retired_bbcarr

Shame about your sacking, Pan Good look in Portugal though. I've never played a game there myself, so I'm looking forward to that stage of the challenge

retired_manragh

The friendly games were played and as expected we wiped the floor with the lesser teams while working with the new tactics, everyone knew the opposition was weak and they also knew the reasons for playing, they were just a little worried that we were giving them false hope, but any hope I can give a team who a widely tipped for relegation is better than none.

The season went on and whether or not the friendly games helped or not or just fatigued the team is a matter of conjecture but October and November both passed and we still hadn’t won a game we weren’t far off but still we had the big 0 in the wins column, plenty of draws kept us in touch though and even though we were in the bottom two a win would see us move out.

Finally the win came on the 1st of December at some place called Barreiro where we took on fellow relegation battlers Barreirense, a good open game of attacking football that had plenty of goals finally seen us on the right end with 4. Finland’s Mäkelä bagged two of the goals which silenced his critics of late while another player under pressure Rukavina scored one and Brazilian midfielder Sandro smashed home a nice free kick for the other, hopefully it’s a sign of what’s to come, the win has moved us to 13th in the league.

retired_manragh

Thankfully we didn’t have wait another 12 games for our next win and on our very next home visit the fans seen us win for our first time at home, 2-1 the final score in a game where we should of scored a few more in the last 30 minutes as we completely dominated in that period, a good break now until after Christmas will see me head back to England for a few weeks.

By the end of February we were up into 12th place and had 4 wins on the board with 20 points, we should have had 22 but Naval scored a late equaliser against us to deny us three wins in a row, I might have won manager of the month as well but had to settle for second place.

We’d had some bad decisions against us resulting in red cards and none worse than when our goal keeper was sent from the field in our game against Sporting, we were right in the game at the time and playing well, but with all our subs used it meant we were basically screwed, we lost 2-1 but I was in the locals papers again talking about the substandard refereeing in this league. I challenged the ban and finally the FA took action and rescinded the ban, still we lost a possible point in the match which could hurt us in the long run.

retired_manragh

The months rolled on and a slump in the later parts of the year once again found us in relegation trouble, we were expected to be here of course but this time I found myself not caring, in truth much of this season had been a blur and I had been going through the motions.

It’s these sort of times when you ask yourself do I really want to do this, do I want to be here and coach these guys, Braga had been good to me, they offered me the job and along with it their support which had never wavered even when we hit the slump and looked in all likelihood that we were going down, they were still happy to have me here, and what had I given them, a half committed half arsed performance back, I was disgusted in myself and thankfully I realised that before our second last game.

Leiria were just above us on the ladder we were in 15th while they were 14th and with 5 straight losses which I take full responsibility for they looked the goods beating us at their home, but I snapped out of my own little problems and actually sat down with the players and had a good chat, they too were keen to avoid relegation so they could play top flight football and with that we all decided to give our best.

A great start as young Hélder gave us a two goal lead scoring a good header in the 9th from a corner and then smashing a 30 yarder 10 or so minutes later to grab his second and we looked in ominous form. Phil Jackson Ibargüen pulled one back for them on the half hour but Rukavina scored his 15th goal of the season to make it 3-1 and that’s how it stayed until the break.

It was pats on the back at half time but we realised we still had half to go and still had to work very hard and despite an early hiccup when Buzsáky made it 3-2 we looked pretty good through out the match and soaked up the pressure before mounting our own challenges on goals, when the ref blew for time there was joy etched on the players and coaching staffs faces as we moved out of the zone with a game to play. A great 3 -2 win by the lads.

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Last game of the season seen us take on Boavista at home, it was always going to be a difficult task for us but we had it better than two side below us who had the chance to overtake, Leiria had to travel to Nacional da Madeira who were in 6th and playing well and Barreirense were away to Beira-Mar, not the best of teams, but it was an away game any way.

A great display for the lads seen us take the lead through our big Brazilian forward Danilo Leandro, it was just reward for the pressure we had put on them so far in the match. The goal spurred a mini revival of sorts into the Boavista side and good bit of play from them seen the equaliser come. Half time 1-1 and the lads in good spirits.

I didn’t have the heart to tell them both the teams who were under us were winning so all three teams were level on points, thankfully though the season went on results against clubs and then goal difference so it meant we were still 13th with the two clubs behind us, still if we lost we were down at this stage.

Reports filtered through that Beira-Mar had scored two second half goals which gave them the lead in their match which was great us as Barreirense had to win to get above us, while Leiria had scored again which meant they were now out of the zone with a 2-0 lead, for us it was still 1-1 and the players were doing quite well but it only takes a small lapse to bring all that down.

