With manager Ruben Amorim now staying at Sporting, he has admitted he “created the soap opera” around his rumoured moves to Liverpool and West Ham.
We now know Arne Slot will take over as Liverpool boss following the departure of Jurgen Klopp, but for a while Amorim was the frontrunner to be the new manager.
Around the same time as it became clear Liverpool were targeting Slot, Amorim flew to the UK for talks with West Ham, but nothing came of this and he has since been confirmed to be staying at Sporting.
Amorim was forced to apologise for the timing of his trip, which came in the buildup to his side’s clash with rivals Porto – a game they eventually drew 2-2.
After Saturday’s 1-0 win over Estoril, Amorim was honest with the press, being quoted by A Bola as saying: “I learned that it is not worth saying whether it will happen or not. I have a contract, things are going to go well and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
“I learned that I was the one who created the soap opera.”
He added: “I learned. I’m young, I make mistakes. They say I communicate well, but sometimes I have to be much better at this approach as I have a lot of responsibility here and I create this indecision that might not help.
“I have always been happy here, it was the first year that I questioned whether it was time to leave. I learned that I’m happy here, that I won’t apply pressure and whatever has to happen, will happen.
“We are planning and accelerating for next season, I’m going to let life go by and what changed was the way of approaching the subject, not the feeling.”
By the sounds of it, Amorim regrets how he went about addressing rumours of a potential move, making clear in public he was open to a new role.
He hasn’t, though, ruled out a future move from Sporting. It is clear he still has ambitions to manage elsewhere.
