It’s time for season 4 of Rob’s Brazilian challenge. He set out to make an all Brazilian team to storm the Portugese league and…it’s sort of worked out. Catch up with part 9 here.

Season four starts early for us, we have such a low reputation that we have to play in the UEFA Preliminary round on July 26th. Oh and as usual I am struggling to attract players and the ones that do want to come aren’t prepared to be paid the £800 p/w that the board have capped my wages at. This save is frustrating and enjoyable in equal measure not to worry we are on a europa acena (European adventure) to Malta and the Naxxer Lions.

The squad is a bit low in numbers and because I’m starting so earlier nobody I sign can play in Europe until the quarter finals, which I am optimistically hoping we reach.

Rai – not interested

Joel – not interested

Nene – wants to leave

Bebeto – says no

I just wanted to show how hard I am trying to actually sign some Brazilians so that you empathises with all the non Brazilian signings I’m going to make in a minute. Before that though, it is the end of July and Naxxer are here. European football in Madeira! It is safe to say they were not great.

Told you, I have no idea who Keates is but Craib is Gary McCallister.

The second leg in Malta is just a formality and despite theses stats, the result was a little bit shocking.

Doesn’t matter though, we are through and the next stop on our great adventure is…

Portugal. Vitoria Secrets finished 5th last year but somehow they didn’t need to go through a preliminary qualifier!

I sell Carlos because he’s 33 and doesn’t play so £190k seems a good price.

Then, something amazing happens. Word travels back to Brazil about trips to Malta and suddenly they all come running, well sort of.

The squad is assembled ready for the UEFA cup first round and guess what, loanees don’t seem to get cup tied, amazing.

It’s a tight affair away to Vitoria but Da Silva comes up trumps and we take a strong victory and away goal into the second leg.

At this point they all start asking to leave again, I’m going to stop putting in pictures, just assume they all want to leave, it’s easier. I also add a young Italian as midfield cover and John Lukic’s son Nigel as keeper cover. Onto the season opener hosting Beira Mar and all our hard work in europe means we are slow and tired and therefore lose, not the best of starts.

Two days later and it’s clear we were saving ourselves for big game. Bring on round two and £250k prize money.

The second round sees us face TSV Munich 1860.

As we move through the gears in europe the domestic front sees us stall. We lose at home for the second game in a row and we were bad, really really bad, the two goals were undeserved.

Away to Estrela next and we dominate but cannot score, it ends 0-0 and we have one point from nine, not the start I was looking for. European football has proved an unwelcome distraction we clearly can’t concentrate on two competitions at the same time. We follow up that 0-0 with another against Espinho, they don’t even have a shot on target but we can’t take advantage, I’m starting to worry.

We have our UEFA tie against Munich next and I don’t fancy our chances however we are fantastic, we play them off the park and lose 2-3, they had five shots on target we had eleven, it’s unjust but with two away goals I’m confident we can still make it through.

Uh oh this is not good news

This week’s league game is against Boavista at home and it’s another 0-0 draw. After five games we are 15th one place above the relegation zone, Sporting Lisbon are doing even worse than us though so they sack Carlos Manuel just in time for our league match next.

It’s just what we need and after they miss a penalty early on we make them pay in the second half. The win takes us up to 12th, few.

We host TSV Munich next so this victory and the two away goals are just what we need to overturn the deficit. But then disaster, I don’t know what has happened, well I do but just can’t believe it.

I sold Carlos and got a couple of free transfer keepers as backup but since the cup started so early they are both cup tied and Bugi is suspended. The game though can generate a player when this happens but they generate me H Filipe a FUCKING left back, this is BULLSHIT. I’m sorry for swearing but a non keeper in goal is disastrous, you concede pretty much every shot! Edinaldo Peu gets the nod and we give it a really good go but ultimately we lose after extra time. I almost believed at 3-1 up but Becker did us in with his second goal.

After that result I go on tilt and sell Nene to Braga because he isn’t scoring and the money is too good to turn down.

We go back to the league and another 0-0 away to Belenenses, scoring used to be our thing in the league. There is a little ray of hope though, He’s back.

Even though Laelson doesn’t play just having him back makes all difference against Braga, we finally score and win.

Next up we travel to Vit. Setubal and it’s another win. I was so happy when Joel scored, I was resigned to another 0-0 draw, I think the tide maybe turning.

The final game of this long and eventful update and we face Academica at the Barreiros. It’s another game that we dominate only to concede a late goal that stops us taking all three points. Some games we just seem to concede a goal every time they hit the target. Young Zenga is still a little inconsistent it seems.

Our up and down performances leave us in 7th place but with two thirds of the season left to play hopefully we can secure European football for a second season.

See you next week for more of this bizarre adventure.

You can follow Rob on Twitter @Taitanator