The FC Porto coach has no problem assuming that the club is going through financial difficulties, so be careful when asked about the possibility of more reinforcements coming to Dragao, in addition to the already official Pepe, Bruno Costa and Fabio Cardoso.

“I’m not a financial manager. I know the difficult situation the club is going through, and I often see it written that I should have a full-back, a striker or a midfielder, but I don’t have to pick anyone. I have five children, players are not supposed to play in the yard “I can give a technical opinion, but then there is a whole development that goes through negotiations and often the club is not able to achieve what we want,” said Sergio Conceicao.

On the eve of the start of the tournament, the coach did not hide the great limitations that he had in team building, remembering, however, that it had always been this way. “When the president called me in 2017 to rebuild the club in a very difficult financial situation, if you see the players who were here in my first year and you see who are here now, it is completely different, not only in terms of names. But also on an individual quality level. But the condition is still at most. We were the only team that beat the team that was European champions and experienced a lot of frustration with our 1-0 win and because we didn’t reach the semi-finals, which I think we deserved,” he recalls.

Sérgio Conceição did not fail, however, to congratulate himself on his ability to maintain last season’s team base. “Of course I want to keep the players that I think are key in the team. Those are the ones who are part of the norm, but we can’t get away with the arrival of any club that can beat the termination clause. He stressed that we are more sellers than buyers.