“No one feels the job is done, there’s more to do together” | OneFootball

The 2025/26 season comes to an end for national champions FC Porto, who host Santa Clara at a sold-out Estádio do Dragão on matchday 34, the last round of the league (Saturday, 3:30pm, Sport TV). Aware that the following day will be “special,” Francesco Farioli addressed several topics related to this season and the next, but made it clear that the priority is “to finish the season with a great performance and get the best result possible.” After all, “we want to arrive at Aliados after a win. If we want to enjoy the celebration, there’s only one way to do it,” stressed the Italian coach. Going into this round, the title holders have 85 points, six more than Sporting and eight more than Benfica, while Santa Clara sit 12th with 36.

Taking all three points is the priority“Tomorrow will be a special day, but we have to make it even more special starting at 3:30pm, that’s the most important thing. That was our priority and our focus this week. This week was disappointing after a performance that wasn’t good, though it should have been enough to win. Sometimes small details make a big difference. Tomorrow we have to do everything to make sure we have a good day from morning to night. Our priority is to finish the season with a great performance and get the best result possible. The substitutions or who starts, you’ll see tomorrow.”

Nehuén Pérez among the squad“Nehuén will be on the bench, he’ll be back with the team. Lately he has been getting closer and closer to being at 100%, and now he is close to returning. He is in the squad for tomorrow.”

Luuk de Jong’s personal situation“I’m not going to go into personal matters, but I think there was a misunderstanding regarding the seriousness of Luuk de Jong’s situation, and that’s all I can say. It’s not as serious as was described, that’s not the case, and it’s important to say this so that everyone who loves Luuk can feel comfortable and at peace.”

Rodrigo Mora’s development“There is a big difference between defensive and attacking duties. If you ask me whether the system puts Rodrigo in his ideal position, I’ll honestly say no, but I think his work, dedication and curiosity to develop are making him become a team player. Last season he had better numbers in goals and goal contributions, but I think he is now a more complete player than he was before. Rodrigo will never lose his talent and his qualities, but this year he was a player who was part of a team that was successful and wrote an unforgettable page in this Club’s history. The big lesson we take from this season is that we took about 5% away from each player individually, but what we achieved collectively makes everyone willing to give up those 5% in order to do it again. If you ask all the players what the foundation of our success was, they will say it was the team and the spirit of this group.”

Decisions to be made from Monday onwards“All evaluations and situations will be finalized from Monday onwards. From then on, we’ll have time to digest a long season and it will be time to make the final decisions. In recent days, I’ve already had conversations with all of them to get the last pieces of information I need to draw my conclusions and share them with the Club. From there, we will make the best decisions for the future of the Club and the team.”

Champions attract attention“After the season we’ve had, it’s normal for our players to draw attention and interest from other clubs, but the internal message is very clear. We want to keep our best players because what we did this season was rebuild and create the conditions for the Club to re-establish itself at the level it has to be at. We accelerated everything in terms of results, particularly by winning the national title. We cleaned up a few things and laid the foundations for a young group that will need adjustments in the summer to be competitive again. We are not giving players away for free, and the figures that protect them are important. We are not going to lower the quality and we have already been working for several months with the president and the structure on player development, but we are also active in the market. Our priority is to develop in terms of structure, organization and infrastructure. This season was very positive, but the level of demand we must have next season has to be higher. We want people with specific requirements, with a desire to work and the hunger to improve. The competition next season will be more complicated, the challenges will be different, and I’m not talking only about the Champions League, but also the domestic competitions. Tomorrow the title celebrations will pause for a few hours, because we are focused on Santa Clara and on closing the season in the way everyone deserves.”

