It was over before it began
The dragons already knew that the 2024/25 season was going to be very complicated when Pinto da Costa's (PdC) 40-year title-winning reign was replaced by a former coach who had the best season in FC Porto's recent history, but whose pledge of loyalty when he said he was in his "dream chair" lasted only a week before Chelsea came knocking at the end of the 2010/11 season. We're talking about André Villas-Boas (AVB).
Appearing as the saviour and face of change after around 15 years of troubled, strange decisions that were clearly detrimental to the club's interests - as revealed by the most recent audit of the old administration - AVB's mandate began with promises to clean up mismanagement, cuts to the benefits given to members of the largest group of supporters (the most vocal in their protest regardless of results) and a good soap opera: was there betrayal or not?
Sergio Conceicao allied himself with Pinto da Costa and anchored his future to the former Porto manager, leaving AVB with the difficult dossier of succession in his hands. The choice, more surprising to some than others, fell on the assistant coach, Vitor Bruno, who months earlier seemed to be leaving for another project.
He ended up accepting the invitation to guide the first team, which earned him insults and accusations from the former coaching staff, who recently accompanied Sergio Conceicao to Milan. It's a good story and we haven't even got to the actual squad yet...
For all these reasons, which cannot be overemphasised, the new coach knew that he would be on a very short leash. Even before the season had started, the dressing room had already lost some of its biggest figures, such as Pepe and Conceicao (who were also anchored to PdC), as well as Taremi and Evanilson, which left the dressing room bereft of leaders, the defence with holes to fill and an attack with no teeth.
Despite the lack of money - the new administration allegedly found only eight thousand euros in the club's accounts - the structure made an effort to complement the squad with strong names, in order to stabilise the boat, give some confidence and prepare for the future. Samu, Francisco Moura, Nehuen Perez, Fabio Vieira and Tiago Djalo arrived with credentials, while Deniz Gul was a gamble.
However, Vítor Bruno wanted to leave his mark inside and outside the dressing room and tried to make use of Conceicao's former outcasts: Fran Navarro, David Carmo, Toni Martinez, Andre Franco and Ivan Jaime were all in from the start, but now only the last two are still in the squad and the latter wasn't even called up for the three most recent matches.
The worst record in 16 years... twice
Despite an apotheotic start with an unlikely Super Cup win against Sporting, coming from 3-0 down to win 4-3, the truth is that the coach slowly began to lose the locker room and the team faltered in the most important games.
Losses to Bodo/Glimt, Benfica, Lazio, Sporting (twice), Moreirense and the most recent series of defeats showed a team adrift, incapable of acting and reacting and demonstrating the lack of maturity that Vítor Bruno had shielded himself with at the start of the season.
Unconvincing on the pitch, the coach became even more confused when he spoke to the public, overcomplicating his analyses and oscillating between bad cop and good cop to send messages to the squad.
Something that nobody would have counted on when, at his presentation, was asked about the split with Sergio Conceicao, he said: "I fall asleep every day to the applause of my conscience". Or when, in response to the criticism he was subjected to in October, he said: "There's only one person I know who's taken backwards steps in life, and that's Michael Jackson".
The pretty, sarcastic and unnecessary comments in front of the public were a real contradiction to what was seen on the pitch, especially in the aforementioned important games. Even the victories didn't help to find common ground, because the team wasn't convincing, it wasn't consistent and it kept making mistakes. In November, the club suffered three defeats in a row for the first time in 16 years, prompting this opinion piece.
Despite all this, FC Porto entered 2025 with the chance of winning the League Cup and climbing to the top of the league. The defeat in the semi-finals of the tournament against Sporting (1-0), in yet another poor display, was mitigated by the fact that the club could return to the top of the league for the first time in two and a half years if they beat a relegation-threatened Nacional, in a game that was interrupted and postponed due to fog.
So, on January 12th, the match resumed. However, two minutes after the restart, the Dragons were already losing. Vítor Bruno then made a rookie mistake by making substitutions at a defensive corner kick, which put them 2-0 down. By half-time, in a must-win game, FC Porto hadn't had a single shot and the result didn't change in the second half.
