Bruno Costa Carvalho: Mourinho to Benfica an electoral move | OneFootball

Benfica’s defeat to Qarabag by 3-2 on the night of last Tuesday, September 16, was decisive for the dismissal of Bruno Lage, a decision announced by Rui Costa hours after the setback. In this Glorioso 1904 Exclusive, Bruno Costa Carvalho spoke about the dismissal of the Portuguese coach, without forgetting the likely return of José Mourinho to the Eagles’ technical command, 25 years later.

“Benfica is experiencing a special year because it’s an election year. I’d like to provide another context, which is the fact that Noronha Lopes has suggested he could bring in Ruben Amorim and another player, Bernardo Silva. We have here a campaign a bit in the old-fashioned style, where players and coaches are discussed. I believe that if it weren’t for the elections, Rui Costa might not have dismissed Bruno Lage just yet. I think he fired him as part of an electoral move, to normalize the situation and improve his image. In a context other than the electoral one, I think Rui Costa would have been more patient,” began the former candidate for the presidency of Benfica.

Next, Bruno Costa Carvalho admitted that hiring José Mourinho is an argument in Rui Costa’s favor, while leaving doubts about his success with the Reds: “He played a strong card, which is José Mourinho. It’s more than clear that it will be Mourinho, a coach with an absolutely impressive track record. But, there are some doubts about whether the current Mourinho is the same Mourinho who had the success we know.”

Still on José Mourinho’s return to Luz, Bruno Costa Carvalho reinforced that the Setúbal native is a trump card in the electoral race of the current Benfica President, adding that his arrival makes people forget a possible arrival of Amorim at Luz under another presidency: “Personally, I believe Mourinho can triumph in the Portuguese league, he is a great coach with one of the best résumés in the world and is undoubtedly a trump card in the electoral race, a bit like what Vieira did a few years ago when he brought back Jorge Jesus also in an electoral context. It’s the choice of a coach that settles the Ruben Amorim issue once and for all and puts faith in a coach who can bring immediate results, with a name that is very difficult to attack. No one in their right mind can attack a name like José Mourinho’s.”

Finally, when asked whether José Mourinho will be the right coach to implement the kind of football that Eagles fans long to see, Bruno Costa Carvalho was hesitant: “I don’t know, that’s the big question. The truth is we’ve seen Mourinho play very attacking football, and we’ve also seen a results-oriented Mourinho, with much more defensive and much less creative football. With the squad Benfica has, which Mourinho praised recently, there are solutions to play the football that Benfiquistas want. Benfica is not Roma nor Fenerbahçe, Benfica is the biggest club in Portugal and he [José Mourinho] knows perfectly well that the fans want to see Benfica attacking, with the ball and in control, dominating games.”

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