Interview with Azul

[Sassuolu]

He's a new member seems to know a lot about Portuguese football since he's a Porto supporter and rather than keep asking him random shit in his introduction thread I thought we'd be better off having a thread here.

So what's this I hear about an Alvarez-Fernando swap? That would be fantastic

 

[Azul]

We´ve been linked to Alvarez for quite a long time, even before he signed for Inter. But the press always puts a lot of players on our path so we never know which are true or not.

Lately the rumours have increased. Last season there were a lot of conversations about a separate deal, Fernando would leave to Inter and we´d buy Alvarez.

This year it´s different. The newspaper that advanced with the 7M+Alvarez deal for Fernando is one that usually has good information about Porto. Not everything happens, the transfers are always unpredictable, but they usually have a good sense of timing.

There are a lot of possibilities in this deal. Porto seems to not want to accept an offer (not including the deal with other players) of less than 12M. But with Fernando so close to the end of his contract, ends in June/14, we may be forced to accept a deal lower than that or risk losing him for a bargain or even for free.

In todays paper he says that Porto knows what to do if they want him to renew (I read that as a huge pay raise), so that´s one way for him, once again, to pressure Porto to sell him or make a good deal.

PSG apparently has interest on Fernando as well since we played against them. Newspapers say that they´ve been really impressed by his performance against them and may make a move.

Personally I don´t imagine the swap being made. Porto has been buying players for the midfield in the last days.
Josué was bought from Paços Ferreira (but this was only to mess up with Sporting who was also trying to buy him), Carlos Eduardo from Estoril and Tiago Rodrigues from Guimarães. All of them very promising players from our league.
Herrera it´s not done yet but it´s secure apparently. Diego Reyes (fellow Mexican) said he knew it was a done deal a couple of months ago. Newspapers said that to finish the deal Porto only needed to tranfers the funds agreed as an inicial fee until June 15th. Which if Porto is really interested in the player may not be the problem since I believe that some part of the 70M fee from James/Moutinho are already here.

If we actually sell Fernando I see us buying another 6, or playing Reyes there, not a more attacking player where we have other options.

 

[Native]

Why does your stupid, fucking NT always beat ours?
















:alone:

 

[Kenny]

Is that true that portuguese people are lazy as fuck?

 

[Azul]

Why does your stupid, fucking NT always beat ours?

:alone:

Don´t worry our NT doesn´t harm anyone during the next years. We have limited talent now, so you are safe for now.

Is that true that portuguese people are lazy as fuck?

I think that is an assumption many people make.
I´ll try to give you my honest opinion on the subject, as soon as I have the time. For now I´ll just let the lunch settle and take a nap.

 

[Shaun]

Is Pereira a better player than he has be shown to be at Inter?

 

[ADRossi]

How good is Daniel Carrico in your opinion?

 

[Native]

...as soon as I have the time. For now I´ll just let the lunch settle and take a nap.

...BRILLIANT XD

 

[Sassuolu]

Martijn one thing you should know about as Southern Europeans is we need our mid day nap

 

[Kenny]

I think that is an assumption many people make.
I´ll try to give you my honest opinion on the subject, as soon as I have the time. For now I´ll just let the lunch settle and take a nap.

Like a boss, tbfh :closeenough:

What is your honest opinion about this forum?

 

[Azul]

Is Pereira a better player than he has be shown to be at Inter?

I´ll answer to that using a post I made on other thread.

About A. Pereira, he´s way better on the attack comparing to his defensive skills,and he improved a lot since he signed for us, this may give an ideia of what he was when started playing for Porto Luckly our league almost everyone plays a defensive football agains us so we need full backs that can attack really well to support our attack the 4-4-3 formations we use stress this even more. A. Pereiro usually overlapped with our LW often. Fernando was/is a key player also since with him on the pich our full backs coul go on the attack with the confidence that he´d be there to stop the attack if we lost the ball.

He had a terrific last season with AVB when he was superb, he did a lot of assistances for Falcao for instance, I don´t have the stats but I believe he was the full-back with the most assistances for goal I can remember (aside from the ones that take set pieces). His last season for us was good at the start then they were all kinds of rumours about him leaving and he lost his focus. He was having a bad couple of matches when he had a problem with our coach. It was a decisive away match against Braga if we won that we´d almost be champions, we were winning but he was having an awful match, adding to that he already had a yellow card. Our coach didn´t want to risk it since Braga was forcing their play throw him and subbed him dor A. Sandro. He was really pissed and made a big deal about it and start complaining to our coach and on the bench. Porto doesn´t allow it no matter how important the player is (even Jorge Costa a club legend was loaned to Charlton half season for complaining about a coach decision) and he never played again.