The celebration at Aliados“I like surprises, especially when I know they’ll be good ones. What I don’t like are surprises like last weekend’s, because I didn’t sleep for two days. I don’t believe there are any secrets or particular details. We are here to work, to play and to deliver. My job as the leader of this group is to set the standards and maintain them. Last weekend we were good, but we were too soft and we didn’t have the same level of competitiveness and hunger. Tomorrow there is absolutely no possibility of us not playing at the level we’ve played at for 51 games. That’s what we’re going to do because we want to arrive at Aliados after a win. If we want to enjoy the celebration, there’s only one way to do it.”

José Mourinho’s phone call“Sometimes what we achieve and the scale of our success also has to do with the scale of our opponents. We beat two giant clubs. We won the title on a Saturday night and the next day, when I woke up, the first call I received was from Mister Mourinho congratulating me. We can fight and compete on the pitch, but among people with values, we clearly recognize each other. For me it was a pleasure to hear those words from him, I have a lot of respect for him. If he stays, he’ll be a tough opponent to face, but if he doesn’t stay, we’ll have another one to face. It was a privilege to go up against each other and beat a team that had not lost a single league match, which says a lot about what we did.”

The Portuguese league“I still haven’t reached my conclusions, but what pleased me was the level of the competition and of the opponents. We have 85 points and, if possible, we’ll have three more. What I feel is that we prepared every match with great attention, a lot of work and a lot of dedication because we faced good teams with interesting players. All the coaches presented different challenges and, for me, the level is very high. Of course there are things to improve and it would be good for the competition to be fair, that is an ambition we all share. Our feeling is that the effort put in on the pitch and the respective performances should naturally be rewarded through results. This season we had many battles to fight and we did so with great spirit and a great attitude, even in difficult moments and situations. Many times we felt we had to work twice as hard to get what we wanted. It was a demanding season and the gratitude I have for the players and everyone who works at Olival is immense. These results are the fruit of many factors.”

Diogo Costa with the number 2?“It’s a personal conversation between the president and Diogo and it will be a decision to be made. The Club’s gesture is important, but Diogo has the right to decide what to do. Wearing 99 is already a great responsibility, but above all wearing the captain’s armband. He is a legendary symbol of this Club and if we think of all the people who have already worn it, he is definitely someone who deserves it and does it fantastically. Preferably for many years.”

2025/26 is already underway“We look at next season in the same way we looked at this one. We can project and have expectations when planning a season, know where we want to go, the market, the type of investment and internal analysis, but everything has to be aligned with the Club. The Club has already shown it in the summer and in January and gives me daily proof of the level of work. This week the focus was on Santa Clara, but we had moments to devote our attention to things that I believe are important to move people forward. Now we are going to analyze the squad, the staff and everything else that is needed because the level of demand has to rise. What we did was brilliant and now we need to keep a cool head to make the best possible decisions. We cannot live in the past and in what we have done. When we walk back through the gates of Olival, we have to have empty stomachs, the same hunger and the same desire to improve.”

The move in the market“There are things we have to do and we’ve been working for weeks on potential targets. On the other hand, we can be very well prepared for the market, but we don’t control everything. When someone comes in and pays 100 million euros for a player’s release clause, your control is no longer there. We have a clear plan and our intentions, and we also have scenarios prepared for whatever may happen. The good part is that all the players want to stay, that’s the most important thing. The job is not done and the feeling is that we want to keep doing it together. No one feels that the job is finished. There is more to do and we want to do it together. From Monday onwards, we’ll start shifting our attention to the market. Victor Froholdt’s most recent interview is a good example of how everyone feels. This group deserves a moment of respect because of tomorrow’s final game. This group will be this group for the last time tomorrow and my attention is on preparing the team well so that we go into the game with the right energy and the right competitiveness to get what we all want together. After that, everyone knows what Aliados means.”

The 2026 World Cup is coming“I’ll look at the World Cup as someone who wants to develop, who wants to learn more about the game and about players, even to see if there are any who might be interesting for us. I’ll be paying attention to new ideas, because coaches have to prepare for the competition in a short period of time. On the other hand, it will be natural to support my players in their national teams. If two national teams with our players reach the final, it’s easy, I’ll be happy either way.”

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