Sporting CP president Frederico Varandas believes Ruben Amorim left a ‘poisoned gift’ following his move to Manchester United.
The 39-year-old guided Sporting to the Portuguese league title earlier this year and the club appeared to be on course for another strong season before he left to replace Erik ten Hag as United manager in November.
Amorim had asked to remain at Sporting for the remainder of the season but United rejected his request in order to force through his arrival from Portugal.
Sporting opted to promote Joao Pereira from the club’s B team as their new head coach but he has endured a difficult start with four defeats in seven games.
Varandas believes Sporting were put in a unique situation due to Amorim’s exit halfway through the season and has described the decision to appoint Pereira as ‘the most ungrateful invitation’.
‘2024 will go down in history as one of the best years, fantastic, in the most beautiful pages of our history,’ Varandas said at the Stromp Awards gala on Thursday night.
‘It is encouraging in relation to what we have achieved, but also for the future. It is a year of such success that we ended the year feeling like victims of our own success.
‘I am here to speak transparently and clearly about the current situation. Much, much was said… in the farewell conferences of the former coach and in the presentation of the new one… we actually had a plan, defined and possible to carry out, with the commitment of everyone.
‘At the end of last season, Ruben Amorim, one of the best coaches in the history of Sporting, informed us that it would be time to end the cycle. He wanted to end with the second championship. We prepared the group for this and so we started the season, as we ended the previous one, with a well-tuned machine.
‘A big European club arrived and our coach accepted. From that point on, everything that was planned changed. Had we planned for the end of a cycle? We had. It would be three championships in five years… our coach would then accept a new project. Sporting would make a change. We would start a new cycle: end the season, two or three players leave, five or six come in, a new coach comes in and start a new process, even with growing pains.
‘Sporting did not choose the timing of the end of this cycle. The truth is that in November our coach left Sporting, what happened to Sporting has never happened in Portugal. It is the first time that a coach has left, due to success, in the middle of a season. Many coaches have left for higher leagues and projects, but a club has never lost a coach in the middle of the season.
‘We knew it would be difficult to replace the second coach with the most titles. We could have brought the plan forward. We could have brought in someone from outside, but with seven games in 26 days, he wouldn’t have time to train.
‘Above all, we knew the group we have, a group that has won everything and in an unparalleled way in Portugal. They would have had difficulty understanding someone who said: now we’re going to play like this and play like that. Between pros and cons, we brought Joao Pereira forward. A coach who doesn’t have time. He has a fine-tuned machine to which he has to adapt.
‘I will carry this invitation for the rest of my life, as the most ungrateful invitation and the most poisoned gift for a coach.
‘The club didn’t want it to be this moment, Joao Pereira didn’t want it to be this moment. Even knowing that I could sacrifice a coach, a player, a manager or a president, I will always do what I consider best for Sporting.’
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