I still think he is a good player, he need confidence but I do believe he has a lot to prove in Inter and he can do it, just sort his defensive meltdowns and with confidence he can have a good season. He proved it for us after struggling at first and he can do it again.

How good is Daniel Carrico in your opinion?

I think that Carriço is nothing more than an average player. Sometimes people think that because Sporting is playing a young player he´ll be the next big thing, sure Sporting has a great academy that produced great talents but that doesn´t mean that everyone is a top player.

He was one of the first CB they promoted since they started having financial dificulties, at first he looked quite good and you forgiven his defensive meltdowns with his age but as time passed he wasn´t improving as expected, quite the oposite, he was looking worse. He ended up getting benched and after little time was put as DMC, he never impressed even though he was a little better there.

Eventually Sporting realized he was not the player they were expecting and since they needed money they sold him to Reading, I lost track of him then, but last time I heard he wasn´t playing despite his manager made a big deal when he signed for them.

What is your honest opinion about this forum?

I like the spirit, you can either have a laugh or have a serious argument about football related subjects. Everybody seems to be a good sport and this always is a plus in forums like this.

 

[Dylan]

Do you ever wish you could hold on to players such as Falcao, James and Moutinho etc and try to challenge for the latter stages of CL?

 

[Universe]

Are you still laughing about Quaresma?

 

[Shaun]

Do you feel Fernando would succeed in Serie A?

 

[Akif]

I won't ask you question, just want to let you know how I appreciate Porto management's works in scouting good/great players and selling them at exorbitant prices later

 

[Azul]

Do you ever wish you could hold on to players such as Falcao, James and Moutinho etc and try to challenge for the latter stages of CL?

Every single season, specially during summer. We buy players that have talent already but we put a lot of work on them. It usually takes 3 seasons for a player that has talent to be sold for a big bid.

Usually the 1st season is for them to settle and to work on the tactical point of view of european football (we usually buy from south america), second season is when they started playing often, and the best of those are usually key members of our 11.

For other clubs they often feel fascinated by the way we make money, it´s like a videogame but in real life, but for the portistas it´s really hard to lose players like we do, and it´s usually 2 sometimes 3 per season. We need to plan 2/3 seasons ahead (because of the process I told before) to not be completely talentless when we sell whoever.
It´s specially hard when you consider that players like Falcao, Hulk; James and Moutinho left not for top clubs but the likes of Atlético, Zenit or Monaco when they had the capacity for much more. Money means a lot this days.

Sure we´d like to keep our best players. Players like Jardel, R. Carvalho, Pepe, Deco, Falcao, James, Moutinho, Anderson, Lisandro, Lucho (who we manage to buy back), Bruno Alves, amongst a lot more would mean that we´d be a much threating team that we are by selling them.
But in Portugal that´s the only way to compensate the low income club get. It´s either buying and selling or have a average team according to the club income. Despite what is a common belief both porto and Benfica have huge debts, and that with all those big sales every year.

Are you still laughing about Quaresma?

Quaresma has a temper, that was always his biggest weakness, that and his lazyness.
Quaresma appeared for Sporting before C. Ronaldo, and in Portugal everyone thought that the real talent was Quaresma. Imagine what would be Quaresma if he had the desire and the work mentality of Ronaldo.

No one knew he woud be such a flop after leaving Porto.
His mind and mentality distroyed what could have been one of the most exciting players today.

Do you feel Fernando would succeed in Serie A?

Fernando is the kind of player that is often overlooked. Very consistante player, very focused, and inteligent player. He´s like having another manager on the pitch since he always know where to be and when to make a tackle or just hold a position to cut the lines of the pass for the opponents. He´s one of my favourite player. With him, Moutinho and Lucho we have the best midfield since we won the CL with Costinha, Maniche and Deco.

His strenghts are: his positioning, his tackling (his sliding tackles are sublime) and his ability to "read the game". He´s 5*on that topic and one of the best in the game. You can compare him to Senna in Spain to give you a more notorious example of his importance on the team. He has a lot of experience as well, includind in europe since he´s Porto is a regular on that competitions. He´s also very fast for a 6.

His weaknesses are everything that envolves the attacking fase of the game. He´s a average passer, simple passes will do but don´t count on much than that. He´s an awfull shooter, finisher, he doens´t get the chance often but when he does it´s usually , to be fair to him he has improved a bit in that department in the last 2/3 seasons.

I think Seria A would be perfect for his football, but only of you put him as a classic 6, if you play him with 2 DMC his performances will drop, and if you try to play him as a MC or a box to box or anything like that he´d only be average or bellow that. For me that´s the only reason he´s been here for so long. But he´s a top player, don´t doubt that.

