Has Marco Silva made a terrible mistake? – Manager lives new reality after Fulham

Marco Silva left Fulham for Benfica this summer and, on the face of it, the attraction was obvious. He swapped stability in the Premier League for the chance to manage arguably Portugal’s biggest club, compete for trophies and potentially return to the Champions League.

A few months later, the scale of that decision is becoming clearer. Silva hasn’t simply walked into a bigger football club. He’s walked into an institution under huge pressure, with problems on several fronts.

Some of those problems were already waiting for him. Others have developed since his arrival.

Either way, Sport Witness sources understand Silva doesn’t currently have the full backing of the Benfica squad. There was initial excitement among players about working under a new manager, but we’re told that faded surprisingly quickly.

Indeed, some distrust towards Silva’s methods and approach had already developed during the final weeks of pre-season. That was before Benfica had even played a competitive match.

It’s far too strong to suggest he’s lost the dressing room. Yet the honeymoon period ending before the season had properly started is hardly ideal.

And it adds another problem to a job which may be considerably more difficult than it appeared from England.

Benfica pressure is a different beast

Marco Silva certainly knew what he was signing up for in terms of Benfica’s size. They have more than 450,000 members and the biggest support in Portugal. Domestic trophies are always expected.

Of course Benfica, Porto and Sporting have long fought for domestic supremacy. But in recent years, Benfica have been left with an uncomfortable feeling that their two rivals are doing a better job.

Last season made that impossible to ignore. Benfica finished third with 80 points. They were eight behind champions Porto and two behind Sporting. That also meant missing out on the Champions League and dropping into Europa League qualifying.

It was the first time in the 2020s Benfica had failed to qualify for the Champions League through their league position. The only other season this decade without them in the group or league stage was 2020/21. They had qualified domestically that year, but were then knocked out in the Champions League qualifiers.

Losing prestige hurts. And losing the Champions League money hurts as well.

So Silva arrived with an immediate task: close the gap to two rivals while working at a club already facing questions about how it’s being run.

The problems go beyond Marco Silva

Most Benfica fans are asking how a club with the biggest support, huge European income and a record of major player sales can continue struggling to plan its squad properly.

Nowadays, Benfica’s operating revenue is around 40% higher than Sporting’s. Yet he sees Porto and Sporting as better prepared.

There’s also frustration over recruitment, as they are repeatedly seeing their two rivals beating them to their transfer targets. 

The financial picture brings another concern. As per various Portuguese sources, Benfica have become dependent on selling players to balance their finances.

Insider outlet Glorioso 1904 recently claimed that “when they need money, they sell. When they sell well, they breathe. When they don’t sell, things tighten”.

Their argument is that Champions League income, player sales and future revenue have become too important to Benfica’s current model.

For all the club’s size and ability to generate revenue, their actual spending power is currently limited. Porto and Sporting have greater room to operate in the transfer market.

Benfica can sell a player for a significant fee without suddenly having the same amount available for replacements. Money coming into the club also has to service debts, cover existing commitments and help reorganise expenses. So a big sale doesn’t necessarily produce a big transfer budget.

On top of that, there has been only one league title in the past six seasons. All those numbers create pressure very quickly.

Silva is the man expected to change the sporting trajectory while dealing with the consequences of everything else.

Caught between sporting and financial needs

The transfer market has demonstrated what that means in practice. Silva identified targets he believed were attainable, yet Benfica have been unable to secure a few of them.

Some of those targets were considered realistic and affordable, yet Benfica still couldn’t get the deals done. That reportedly left the manager quite unsatisfied. 

At the same time, Silva gave his approval for the sale of young captain António Silva. The 22-year-old defender was being developed to become a dressing room leader. Fans loved him and his €30m (£25.9m) exit to Bournemouth was not liked by most of the fan base.

Then there’s Andreas Schjelderup. Selling the highly rated youngster would provide Benfica with useful income at a time when they badly need it. Silva has blocked that route because he considers Schjelderup absolutely necessary to his sporting project.

So the players Benfica can make serious money from may also be the players Silva can least afford to lose. And even when Benfica do sell, Silva can’t simply expect the proceeds to come back to him as a transfer budget. There are debts and other financial commitments competing for the same money.

He needs reinforcements to catch Porto and Sporting. Benfica need sales to improve their financial position.

Questions inside and outside the dressing room

Marco Silva has also had an issue of trust with Anatoliy Trubin. That’s quite big because the Ukranian goalkeeper had become one of Benfica’s stars and leaders.

Against the backdrop of what Sport Witness has been told about the dressing room, it’s another situation worth watching.

Again, there’s no suggestion of some dressing-room revolt. What we’ve heard is more nuanced.

The initial enthusiasm around a new manager didn’t last particularly long. By the latter stages of pre-season, questions were already being asked internally about his methods and approach.

A questionable league debut

The concern for Silva is that the football hasn’t done much to silence doubts elsewhere. The Portuguese media are already looking critically at the style he’s trying to implement.

Then came Benfica’s opening league match. At home, against newly-promoted Académico de Viseu. And it finished 2-2. 

One result in August shouldn’t define a manager’s tenure, obviously. Yet at Benfica, results like that rarely exist in isolation.

They immediately become part of a much bigger conversation about recruitment, tactics, players, directors and the club’s position relative to Porto and Sporting.

There was also an unfortunate bit of timing. Before the league campaign started, Glorioso 1904 had a column written pessimistically about Benfica beginning another season with optimism before “two or three draws against teams well below our level” brought everyone back to reality.

The first league match then delivered exactly the sort of result he feared.

Of course it’s far too early to say Silva made a mistake by leaving Fulham. The reasons for taking the Benfica job remain easy to understand. But the security, authority and trust he’d built in London have gone. 

He’s now responsible for delivering immediate success at a club whose problems stretch well beyond the dugout.

Silva left Fulham because Benfica offered him a bigger job. He may now be discovering just how much bigger it really is.