season and delivered us 15 clean sheets. Colombian Arboleda arrived as short term cover and it can be seen as a success that he only featured once for us. He will drop to third choice or depart the club, following the pending arrival of Barcelona 'keeper Arnau Tenas. Both Valdimarsson and Arboleda now depart to represent their countries at the 2026 World Cup. Right Backs Costinha didn't reach his assist or goal levels of the prior season, but can still be proud of a great season. His performances may have been impacted by his unhappiness at, first, our failure to make the Europa Conference League group stage and, second, my refusal to accept transfer bids for him. As expected, his tune has changed now we have won the league and qualified for the Champions League - he is now more than happy to stay. He is still arguably the best player at the club. Back-up right back Couto also had disgruntled spells. His disatisfaction was based on playing time. He featured in 37 games, which I feel should have been enough to satisfy him. What was he expecting, when competing with a top class operator in the form of Costinha. Collectively, Estrela had the league's second highest amount of dribbles completed (560) and our full backs will have contributed heavily to that statistic. Left Backs If last season was all about right back Costinha, this season was all about my pair of left backs Barco and Vinagre. Vinagre started the season as first choice and Barco then went on to eclipse him with simply undeniable performances. Barco got 17 assists and Vinagre returned 16. If one of them played the full season, perhaps they would have achieved a staggering 33 assists. Either way, we can say the LWB position achieved this feat. Barco got the most assists in the Portuguese Liga (14) and delivered more key passes than any other player (89). Barco's league xA was, a quite incredible, 11.58. Furthermore, he lead the league in terms of chances created (38). It should also be mentioned that Vinagre achieved the most high intensity sprints per 90 minutes (22.6) out of any player across the league and in second place was Barco with (21.2). Both players were exceptional but it is Barco who got the majority of the plaudits. Perhaps because he performed well at such a young age. The Argentine was voted both the Fans Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season, along with winning Goal of the Season for his strike vs. Chaves. This was supported by the fact he got the most assists (17), highest average match rating (7.5) and most Man of the Match awards during the Estrela campaign. Centre Backs Across the course of the season, no team faced fewer shots that ourselves (218), demonstrating the quality of a defensive job our centre backs and defensive midfielder delivered. By the end of the season, our first choice back three was established as, captain, McKenna, Comas and Relvas. Comas only arrived in January but has already had a big impact, in fact he was voted as the club's Signing of the Season. Last season our centre backs did not score enough from set pieces. This improved this season and Relvas played a big part, netting seven goals. Both players are improving players and have valuations close to £40m each. Antov played a lot of games without ever particularly impressing. That said he had a solid season and was not responsible for any notable mistakes. I will happily keep him around as a squad player if he will accept a downgrade in status. Young Englishman Awe was one of the main players to suffer from our failure to play regular European football. Had we had more fixtures then he would surely have played more. As a result his potential has declined slightly. I have however found one positive; he delivered the most passes per 90 minutes (66). Hopefully he is young enough that his decline can be corrected. Last but not least, Captain Fantastic, McKenna. When I signed him two seasons ago I had relatively low expectations for the Scot, but he has gone on to play more games than anyone in a title winning side. Ever-present on the left-hand side of our back three, McKenna never lets us down. Unfortunately his current long-term injury has already impacted his bravery. Hopefully this doesn't impact his style of play and there are no further impacts from his spell on the sideline. Centre Midfielders After McKenna and Valdimarsson, the player who played the most amount of games for us this season was defensive midfielder Silva. The £5.25m we paid Man City for his services is now looking like a bargain. Sure, he didn't score any goals or produce any assists, but the defensive cover he provided the defence whilst our full backs bombed forward was invaluable. His deputy, Danilovic, was once seen as invaluable. A long spell out the team due to injury changed that, but he has remained a valuable squad player. In fact, he has now reached 90 league Portuguese Liga appearances for Estrela, a record for our young club. If an enticing offer comes in this summer, there is a chance he could move on. I was pleased by my sides ability to keep hold of the ball, with an average of 55% possession across the league season. Jorgensen and Garner are both technically proficient players who have enabled us to play a possession-based style of football. Jorgensen will be disappointed by the number of injuries he had, meaning he wasn't able to fully establish himself as White's full time centre midfield partner. Garner, a bargain £1.5m signing from Everton, should be delighted that he provided 12 assists from just 20 starts. He was a crucial member of the squad across the campaign. Left back Barco scooped all the main accolades, however my personal Manager's Player of the Season award goes to midfielder White. The young Englishman stepped up and put in match winning performances in crucial games, which is what you need in a title winning campaign. White was clinical from the spot, scoring five out of five league penalties. White's value has risen to £60m following his top class season and the Premier League and La Liga vultures are circulating. Hopefully I can fend them off long enough to see how a partnership of White and Ederson performs. I decided to keep the squad light on centre midfielders as (1) we have carried too many in seasons past, (2) from the start of January I have been aware Ederson is arriving and therefore there was little point signing another midfielder, and (3) I wanted to give opportunities to young prospect Freitas. I will feature Portuguese starlet Freitas in more detail in an upcoming youth update, but needless to say I was delighted to be able to feature him 14 times for the first team. Strikers Brenner arrived from the Brazian Serie A in the summer and has been a delight to manage ever since. His 23 goals, across all competitions, was more than any of my forwards delivered last season and his 17 league goals is a new club record. The best thing is that I think there is more still to come from the 26 year old. His strike partner Rogrigo only arrived in January and still managed to notch 11 goals. In fact, no player in the Portuguese Liga had more shots on target per 90 minutes (2.2) than Rodrigo. He is another player who is yet to hit his prime. I did not give Silva as many opportunities as he perhaps deserved. When he did play he had a strong scoring record, I just had to prioritise the players permanently contracted to the club. When Silva was signed he was our best forward on paper, but Brenner and Rodrigo then joined the club. That said, I think it was a worthwhile signing and I was pleased to have another Portuguese player in the squad. If he is up for grabs again, either on loan or in a cut price deal, then I will certainly entertain signing him. Finally, our third Brazilian forward and the only striker to be with us for longer that 12 months, Brumado. The pressing forward had less than half the starts that he had last season, but scored only seven goals less - an impressive return for an impact player. Again, if there had been European football then he would have got lots more opportunities. I'm glad I fended off interest in him, as he certainly made a contribution to our success.

Shame - I would have liked to see how my trusted Estrela captain would have fared for you in the Prem! You’ve certainly taken the club on a great journey. Continuous overachievement, for sure. It’s been fun to follow along. I’ll be keeping an eye out for where you end up next 👀

Just catching up and enjoyed the writing style for your transfer update 👏🏼

It’s funny you say that, before returning to this career I did set up a save with Hajduk Split, but only played it for one evening. I had read an article about their young American talent Rokas Pukstas and it had sparked my imagination. Obviously there is appeal in managing Perisic, and now Rakitic too. Next week I’ll write up my usual end of season summary, as well as a separate post about the youth team and then I’ll decide what’s next.

A fine season indeed, and definitely year-on-year improvement! Excited to see what happens next to the squad, with your increasing pipeline of young Italian talent knocking on the door.