Rui Costa defends big-money investment: It's easy to have a go at Benfica | OneFootball

Last Thursday, Rui Costa came out in defense of Richard Ríos. In statements made on the sidelines of the launch of Benfica FM, the President of Sport Lisboa e Benfica praised the work being done by José Mourinho and expressed confidence in achieving the goals for the current season.

"Is it easy to criticize Benfica? It's a natural situation in the country. Benfica has to be in the news, it has to sell. Naturally, there have been many injustices towards Benfica players. There is little patience for adapting to the Portuguese league. It's very easy to criticize Benfica,” Rui Costa began by saying.

Soon after, the Eagles' leader defended a particular player from José Mourinho's squad: “There have been players responding. Richard Ríos is one of the best examples. Man of the match against Sporting and Napoli. A month or two ago, it seemed like he was a tremendous flop.”

“We have a lot of faith in the work that José Mourinho is doing and will do. It's a year without holidays, without a pre-season, with little time to work between games. The team has improved substantially in recent weeks. That was when they had a whole week to work,” Rui Costa added.

Regarding the launch of Benfica FM, the Eagles’ President expressed satisfaction: “These initiatives don’t mean we want to show that we are pioneers. We want to see the club grow every day. We are very happy about that. Our BTV turned 17 years old. Seventeen years ago, when Benfica was about to launch the channel, there was also an uproar. Benfica fans are proud of the TV channel and the same will happen with the radio.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.