So talk to me about the transfer business that Benfica have done in and out and kind of the latest around Pavlidis.

yeah it's quite normal joel actually you may or may not be surprised to hear it's quite normal for this to happen in portugal you know first of all of course the big portuguese clubs are generally selling clubs uh that's an important um revenue stream for them so they tend to try and pick up players uh who've got uh the ability to develop and improve and then sell them for a lot more than they bought them the the players you mentioned probably don't fit into that category Benfica has just been to be perfectly honest a little bit of a basket case over the last two or three years selling and buying all sorts of players not really settling on a settled team at all and just underperforming basically but yeah they're in a state of flux like I mentioned before because as well as the ones you mentioned which are all kind of exits were, departures which were expected.

I suppose the big one now, the big two, is Pavlidis, like you mentioned.

To be honest, I'd be very surprised if he left.

The club have said outright that they don't want to sell him.

He's their most important player at the moment, I'd say, without a doubt.

And he's, as far as I've seen so far under press, he's not really angling for a move.

But is it that cohesion and the time it's taken them to get players back and build up into a new manager in his style? Is that probably the area that's most susceptible for Hartz?

... how he gets, how he gets going, um, at, uh, at Tottenham now after his big money move from West Ham.

Exactly.

That, that's a very good point.

Yeah, that's very good.

I think that, that's very interesting.

A lot of people are talking o- of course, about who may come in to the squad from the outside.

And really, the three names which were always talked about was precisely, I'd say that was the number one name, the one you just named there, Matheus Fernandes.

But, uh, I'm more curious to see if he just rips the Band-Aid or if he evaluates it first and then we see it in October and November.

Yeah

... what is this Portugal? What is it? It's, you know, you can't really be...

The, the, the idea of being technically f- tactically flexible is you have two systems maybe, three maximum, that you can switch around.

Okay, this isn't working, let's go to plan B.

Okay, this isn't working, go to plan C.

But it doesn't, there doesn't seem to be, you know, these kind of, uh, these templates where the players know where they should be.

It just all seems to be a little bit kind of mix and match.

Oh, that's right

Why does this one feel different? Why does this one feel like this could be the year Portugal lifts the World Cup trophy?

Yeah, I think they've got a good mix of players and they've really got players who are used to winning.

Portugal have always had good players, but they've had one or two, three players in big foreign teams.

It's just the team's packed now with players like that.

I mean, I was just having a look now.

How many Champions League winners do you think are in this Portugal team? You've got the four guys at PSG I just mentioned.

Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, has won it five times.

But if it's not working, is Roberto Martinez going to haul him off at 70 minutes when they need something different?

Um, is he as important to Portugal as he is to, as he has been to City?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, let me say it was great here in Portugal, you know, hearing all these words of praise from Gua- Guardiola, you know.

Probably I think most people say the, you know, the greatest manager in the history of football, certainly the greatest modern manager.

And for him to give such, uh, you know, gushing words of praise for Bernardo Silva.

Portuguese people here, they always keep close attention to the Portuguese players, Portuguese coaches abroad.

So yeah, it was always very gratifying to hear that.

Um, what's his role for Portugal? I assume he won't be, he won't be a fullback for Portugal.

So what happened the first time around at Benfica?

Yeah.

So that was actually his first job, as of course everyone knows.

He s- he started off as the assistant to Bobby Robson, uh, and then, uh, his first job as a, as a head coach was at Benfica.

He did quite well there.

They were in a, you know, in a real dip.

They, they had a terrible time for, for years really before he went there.

You, you, you watched Ruben Amorim's rise at Sporting quite closely and you, you think that United should give him time and just, and just ride out the storm right now, because he has got a lot of potential to be a great coach?