Sporting CP’s Champions League match with Manchester City on Tuesday night is full of intriguing sub-plots, as manager Ruben Amorim prepares to join Manchester United later this month and his sporting director and close friend, Hugo Viana, prepares to join City in the new year. For an added twist, the pair’s wives are in business together running an interior design company, Dois Tons, and plan to continue their joint venture from across the Manchester divide.
But what was not expected this week was conflict between Amorim and the British media. You may have seen the toe-curling clip from Sporting’s press conference on Monday in which the usually jovial Sky Sports journalist Gary Cotterill demanded Amorim answer him in English, like he was an empire officer speaking to a local tribesman.
