Sporting de Braga announced on Sunday evening the dismissal of Daniel Sousa. The 39-year-old coach lasted only four official matches for the Minho club under the leadership of Antonio Salvador.
The club also announced that assistants Francisco Matos, Maxi Pereira, Ricardo Ribeiro, Abel Pimienta, Carlos Gomez and Miguel Bastos have left the club with immediate effect.
«Braga FC informs that Daniel Sousa is no longer the head coach of the first team, with immediate effect. With him, the assistants Francisco Matos, Maxi Pereira, Ricardo Ribeiro, Abel Pimenta, Carlos Gomes and Miguel Bastos also leave the club. Braga FC would like to thank Daniel Sousa and his technical team for their dedication and commitment to the club in recent months. The club announces that the name of the new coach of Braga FC will be officially announced in due course.
This comes shortly after a 1-1 home draw against Estrela da Amadora, and a 0-0 draw against Servette, in the third qualifying round for the Europa League. Against Israelis Maccabi Petah Tikva, they won 5-0 and 2-0 in the second qualifying round.
“We should have controlled the game more, been calmer with the ball. No naivety, there are other factors that we cannot control, a bunch of things.” Daniel Souza admitted after the draw with the Ripollera team. Against Servette, he showed dissatisfaction with the team’s performance.
Daniel Souza was announced at Minho before the end of last season, in April, as a replacement for Artur Jorge, the coach who left for Botafogo. He shone with Arouca last season, after his experiences with Gil Vicente and as an assistant to Andre Villas-Boas.
He is the second coach to leave a league team at the end of the first round. Toze Marchico “knocked on the door” of Gil Vicente even before his first appearance in the league.
Carvalhal is a hypothesis.
Meanwhile, from what Mysfotipol has learned from a source close to the process, Braga’s Monday training session has moved to the afternoon and will now be under the new coach, with Carlos Carvalhal being one of the names on the table.
As far as could be determined, Braga’s management felt that there was no qualitative development from one match to another, since the beginning of the pre-season, and the results and recent performances in two matches hastened the decision.
Sp. Braga denies problems between Daniel Souza and Salvador
Early in the morning, an official source at Braga denied the existence of any “disagreement” between coach Daniel Sousa and Braga president Antonio Salvador.
“Braga officially denies that the departure of coach Daniel Sousa is due to any kind of disagreement between him and president Antonio Salvador,” a Braga official told Maisfutebol.
Article updated at 00:13