Rui Borges's calls? Journo blames Varandas over no backing: Criminal | OneFootball

Based on the recent Champions League exit and the defeat against Benfica, Carlos Pereira Fernandes believes that Frederico Varandas’ management of the squad “borders on the ‘criminal’”. Although the journalist acknowledges certain questionable decisions made by Rui Borges, he believes that the Sporting coach “was missing a Danoninho” that the green-and-white president “refused to give him”.

“Sporting are running a serious risk of seeing their 2025/26 season go down the drain in the space of just one week. After the draw with Arsenal (which felt like a defeat, since it meant elimination from the Champions League), came the loss to Benfica, which almost kills off the race for the national title... and next comes Porto, in the Portuguese Cup,” he wrote in his opinion piece for Notícias ao Minuto.

“If, against Arsenal, there was a feeling that the Lions really could have come away happy, against Benfica, it was not much different. It is fair to say that, in both cases, Rui Borges was missing a Danoninho, something that has been plain for everyone to see since last season, but that Frederico Varandas refused to give him, with the results now there for all to see,” he stressed.

“Rui Borges has made questionable decisions, that is true. Among them, insisting on a patched-up Pedro Gonçalves, who only in flashes still reminds people of the player he once was. However, the president’s management of the squad borders on the ‘criminal’, especially in a season in which the club could have achieved hegemony in Portuguese football,” he said, regarding the squad and its management.

“The exercise is very simple. In 2025/26, Sporting spent almost 100 million euros on reinforcements, but only one (Luis Suárez) went straight into the starting eleven. All the others either disappointed or spent more time out than on the pitch, so it is hard to point the finger at Rui Borges for a ‘nightmare’ that seems more and more inevitable,” he added.

“That said, Rui Borges may go from hero to victim of the ‘José Peseiro syndrome’, becoming known as the coach who had everything in his hands and let it all slip away. But the truth is that the only thing he asked of Frederico Varandas was a Danoninho to prevent the collapse of 2024/25 (which, miraculously, he fixed), but it never arrived,” he concluded.

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