I was loonking for a particular match when we draw 2-2 (I believe) agains M. United away when he did a sublime game, the best for us IMO, He was everywhere, even Ronaldo was complaining of the ammounts of ball he recoverd, sadly that compilation of his tackles aren´t on youtube anymore, or I can´t find it, that would give an idea of how he can control the defensive fase of the game.

 

[Sassuolu]

thoughts on Mourinho?

And also rumour has it that Chelsea are after one of your defenders Mangala who has a pretty hight price tag.

 

[Mino]

do you know him ?

 

[Y&h]

You cunning Algerian you...

 

[Azul]

thoughts on Mourinho?

And also rumour has it that Chelsea are after one of your defenders Mangala who has a pretty hight price tag.

I´m a fan of Mourinho. He picket up a Porto who was on his knees and in 2.5 seasons made us european champions with just some aditions from mostly players of our league. That´s one of the most impressive things I´ve seen in football. Paulo Ferreira, Nuno Valente, Maniche, amongst others were the type of players we bought, not like Chelsea who started buying everyone until they were at the top.
He was the only manager in our league that sucessfully could play the team both on 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 with ease. At that time it was amazing going to the matches, we were so confidante on the team that we already knew we were going to win, it was just a matter of time and/or by how many goals. Looking back this looks almost ridiculous to say, but that was the true such was the confidance Mourinho could transmit to the supporters.

Even when he signed for us and he was almost unknown he said "Next season we will be champions" you can´t imagine how our newspapers mocked him, kind of like the special one thing but at that time he had a lot of trophies won in the last 2 seasons.

I think he made a mistake by going to Real, otherwise his choises have been good and the results are there to prove it. Going backto Chelsea doesn´t seem that great ideia to me but we´ll see.

___________
About Mangala, I think it´s the first time I talk about him here, I might be wrong but he´s the most impressive CB we had since Pepe/ R. Carvalho and we are a team that always have good CBs. Aloísio, Jorge Costa, Fernando Couto, Jorge Andrade, Bruno Alves, etc...
I think that´s a statement by itself.

He´s fast, strong, dominante, an absolute beast in the air both defensively and ofensively (scored 7 goals for us! I believe almost every one of them were headers aside from this beauty) his a good tackler also and his the type of player that likes to control his surrounding, he is an old school defender hard and mean, that´s the best way to put it I guess.

He was given his first chances as a LB in the beggining of the season because A. Sandro was out because he was playing for Brazil and then given a bit more vacations. He was very impressive there but when A. Sandro came back he was benched, Maicon and Otamendi were the 1st options for the center. When Maicon was out injured he never lost his place anymore, he was that great, even when Maicon returned he wasn´t able to gain the spot back. A. Sandro was tired and injured a couple of matches and Mangala would play as CB, switched to LB when needed eforthless. I really like the guy. The best CB in Portugal now is Garay but Mangala for me it´s the 2nd, and only 22 which is quite young for a CB, at that age both Pepe and R. Carvalho weren´t that good. Hopefully he continues to improve with us and becomes a world class player.

His weakenesses are his mentality, at first he was very hard on the tackles and got booked too often, but even there he improved a lot during the season, he seems way more calm and confident now. He needs to sort his passing as well and some lacks of concentration that he makes during marking from time to time. He´s still young and has plenty of time to fix that.

Newspapers say that Chelsea offers 35M for him but I believe it when I see it, it´s way too much.

do you know him ?

O calcanhar do Madjer :excitedeyes:

I was only one then but I watched that match several time on the old VHS that my dad recorded that match when I was teenager. At that time I thought it was impossible to see Porto winning the Champions league again, or any trophy on the foreign competitions for that matter, I was lucky enough to watch 4 titles after that

Looking by your flag I see that the question means a lot for you so I´ll add some more. I grew up watching football with my dad, he had an anual seat at the old estádio das Antas with his brother. When his brother passed away he continue to pay the fee and after some years he passed the spot to me. We still go to see matches everytime we can, and we both still have our season tickets with spots next to each other, now in the new and modern estádio do dragão. My father says the only players in his life that made him go to the stadium just to watch them, even if the match wasn´t promissing or anything, were Madjer and Futre. I believe this says a lot of what he was for us.

Our president always mentions that shot as the key moment/match that Porto became a big team in Europe. It´s really important for us portistas.

Now when a player scores a goal with his heel it´s not a great goal, it´s a "calcanhar de Madjer".

__________

Sorry for the long replies, and I thought I only did this when I wrote in portuguese