Nuno Saraiva sees Sporting's future, hits out at Varandas: No use... | OneFootball

Despite a season that fell “short of expectations,” Nuno Saraiva believes that Sporting is already preparing for next season with “method, calm and strategic vision.” In the same vein, the club’s former director expressed his confidence in Frederico Varandas’ leadership - who responded to the Luis Suárez case.

“Now that the 2025/26 season is over, there is no point in looking for euphemisms. For a club of the size, ambition and standards of Sporting Clube de Portugal, the results of the professional football team fell short of expectations. And when expectations are not met, the first obligation is to reflect, identify mistakes and correct them. Not to find someone to blame, but to start winning again,” he wrote in his latest opinion piece, published in the newspaper A Bola.

“Unlike what so often happens in Portuguese football, where the reaction to failure is marked by rash decisions and noise, Sporting is preparing for next season with method, calm and strategic vision. The timely identification of the squad’s needs, anticipating market moves and signing players capable of adding quality are clear signs that the path back to success is being followed,” he said.

“After years in which Sporting lived constrained by economic difficulties and dependent on urgent sales, the club now has the strength to resist the advances of opportunistic hangers-on who orbit around Portuguese football and of clubs from peripheral leagues with ties to provincial presidents of domestic clubs. This financial reality did not come about by chance. It is the result of competent, rigorous and sustainable management,” he highlighted.

“In this context, the renewed confidence in Rui Borges is a decision worth highlighting. Few coaches would survive a season marked by sporting failure and, above all, by the painful humiliation suffered in the Portuguese Cup final. For that very reason, the public show of confidence by Frederico Varandas significantly increases the responsibility of the coach and his technical staff,” he stressed.

“That is why I am convinced that Sporting will be happy again in 2026/27. The signs are positive and the foundations have been laid. However, football lives on immediate results, and short memory is one of its chronic illnesses,” he concluded.

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