Jorge Jesus Stardust Has Not Worked and Leaves His Sporting Project on the Brink

Four years make a world of difference—or perhaps no difference at all, depending on your measure of judgement. It was May 11, 2013, when Jorge Jesus slumped to his knees on the touchline at Estadio do Dragao after Kelvin's 91st-minute goal for FC Porto effectively snatched the title from Benfica and placed it into the hands of their great rivals.

At the same venue on Saturday night, fans saw an anguished Jesus on the Dragao bench in stoppage time once again. As Iker Casillas pulled out a vintage stop to deny Sporting CP's Sebastian Coates and close out a win for Porto, the 62-year-old coach had his head in his hands. It may not have been as painful as Kelvin's last-gasp blow, but it still stung.

In its own way, it delivered more probable finality. Porto's win left Jesus' Sporting team 10 points behind Benfica at the top of the Primeira Liga and nine behind their second-placed hosts.

Eliminated from both cup competitions and from Europe, they are left with just a grim slugfest to hold on to third place—and the prospect of a Champions League qualifying play-off—from Braga and Guimaraes. That the former failed to beat modest Estoril and leapfrog Sporting on Monday night was a small mercy.

Few would have predicted it would turn out like this when Jesus agreed to leave Benfica for Lisbon's other giants in the summer of 2015, unenthused by the prospect of a pay cut as his reward for winning 10 major trophies since his 2009 arrival, according to Tom Kundert for FourFourTwo.

Sporting, backed by Angolan investor Alvaro Sobrinho, gave Jesus a contract worth a reported €6 million per year, per Observador (in Portuguese). It was a phenomenal amount by Portuguese standards and an estimated 50 per cent hike on his Benfica wages.     

For that, the club expected the magic formula. After all, Jesus had simultaneously turned Benfica into winners on the pitch and a money-making machine off it.

His swashbuckling brand of football was a delight on his way to becoming the first Portuguese coach to win the league for the club in successive seasons.

Meanwhile, his vision and his reinvention of players such as Fabio Coentrao and Nemanja Matic transformed them from driftwood into star performers—and into huge profits for a club not often noted for its fiscal savvy in the past.

It is little wonder, then, that Sporting showboated on his arrival.

The outfit—knowing, of course, how inextricably his style and his demeanour were linked with modern-day Benfica—welcomed him "home" via Twitter, making a playful nod to his brief and fairly uneventful spell at the club as a player:  

The move was supposed to change the balance of Portuguese football, but less than two years after the coach's arrival, it seems like Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho is almost ready to call time on Jesus' tenure.

It had started so well, too.

Jesus and Sporting won the first trophy put in their path, the Supertaca—inevitably, against Benfica. After an emphatic 3-0 win on Jesus' first return to the Estadio da Luz in late October, Sporting led the Liga, with the champions trailing them by seven points.

It didn't last. As Benfica motored and Sporting wobbled, Jesus and Rui Vitoria, his successor at the Luz, had increasingly ugly public spats (mostly instigated by Jesus).

Vitoria's team swept past Sporting with a March win at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in the return derby fixture, and despite an excellent finish to the season by Sporting—they ended the Liga campaign with nine straight wins after the derby loss—Benfica closed it out for a third successive title.

This chipped away at Jesus' aura somewhat. In addition to that, Vitoria did it while maintaining a challenge on the European front.

Jesus, perhaps seeking to protect his legacy, had deprioritised the Champions League in his final season at the Luz and revealed the Liga was the main target, per Carlos Silva for RTP Noticias (in Portuguese). It was a controversial standpoint, as the club had built its renown on the European Cup wins of 1961 and 1962, courtesy Sporting legends Mario Coluna and Eusebio.

Vitoria's view has seemed to be that success breeds success. He steered Benfica to the quarter-finals of last season's Champions League, where they gave Bayern Munich one heck of a battle before bowing out. They are in the knockout stage again this season, already besting Jesus' record in the competition at the club.

Jesus has reprised this theme at Sporting. After a loss to Lokomotiv Moscow in the Europa League, he stuck with the unfashionable—if understandable—line that the league "is the priority," per Sapo (in Portuguese). That flies more at Alvalade, where he was brought to end a title drought stretching back to 2002, when Ricardo Quaresma and a teenage Cristiano Ronaldo dovetailed to lead Sporting to glory.

Unfortunately, they don't look any closer. De Carvalho's frustration has been plain in recent months, and his streamlining of Jesus' responsibilities, per O Jogo (in Portuguese), has been widely taken as a sign that the president is preparing to move him on at the season's end.  

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The gulf between the pair, who have nevertheless remained on civilised terms publicly, is beginning to become more discernible, and it was again clear after the Porto defeat. Six of the starting XI at the Dragao were products of the club's Alcochete academy, which is a huge part of Sporting's identity, stretching back to the times of Ronaldo and, before that, Luis Figo.

While that statistic might traditionally be a source of pride to the club, Jesus hardly hid the fact he felt the club needed more experience going into this one.

"We've played with a very young team with six out of the starting XI from the academy," he said after Saturday night's game, per O Jogo (in Portuguese), "and 10 out of 18 (in the matchday squad), and we're paying quite a high price for this. We've had to take one step back to take two steps forward."

Joao Palhinha, one of Sporting's brightest young hopes, came in for criticism too. "He got a bit lost in the first half-hour," Jesus said, "and this was fatal for us in tactical terms."

Hanging the team's youngest players out to dry is unlikely to sit well upstairs, especially with De Carvalho responding in his post-game comments that the academy "will always be a priority."

De Carvalho has to flex his muscles, with presidential elections coming up. Yet even if the president were to change, Jesus remains expensive and not in possession of a strong hand. One of Portuguese football's most recognisable characters may be forced to rebuild his reputation this summer.