On the following matchday, when they visited Gil Vicente, Porto went into the game trailing, equalised just after the break through newcomer Goncalo Borges and just as they seemed to be heading for a comeback, they made another defensive error and conceded to go 2-1 down.
Near the end of the game, Nico was sent off, Borges thought he had equalised, but the move was reversed to give Gil a penalty and the score was 3-1, with Samu sent off after the final whistle. Three defeats in a row again, the second time in the same season, something that hadn't been seen for 52 years.
Vitor Bruno's exit
As he had done previously with Otavio, Alan Varela, Ivan Jaime and Fabio Vieira, the coach wanted to show the squad that nobody is irreplaceable and left Pepe out of the squad after poor displays. Post-match, Vítor Bruno said that Pepe had "self-excluded" himself due to his lack of commitment and the Brazilian striker responded on social media, saying that he had trained all week on the sidelines because he shot too hard at a mini goal.
There were also other noteworthy quotes, such as justifying the defeat with a simple "we just needed to score more goals" and that the team "is being punished too much for mistakes". But hours later, at a meeting between managers and the squad on arrival at the Estádio do Dragão, the club announced the coach's sacking.
On Monday, January 20th, Vitor Bruno stepped down as FC Porto coach, having won the Portuguese Super Cup, won 19, drawn three times and lost eight times.
Murphy's Law
Jose Ferreirinha Tavares was chosen to take over on an interim basis and prepare for the clash with Olympiacos on Thursday. Despite a good start, Porto suffered a general blackout after 15 minutes and ended up losing 1-0, the result of another defensive error, in a match in which they had just two good chances to score.
As well as jeopardising their future in the competition, the fourth consecutive defeat equalled the club's worst-ever record (the first and only time it happened was 60 years ago) and brought the president to the press conference at the end of the game.
As well as taking responsibility for the bad moment and confirming the name of the next coach (we'll get to that in a moment), AVB revealed that Pepe, despite being a starter, would be subject to disciplinary proceedings for the post he made on social media.
Trying to show his face in the bad moment, the intervention did little to calm tempers and the decision on the Brazilian striker only served to confirm one thing: if there's smoke and it smells like smoke, it's because the house is on fire.
The pre-season and planning done on the fly, with late arrivals of key reinforcements and a style of play that was still searching for its true identity, didn't help a smooth transition and the lack of options on the market for a clear candidate left AVB and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta in a worse position than at the start of the season.
They need a coach who can unite the dressing room and captivate the fans, who knows how to extract the maximum potential from youngsters, who can work with a limited budget and, above all, who can once again create a defensive fortress. Sarri, Xavi, Abel Ferreira, Luis Castro and Paulo Fonseca have all been echoed in the Portuguese press as possible successors.
But one man is set to take the helm.
Head, heart and balls
Argentine Martin Anselmi never became a professional player. He was a journalist until he became disenchanted with the profession and decided to become a coach. He sold his motorcycle to have the opportunity to travel to Europe and meet his idol and mentor Marcelo Bielsa, returning to Argentina to start his career from the bottom, working with young boys, without getting paid and with the help of his wife.
A few years and experiences later, he won the Ecuadorian championship and the Copa Sudamericana with Independiente del Valle. The last two seasons at Cruz Azul made him an idol who has now fallen from grace at the Mexican club, which accuses him of betrayal and has made it difficult for him to leave. The truth is that the coach made his intention to head to Invicta known early on, where he wants to take his 3-4-3 formation.
At 39 years old, the Bielsista is now heading off for his first experience in Europe to try to rebuild another fallen giant. Using the motto of Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz (cabeza, corazón y cojones meaning head, heart and balls), the last two will not be problems, as his history and the video below suggests. Anselmi is expected to have a head, not only for European football, but especially for dealing with the melodrama and behind-the-scenes games of Portuguese football.
The new coach is unlikely to arrive in time to make his debut in the dugout for the match against the surprise team in the Portuguese League, fifth-placed Santa Clara, scheduled for Sunday evening.
Worse still, instead of appearing in front of the fans, he'll have a baptism of fire on the journey to Maccabi Tel Aviv next Thursday, in an all-or-nothing game for the Dragons in the Europa League.