Bruno

So does Fernando Santos, considering his current form. Renato Sanches should start.

Both Nani and Ronaldo are upfront.

True, last decent one was Pauleta. André Silva (Porto) and José Gomes (Benfica) will change that.

Well done!

Well done, good deal for both parties. Unexpected move but Newcastle United is a popular club in a big league. Now avoid that relegation and who knows, we may face again earlier than we all could predict a few months ago. Survive and I'm sure that with time and patience good things will come. I sincerely hope that you can find in him a long term plan to take the club to the next level. Playing for Europe every year should only be natural. Good luck.

Given the fact that we are investing heavily in our youth - that's why Jorge Jesus didn't got a new contract offer, we wanted a manager with a different mentality to build a long term plan - and today we used 4 subs in the back 5, 3 of them former Benfica B, reaching this stage is good enough. The priority should be to mantain the first place in the league and avoid an humiliation in the quarters. Unless we get Wolfsburg, Chelsea (a long shot) or PSV/Atletico, we won't be able to do much. Following the victory against Sporting, excellent week for us.

Great player. Benfica fans, including me, dream of his return since he left. 430 pages (6447 posts) of speculation and wishful thinking available here: http://serbenfiquista.com/forum/index.php?topic=58027.0 Jumping to the last page, you can see the disappointment of potentially losing Siqueira to you guys. Siqueira would add to any Premier League squad imo. He's got technique, ball control and always gets to make some impressive runs through the left flank. Offensively he contributes very well and defensively gets the job done. It's hard to get a better player to the left back position without spending 15M+. There are not that many equally good options and we know it well (Fábio Coentrão -> bunch of crap -> Siqueira -> bunch of crap -> hopefully Grimaldo turns out to be good). Not sure about his current morale but the ability surely is there. Sign Siqueira and if you don't like him we can arrange a trade for Jotenko.

Well done! Congrats.

Well done! Deserved 3 points.

Good start. BenficaTV commentators didn't understand that offside either. And almost another goal as I'm writing.

http://ia.n.sl.pt/01/images/6/6e/4137_6e364676740af6e3a28f843f048347c2.png Apparently Newcastle wants to sign Carrillo, 10M€. All other portuguese newspapers report the same info. A Bola mentioned the interest from an english club over a week ago, without revealing the name: http://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=524409 The fact that Carrillo contract runs out in less than 18 months and the club is struggling to renew it adds some credibility to the news. 10 days ago his agent said he's working so that Carrillo can leave Sporting, http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/liga-sporting-carrillo-elio-casareto-mercado-transferencias/54b6d4000cf2b074d5da5b0d.html Carrillo is described as a promising talent since he signed but never quite left his mark until this season. He would make two great games and then disappear for a month. So far this season has been his best in Portugal, playing really well on a regular basis. Sporting's man of the match in Stamford Bridge as some of you may remember. He's a lightning fast winger with great tecnhique. Only lacks a bit of goal to reach the next level. 10M€ seems a good deal to me, but knowing how portuguese clubs negotiate and keeping in mind what Rojo costed Man. United ( ) maybe too good of deal to be true. Would be a good addition to your squad, no doubt.

Bernardo Silva signed for Mónaco (was already there on a loan). Only played for Benfica (senior squad) three times. 15.75M€. We may sell the eagle as well if the offer is good. http://web3.cmvm.pt/sdi2004/emitentes/docs/FR53634.pdf

A party? Let me call Jotenko then.

He's frequently compared to Rivaldo, yes. Jesus still didn't make up his mind about Talisca's role in the team: 8, 10 or striker. Even played in the left wing when needed. Wouldn't be suprised if he took over Enzo's role as a box-to-box midfielder tbh. Tall, has a top class left foot (both for passing and shooting) and when gets some space to run he's a serious threat. I would say he has some very unusual characteristics and therefore maybe Rivaldo really is the closest comparison possible (keeping in mind that Rivaldo was a genius, ofc). Jesus likes tall midfielders, Matic was a "10" then ended up being a worldclass defensive midfielder, so who knows... maybe in the end he turns out to be a centre midfielder. Too soon to tell. But the talent is there and playing in all these position will benefit him tactically in the long run, so Jorge Jesus says. Hopefully he'll have time to grow before leaving. Seeing Markovic playing as a full back for Liverpool at times makes me want to kill myself.

This years squad is fragile, naturally. That quality group of players I posted above was built over the last 3 years and then sold in one season. We can't replace them overnight and it shows. However, we won in Dragão some weeks ago - first Jorge Jesus victory in Dragão for the portuguese league - and grabbed a comfortable lead. If we can hold on to it and repeat the portuguese league trophy, I would say it's Jorge Jesus biggest archievement. After Porto's big investiment, this is only the second time he got a weaker squad than his Porto rival manager. Last time being Villas-Boas year, 2010/11. In 2009/10 he won the league as well but had a great squad, comparable to last season: Luiz, Coentrão, Luisão, Javi, Ramires, Di Maria, Aimar, Saviola, Cardozo... Oh and ofc there's some quality young players starting to appear. Talisca is the most promising.

Enzo Perez signed for Valência, 25M€. Official. Oblak Maxi Luisão Garay Siqueira Markovic/Salvio Enzo Matic/A. Gomes Gaitán Rodrigo Lima/Cardozo

Benfica offered a similar fee. He chose english football Hull City. Quite good, I believe he won't disappoint. Seen a bit of him 'cause he scored against Benfica in the CL group stage and we later tried to sign him to replace Garay. Olympiacos asked for more than we're willing to pay for a CB I guess. We ended up spending 10M€ in Andreas Samaris (Matic replacement). Manolas, Samaris, Mitroglou, Joel Campbell... quite a decent team Olympiacos had last season. Would take Mitroglou instead of Abel Hernandez, as he's struggling right now.

Markovic, too good.

Some days late but here I am. Benfica fans in general are sad to see him go but we knew he would leave sooner or later. He's the most talented player I seen in Benfica since Di Maria, as I stated before. Regarding the fee, I believe we could get an extra 10-15M€ in one year or two, after he refined his game a bit more, problem is a third party owns 50% of Markovic economic rights and they aren't willing to wait. Just like Ramires. I genuinely believe he'll be one of the best in the world given the time to improve. Liverpool made a great signing and at the exact timing. One more year and he would certainly be bought by some crazy oil guy with way too much money and free time. Unless he fails his medical exams, it's a done deal. I hope there's a problem with his teeth or something.

When your teacher puts you with the group that can't play.

André Almeida. Injured. Veloso in now playing as LB as he did for some time in Sporting and William took the defensive midfield.

Jorge Jesus stated many times that has no interest in the job. Likes to work with the players on a regular basis. He rejected offers from Valência and Milan in the last couple of weeks so he'll stay in Benfica a bit more.

http://www.marca.com/2014/05/15/en/football/international_football/1400105015.html And received the team in big numbers We'll be back to end that 8 finals strike, time to switch the chip and win the portuguese cup on Sunday.

Lucky... not exactly the adjective I would use to describe Benfica. Considering our european finals record and last season 92' goals. I get your point though, just hoping for a better ending. We have an extra help to fight the curse this time.