Vítor Almeida Gonçalves: Mourinho under pressure at Benfica | OneFootball

José Mourinho was officially announced as the new coach of Benfica on September 18th. Amidst the club's election atmosphere, Vítor Almeida Gonçalves considered the dismissal of Bruno Lage and the subsequent hiring of Mourinho as the head coach of Benfica as an electoral decision, an opinion shared by Pedro Sousa.

"If Benfica were not having elections in a month, I am convinced that Rui Costa would not have dismissed Bruno Lage, not as quickly as he did. He might have done it eventually, but he was clearly pressured by the electoral moment," Vítor Almeida Gonçalves began to say on the program 'Record na Hora'.

Next, the sports journalist admitted to having predicted such a decision considering the electoral card used by João Noronha Lopes, a candidate for the presidency of Benfica: "What we anticipated was confirmed. From the moment Noronha Lopes included Bernardo Silva in his electoral campaign, the other candidates had to do something, and the change of coach on Benfica's bench has a lot to do with that".

When asked if Mourinho was in Rui Costa's plans before the setback with Qarabag, Vítor Almeida Gonçalves confirmed the possibility: "Possibly he was. I think Rui Costa felt the need to do something because even though he came out saying he wasn't thinking about saving any position, it seems evident that he is. I recall that Rui Costa officially launched his campaign 20 minutes before presenting José Mourinho in Seixal".

Finally, Pedro Sousa joined the conversation, agreeing that the pretext under which Rui Costa dismissed Bruno Lage is merely electoral: "There were no lack of opportunities for Rui Costa. Starting with the garage episode, then in the United States, by the way he dealt with Kokçu. And he also lost the Championship and the Portuguese Cup. It was Bruno Lage who was ahead of Rui Borges when Rui Borges took over Sporting. He (Rui Costa) had no shortage of opportunities to say ‘enough, it's not worth it anymore’".

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