Breaking The Bela Guttmann Curse

In 1962, Bela Guttmann, the outgoing Benfica manager, left his mark in a big way, off the pitch. The Hungarian is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, but more than the trophies he won, it was a comment he made to the Benfica board in response to being denied a pay rise.

'Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever win a European Cup', he said. Threats and wild predictions are made daily in football, however they rarely hold true for beyond a week. Guttmann's prediction has remained true for over 50 years.

Guttmann died in 1981, and since 1962, Benfica have reached seven European finals (including this year) and lost all. Hell, even a guy called Jesus couldn't find a way to break the curse. What does that tell you?

So I think you know where this is going. This isn't some wild penta-hexa-dodecagon challenge, the aim here is just to win a European title with Benfica, while of course competing in the Portuguese league along the way.

I will be continuing the attractive style of play that Jorge Jesus has implemented, not only winning, but winning in style.

Does the curse apply to Football Manager? We're about to find out.

First thing was I cleared up the absolute mess that Benfica starts as in FM (from Eduardo Salvio being in the B Team, as well as way too many assistant managers and physios). After my staff cleanout and player reshuffling, I brought it Ray Wilkins as my assistant manager, but more importantly John Doyle as my director of football.

Who the hell is John Doyle? He's the director of football for the San Jose Earthquakes in the MLS, a team that the legendary Billy Beane is a shareholder in and has been helping out. Of course, this makes no difference to how he performs in Football Manager, but I nevertheless wanted him at the helm of my team.

I've given him full player signing and contract negotiation responsibilities, so let's see what he comes up with.

Lastly, I thrashed Benfica B in the first friendly 5-1. Things going well so far.

Im a huge fan of portugal in these games so will def be following! Good luck with this!!

John Doyle wasted no time bringing in some new faces. Brazilian winger/striker Marcelo Toscano joined from Victoria Guimares for 1.4 million, and centre back Nuno Andre Coelho joined from Braga for 1.9 million. Both seem to be pretty good signings, we'll have to wait and see.

We also played our first friendly against Wolves, which we drew 1-1. Extremely annoying as they undeservedly equalised in stoppage time. Equally bad is that our first choice left back Melgarejo is out for three months with a hamstring injury picked up during the game.

Interesting challenge here mate. Will follow your progress.