The firing chased him to the farthest reaches of the football Earth, having him land with Lithuanian champions FBK Kaunas. Today, at home, his new club came back from a goal down against Scottish powerhouse Rangers to win 2-1 and advance in the qualification stages of the UEFA Champions League tournament. In the coming weeks, they’ll face off in the Third Qualifying Round against likely opponents Aalborg BK. Rebirth much?

Speculation abounds but the only name that’s been somewhat officially thrown out there is Jose Pekerman, formerly of a handful of Argentinian junior national teams and the head coach of the senior Argentinian national team that got to the quarter finals of the 2006 World Cup. His success was primarily with the youth teams, leading them to a great many different championships at a number of levels.

I’m not particularly wild about the guy and would prefer other speculated possibilities such as Brazilian Zico who had his most recent success with Turkish side Fenerbahçe or Carlos Queiroz, who is currently Sir Alex’s right hand man at Manchester United. Queiroz has experience and success similar to that of Pekerman’s on the youth level and has recently been approached by Portuguese giants Benfica as well as being tapped by Sir Alex himself as his successor in waiting at ManU. The Powers that Be are allegedly having a pow-wow to discuss the next Portugal manager next week, but before they get to choose our destiny, any other fun and crazy ideas out there for who can lead us to the promised land?

With the team he put on the field to start the match this past Saturday, Big Daddy Phil gave us some definitive insight into how he’s planning on approaching the tournament from the outset. To remind you, here’s how he started:

Cristiano Ronaldo – Nuno Gomes – Simão
Deco – João Moutinho – Petit
Paulo Ferreira – Ricardo Carvalho – Pepe – Bosingwa
Ricardo

Based on how they performed, this is also probably the team that we can expect Scolari to walk out on Saturday against Turkey. He has hard-headed loyalty to Nuno Gomes and Petit, so I think they get a longer leash than most.

Miguel Veloso was handed quite the chance against Georgia and managed to completely justify Scolari’s choice of Petit and João Moutinho as starters in the midfield. While I’m not high on Petit, I’m more disappointed in how awful Veloso played and think he bumped himself down on the midfield pecking order a bit.

If (when) Nuno Gomes proves ineffective after the first two group games, I think Scolari will be forced to give Hugo Almeida a genuine run out. Like I said yesterday, Almeida is most effective when given an extended period of time to get into the rhythm of the game rather than come on as an impact sub.

In all, Big Phil certainly has a great deal of options. The bench is deep and the skill sets are varied enough that he should hypothetically be able to change the course of the match if it isn’t going in his favor. If the team lack life or creativity, Quaresma and Raul Meireles are certainly options. To add some speed into the equation, Nani and Hélder Postiga are probably his best bets. For size and strength up front, 1.91 meter-tall Hugo Almeida is the obvious choice. On defense, Miguel is always good for fresh legs on either side of the center back battery while Fernando Meira can come on replacing either a midfielder to add further defensive reinforcements or as an alternative for Pepe.

I know it was only one match, but Bruno Alves and Miguel Veloso looked so out of sorts that I think it seriously dented their chances of seeing substantial playing time in the coming weeks. I was extremely high on Veloso and even suggested leaving Petit out of the team based on the Sporting trinco’s performance this year. However, what transpired on the pitch this past Saturday showed why I blog about the team and Big Phil bosses it.

Philly seems married to Ricardo and while Quim is no doubt the more in form keeper, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to see anyone other than Ree-car-dough between the pipes this summer. This Saturday you can almost definitely expect to see the same Starting XI take the field in Geneva as we saw in Viseu. If shit starts to hit the fan though, I hope Scolari will be flexible enough to make the necessary changes and right the ship. Tournaments are definitive sprints, not marathons.

At a mere eighteen years of age, Fernandes broke into regular play with Benfica’s first team and began learning his craft alongside Portuguese international Petit. After domestic success and some European failures, Fernandes went under the knife to fix a hernia and the setbacks began.

For the 06/07 season, he was loaned to English side Portsmouth where he continued to heal his groin. Due to the lack of definitive progress, he never really saw steady action. Also, a clause in Fernandes’ contract that required Portsmouth to buy him outright if they played him in consecutive games saw Fernandes on the bench every other match. With both clubs and Fernandes frustrated by the lack of progress, he was sent back to Benfica and then immediately loaned back to England but this time to Everton for the remainder of the season.

He scored two goals in nine matches but again never really was able to make a definitive leap up in ability. Since his sporting rights were half owned by Benfica and half owned by another independent company (think a Carlos Tevez-esque mess), Everton couldn’t settle on an agreeable fee with both Benfica and the other company. Instead of selling him to Everton, Benfica turned around and sold him outright to Valencia.

In a further bizarre / odd occurrence, Fernandes was loaned by Valencia back to Everton this past January with a buy out clause after playing in only three La Liga matches. The reality of the situation is that Fernandes hasn’t consistently been fit for any extended period of time since his hernia operation.

His escapades across European football aside, unless he catches a good spell of health and gets back on an upward track, he’s got plenty of competition in the Portuguese midfield, at all levels. He currently plays on the U21 team and at times looks lost and other times looks like a man among boys. Fernandes should progress to the senior team once he enjoys a run of good play and promising health. Until then, he may end up being one of a long line of players who started off looking like world beaters and then, for whatever circumstances or reasons, never cemented themselves a place on the world’s biggest stage.

Photo: UEFA.com

I considered him, I evaluated his form and the results at Inter Milan ever since he stepped in for a number of injured superstars in their central midfield and saw a boy becoming a man. Therefore, I threw him into the midfield, confident that he’d do a better job than Petit as a sub for either Deco or Miguel Veloso. However, Big Phil didn’t take my brilliant advice and he kept the off-form (albeit more experienced) Petit instead of taking a chance on a kid who’s been showing us scintillating stuff on the boot, all while having been an integral part of Inter’s run in to their third consecutive Scudetto.

To go from the bench at then Liga Vitalis (or Liga da Honra) Vitória Guimarães (who have since catapulted themselves into a Champions League spot finishing 3rd this past year in the bwinLiga) to the center of Inter’s midfield in little over a year says a lot about the kid’s make up. He’s probably going to be a stalwart of the Nerazzurri midfield for some time, and we should see him on the senior level featuring for the Selecção before too long as well.

The video below shows his goal in the Italian Cup vs Lazio. Understandably, video of him is rather limited in availability so we’ll have to make due with what we’ve got…

His meteoric rise from the B Squad of Portuguese bwinLiga side Marítimo to becoming a stalwart in FC Porto’s back line up to now, showcasing as starting center back for a small Spanish club called Real Madrid has been well documented. Despite only being capped twice, Pepe is being touted as a definitive option for Big Boss Phil as a starting complement to Ricardo Carvalho when tournament time comes a knockin’. The bean pole 6′ 1 1/2″ naturalized Portuguese citizen will look to impose himself on European forwards and defenses in a month’s time. See some of his best recent moments below…

He doesn’t generally tend to stand out in any given match and will not often be found on the score sheet. Pereirinha is a scrappy utility guy who can be plugged in at a number of positions and hold his own rather well. Look for him in important matches to play a vital role for whatever side he is representing. While he will probably not be a superstar for his club or country, he’ll be the player in the background that’s instrumental in steering his team to the next level. Check out his composure as he scores an important goal for Sporting in this year’s UEFA Cup match against Bolton…