Bruno

Stop having injuries, ffs.

Entered to see if Eusebio was mentioned. Seen first post. Left satisfied.

He's one of the fans favorite. You've to see his goal against Porto. Pure class.

That team was class. Zenit have had lots of talented midfielders in the recent years. Many of them play together in the russian national team as well. Russian sides have had a special relationship with UEFA Cups this century (Sporting 1 - 3 CSKA ) but oddly they were eliminated by Basel. A weaker Basel comparing to last year, after losing Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka. According to the portuguese press, Witsel and Hulk salaries affected the morale of the other players. Denisov and Kerzhakov even got relegated to the reserve squad in September, after criticizing their salaries. They spent 40M€ in Witsel and another 40M€ in Hulk (+ agent fees, signature bonuses, etc). That's insane. Witsel was bought for 7M€ one year earlier, for example. And he's quality, but certainly not a record breaker. Somehow related, we lost our starting midfield in the last days of market (Javi Garcia, 20M€; Witsel, 40M€). Both of them in highly overrated fees, so was financially very positive, but we had no time to replace them. Still don't know how things turned out so well. Enzo Perez, and specially Matic, really surprised us. The serbian is better than Garcia. Less agressive, not so good on the tackle, but way better offensively. Abramovich must be blind to pay 25M€ + Matic for David Luiz. Still better than the Torres deal though.

He's good. Not a potential top player like the others, but quality. Immense in the air. He does have some childish mistakes sometimes; his brain freezes. And since he went to Zenit he stagnated a little. But well, even better players chose the same path (Witsel, Hulk), so I'm not judging him. Money is important. I appreciate that. Newcastle fans have been class as well.

He'll leave, that's for sure. Unfortunately. Surely one of the better centre backs in XXI century portuguese football - one step ahead of David Luiz (which is good offensively, but a bit of a risk in the back). Pepe (world class c***), Ricardo Carvalho (world class), Garay, Luisão, maybe missing one or two more. But yea, good deal for anyone buying him. We would like to keep him longer, but Real Madrid has 50% of a future transfer and they surely want to make some money. I only hope Garay wins some trophies this year. Garay's transfer was like Ramires; we bought him knowing already that in the next year or two we probably would've to sell him. According to portuguese newspapers, Benfica's already searching for a substitute.

Completely forgot about that transfer. Can't remember him playing a game yet. He's horrendous in the air. He had trouble with the portuguese league strikers, I can only imagine him playing in England, in such a physical football.

Maybe in Portugal when you some how get very good players for little to nothing, over here its called a bargain Wolfswinkel isn't a "very good player". At least not yet. Maybe he can develop in Norwich? Dunno. He's not horrible, but 12M€ isn't cheap for him, that's all. Sporting never bought a player for 12M€, their record is 8,8M€, for example. But yea, our clubs invest a lot in Scouting and therefore can make some good deals, so maybe we are the ones seeing it wrong. He's no Carriço btw, he'll be a regular starter for Norwich, no doubt.

Wolfswinkel is slightly above average. 10M€ + 2 seems a bit excessive. But he does have a cool name and is young. Reminds me when Reading fans were excited about Daniel Carriço. Poor guys.

LOL you should know that Bobby publicly said that when he was in Sporting his dream was to manage Benfica and it was a pain for him to live in a flat with a view directly to Estadio da Luz. Why would I know that, I couldn't give a f*** about Portugayse football. I very much doubt Sir Bobby would have said that anyway, he wouldn't want to antagonise Sporting fans by saying such things. I think whatever was said, was a case of lost in translation. That or wishful thinking from Bentfica fans? http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KuuktJh6c8I/T7yUjp9e_aI/AAAAAAAABOY/sLHmTr9Mwdc/s200/misfits.gif

You should be ok. Of course you can't expect everyone to know a foreign language but many of us know a bit of english/spanish. If someone Bert stares you, start chanting "Glorioso SLB".

Hi Newcastle fans. One more benfiquista here. Hoping for two great matches. Sir Bobby Robson preferred Benfica. Well, at least that's what he said to a portuguese newspaper when questioned about his time as Sporting manager. A true gentleman. One of the few people to be liked by all the 3 bigger portuguese clubs fans. With a few exceptions, I would say our players aren't very known yet. That's our policy, buy cheaper or low profile players and sell them later by a nice sum. Otherwise we couldn't compete at a high level in today's football. Maxi Pereira (70+ games for Uruguay), Garay (a starter for Argentina), Luisão (40+ games for Brazil), Pablo Aimar and Cardozo, I would say those are the more experienced / established, although almost all of the team are international players. Enzo Perez, Eduardo Salvio and Nico Gaitan are some times called for Argentina (all of them midfielders/wingers), Ola John plays for Holland, but he is only 20 years old, Matic, Melgarejo (Paraguay, as Cardozo), Rodrigo (player with the most goals ever, 14 I believe, for the spanish sub21, scored one more yesterday), etc. Very young team, it's only natural you don't know most of them. Don't know, but today rained quite a bit.