1-1 at the final whistle seen me and the fans clap the players as they left the field, it ensured our stay regardless of results elsewhere and that in itself was pleasing, I made a gesture of clapping to our fans to show my appreciation of their support as I went into the rooms after the game.

retired_manragh

I was pretty busy over the off season, we had a few players who were moving on and one of the biggest problems we had this year was keepers, Nuno just wasn’t good enough at this level and once our number one keeper told us he wished to move on next year so it meant two new keepers.

With a few keepers out of contract and looking for new clubs we I first approached Welsh international keeper Jason Roberts we agreed to a deal and I sent the papers over to his agent for them to go over and sign, when they got back to me saying they wanted more money per week and better bonuses I was pretty ****ed they wanted more than first agreed so just broke off talks.

Ex-Porto player Bruno Vale came of contract and was released by his club so we approached him and talks went well between all parties and we had him signed on for next season pretty quickly, in somewhat of a fluke we came across Jorge GarcÃ*a’s agent who said his player was looking to move away from Getafe in Spain, I sent a few scouts and Ray Wilkins to have a look at him and looked over footage and within a week we hammered out a good deal for both clubs, he wouldn’t be first choice but he would be rotated through during the year which he was happy enough with.

We had a few other prospects to look over Emmanuel Boakye a central defender and a Andriy Pereplyoukin a striker were two of those and talks went well they would be joining the team next year.

There’s always the players that want to leave and I seen no reason to try and keep them here those players included George Elokobi (D RL), Pablo José Gallardo (DC), Aritz Solabarrieta (AM R), Danilo Leandro (FC) were all placed on the transfer list, in all truth looking at the finances we could use with the income from Leandro, at £6.5 million he would help the clubs finances get out of the red.

The end of may seen the players head of for a deserved holiday, while I headed back to Newcastle in England where Peter Beardsley was the toast of the town, 3rd in the league this year would see Champions League action, the first time since 2002 I think from memory but the real buzz was winning the Euro Cup this year smashing Paris 6-3 in the final. Not quite as good news in the FA cup as they were beaten in the final on penalties by Manchester United.

retired_manragh

With the disappointment of last season over and me getting over myself, I’m really looking forward to having a good season with Braga, we’ve ranked around 130 in the European club rankings so we’ll be trying to improve that.

The board have said there will be no transfer funds this year which is to be expected seeing were around a million in the red now, but I’ve been able to sign players on free for next year and I think we’ll be better off.

P. Ferreira have sacked their coach and I’ve been linked with the job, but I came out in strong denial, I owe it to Braga to stick out my contract here which runs for another 2 years and that’s what I’ll do unless an offer comes in I cant refuse, but another lowish sort of club in Portugal is easy enough to turn down.

Friendly games at home were hard to organise it seemed none of the higher sorts of clubs wished to come which was disappointing, and my attempts to offload players who didn’t want to be here was going no where also, next year I’ll just leave it to my assistant to organise the friendly games I think.

The odds weren’t promising of us winning the title, 100-1 we were which didn’t surprise and most though it was a season of struggle for us, I was a little more optimistic though, I think we can atleast grab midtable around 10th if we play well and have a good start to the season and I indicated this when talking to the press that I feel we have a decent enough squad and shouldn’t even be thinking about relegation.

Our friendly games had been excellent, and even though the last two were pretty easy games at home I was impressed with how we passed and moved the ball around, still pressure does strange things so we will see how it goes. The highlight of the friendly games was beating PSV, it was a good result for us even though it was at home, the 2-0 result should do wonders as well, but the first few months of league football should tell us where we really are at.

retired_manragh

First games are all important it sets a tone, especially at home, the problem was we had to take on one of the favourites for the title in Sporting CP who was managed by legendary Portuguese man Luis Figo.

We played well and despite a few minor things here and there all went well, I would go as far as saying that we were the best team on the park. Sporting jumped us early with a goal in the first minutes of play but after that we had some great chances to equalise and it finally came in the 77th minute when Pereplyotkin scored on debut. With no more additions to the score line it finished at 1-1, pretty pleasing result.

Two of the players who wanted to leave this season have left on season long loans, we couldn’t get any more permanent deals and with the deadline closing in fast we decided to allow them to go on loan, hopefully they might come back next season and want to play here.

We signed 19 year old Bosnian international Darko Vidakovic in the last few hours before the deadline, it was bit of a rush, but we hope he will be a decent backup at left back now that George has gone out on loan, he shows some potential anyway and was extremely happy in signing for the club, cant ask to much more than that for a young player that you pick up on a free.