Sporting started the 2011/12 season riding the wave of optimism as a new president, a new coach and a completely revamped squad appeared to signal a bright new dawn for the Lisbon club.
The regime had always maintained it was their aim to be able to compete with FC Porto and Benfica for Portugal’s top honours, and match the feats of their domestic rivals on the European stage.
After a shaky opening few weeks things began to fall into place. Fans flocked to the Alvalade in numbers rarely seen in recent seasons, as a string of impressive victories was put together.
Then things started to go wrong. Horribly wrong. The zest with which the team had been playing in October and November suddenly evaporated, and like a balloon slowly losing air, the whole atmosphere around the club began to deflate inexorably.
The results got steadily worse, and after a nightmare January which saw an embarrassing early exit from the League Cup and the team’s title chances ended, coach Domingos Paciência was sacked.
Sporting seemed further than ever away from their stated aim of going toe to toe with Benfica and FC Porto. A more realistic objective, jibed their detractors, would be to try and stave off Braga’s ambitions at becoming the third strongest team in Portugal.
Enter the fray Ricardo Sá Pinto. A fully committed, bruising attacking midfielder in his playing days, Pinto is a cult hero among Sporting fans. Nevertheless, it was a big risk giving such a high-profile job to a man who had never before been a first-team coach at senior level.
The risk has paid off handsomely. Pinto has overseen a turnaround in the club’s fortunes. Knocking out one of the Europa League favourites Manchester City and beating city rivals Benfica are just two of the highlights of Pinto’s impressive tenure thus far, that has yielded 9 wins and just 3 defeats from 14 games.
Although currently sitting in fourth place in the table, way behind the leaders, there are signs that that early-season optimism may be returning to the Green half of Lisbon, and that Sporting may indeed be ready to compete for the top honours in 2012/13.
As Portugal’s last remaining representative in Europe, what better way to signal the re-emergence of an erstwhile Portuguese giant than by winning silverware on the international stage.
Ricardo Sá Pinto and Sporting’s players will be aiming to take a significant step in that direction on Thursday as they welcome Athletic Bilbao to Lisbon in the Europa League semi-final first leg.
After a shaky opening few weeks things began to fall into place. Fans flocked to the Alvalade in numbers rarely seen in recent seasons, as a string of impressive victories was put together.
Then things started to go wrong. Horribly wrong. The zest with which the team had been playing in October and November suddenly evaporated, and like a balloon slowly losing air, the whole atmosphere around the club began to deflate inexorably.
The results got steadily worse, and after a nightmare January which saw an embarrassing early exit from the League Cup and the team’s title chances ended, coach Domingos Paciência was sacked.
Sporting seemed further than ever away from their stated aim of going toe to toe with Benfica and FC Porto. A more realistic objective, jibed their detractors, would be to try and stave off Braga’s ambitions at becoming the third strongest team in Portugal.
Enter the fray Ricardo Sá Pinto. A fully committed, bruising attacking midfielder in his playing days, Pinto is a cult hero among Sporting fans. Nevertheless, it was a big risk giving such a high-profile job to a man who had never before been a first-team coach at senior level.
The risk has paid off handsomely. Pinto has overseen a turnaround in the club’s fortunes. Knocking out one of the Europa League favourites Manchester City and beating city rivals Benfica are just two of the highlights of Pinto’s impressive tenure thus far, that has yielded 9 wins and just 3 defeats from 14 games.
Although currently sitting in fourth place in the table, way behind the leaders, there are signs that that early-season optimism may be returning to the Green half of Lisbon, and that Sporting may indeed be ready to compete for the top honours in 2012/13.
As Portugal’s last remaining representative in Europe, what better way to signal the re-emergence of an erstwhile Portuguese giant than by winning silverware on the international stage.
Ricardo Sá Pinto and Sporting’s players will be aiming to take a significant step in that direction on Thursday as they welcome Athletic Bilbao to Lisbon in the Europa League semi-final first leg.
