Expert says Mourinho is leaving Benfica | OneFootball

In his opinion piece, "Mourinho Leaves Benfica, Rui Costa Is the New Coach", Francisco Vaz de Miranda criticizes José Mourinho and Benfica’s structure over the poor season. The expert warns that if the "Special One" stays on, Rui Costa will once again have to make a major investment.

"Rui Costa already knows that, if he continues with the coach, as he seems set to do after, yesterday, kicking the can down the road — "Mourinho’s future is not the issue at this moment" — he will have to carry out yet another overhaul of the squad and sign players with the profile (in terms of playing style and... character) that he wants, with the enormous costs that will entail", he wrote in the newspaper 'A Bola'.

He also says that Benfica are the third force in Portugal, behind Porto and Sporting. "Numbers are far from telling the whole story in football, but saying that Benfica failed to win any of their last three matches against Casa Pia is enough to understand that the Eagles are, definitively, the third force in Portuguese football right now. Porto’s dark path lasted only one season, and Sporting are solid and already standing up to Europe’s most powerful clubs", it reads.

Vaz de Miranda believes that the statements made by Mourinho reveal how little dressing-room authority he currently has. "What Mourinho said is, besides being relevant, serious; it reveals little authority from a coach who, in the past, sidelined Casillas, Pogba, Ricardo Carvalho or Pepe to make decisions that concern him alone and it should force Rui Costa to react, because problems are not solved by pretending they do not exist or with pathetic posts of outrage on X" , he said.

On top of that, he suggested that financial interests are above sporting interests at Benfica. "After all, who decides who plays and who stops playing at Benfica? Are there interests above purely sporting ones? Perhaps that would explain why Banjaqui, Gonçalo Oliveira, José Neto or Gonçalo Moreira continue to be left on the sidelines, Enzo is being used as a center-back, Sidny Cabral was signed when there is already very good homegrown talent in that position, and why a renewal with Otamendi, on the verge of turning 40, is still a topic.

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