The Shanghai Nights Adventure [FM15]

After failing to complete the Pentagon for two seasons in a row, with the final leg in Europe being the major problem and then letting my last career fall by the wayside I have decided to go in a different direction. A career just travelling to different countries in Asia in a quest to broaden my knowledge of Asian football. Inspiration comes from having started all of the journeyman careers in Asia and actually really enjoying the clubs I have managed there, be it Suwon Samsung Bluewings, Gangneung FC, JEF United, Buriram United and Seongnam. Not just that I feel that the Asian football market is untapped, some of the largest countries by population are found in Asia and I am pretty sure if clubs spent time scouting here then they would find more and more good players. My one concern for this journey is that the created leagues I use hold up for this journey, otherwise it's to plan b and wait for the next save after the new update.



The starting leagues, given myself a chance to move about the place and take on some new leagues I have never managed in, Vietnam, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran and North Korea. I have omitted India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore out because they do not appeal. I have managed in India in last years FM and I found it frustrating and not something I want to do on this save. The other three hold no value to me however they can be added at a later date if needed to be.

I'm going to give myself Sunday League reputation and no coaching experience to ensure that I start at the bottom and try to build my rep up as well as my coaching experience. Doing this will make it a bit more of a challenge. Unlike others I will be assigning a club to myself who on a previous adventure took my fancy. Took my fancy for many reasons. I like the logo, colours, location and of course some of the personnel at the club already. The idea behind this is to get into the game as soon as possible and manage or attempt to manage clubs that appeal to me.



So without further a do, I have a quest to see the bright lights in dear old Shanghai town!

No Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia? Sorry mate but you're not going to find the best satay this way

Good luck with this

Eric Portapotty - It is a risk. But one I have to take. Cheers. Going to be a slow one this career.



So I have decided upon starting in Thailand with a club that really appealed to me. Updates will be done seasonally, with a round up at the end of each season or when I have eventually moved onto a new club.



History of the Club

BEC Tero Sasana Football Club is a Thai professional football club based in Bangkok. The club finished runners-up in the inaugural AFC Champions League competition in 2003. BEC was established in 1992 and was previously known as Sasana Witthaya School team. In 1996 Mr. Worawi Makudi and Mr. Brian L. Marcar, managing director of BEC-TERO Entertainment Co. Ltd. joined hands and renamed the team as Football Club Tero Sasana. In 2000 the team won its first championship by winning the Thai League. In 2001, BEC-Tero Sasana FC was able to defend its championship and won the Thai League for the second consecutive year. Thus greatly increasing the fan base.

The club's success continued for a few years and culminated with finishing Runner-up in the 2002/03 AFC Champions League.

Club Profile - A side that appealed to me on my last adventure in Thailand. Have quite a few rivalries notably with some of the big boys in the league. Don't have much history in terms of legends. Time to build some. Known as the Fire Dragons. In red. Couldn't get more Welsh.

General Info - Up and down in recent history but a side I am determined to see succeed.

Manager Profile - I've turned to Brian Fontana for my profile picture, need some class and style whilst over here and I am sure his face will fit well in Asia. I plan to use the 4-2-3-1 system and the Diamond Dominator used by Statistical Approach.

Facilities - our stadium is a decent size, but in poor condition. At some point could see a new stadium. Will want to upgrade the youth facilities as best as I can whilst here.

Squad 1 and Squad 2 - Hard to assess without an Assistant Manager. Plenty of talent here mind. Plenty of Thai internationals here.

Staff - I have a ton of backroom staff but no Assistant Manager or Scouts. Will be addressed soon enough.

Finances - £264k sounds like a decent amount for me to build my first squad. A healthy balance but need to manage the pennies carefully however.

Great opening, good luck with this!

Good luck!

itchycoo - Cheers, going to be a slow journey this.
motoclub - Thanks man.




My first season in charge, the job was going to be getting a squad of players together and making them into a team and hoping they gelled quick enough to compete in the league. Finishing in the top 4 was my aim for this season.

League Fixtures - Highly successful season. We had some good wins, some very strong wins. The League Table shows we managed to win the league by 10 points. Think the margin was a fair reflection.

Thai FA Cup - Picked up some of the easiest teams in the draws to secure the FA Cup. Very nice piece of silverware to add to the League trophy.

League Cup - Embarrassing. We were actually outplayed to a side two divisions below us.

Transfers - Pedro Diehl probably my worst signing. Came in on trial, impressed so signed him. Infact he was lazy and never wanted to fit in our system. Luckily for me he was only signed on a short term deal. Melling has potential but takes up a foreign spot so it was tough for him to feature once we signed him. Supakit Yala has the potential at 16 to be a star in Thai football. Picked him up on a good deal. Transfers out were foreign slot players who offered us nothing. Got some useful cash.

Finances - The finances are going in the right way. They have been on the decline but with careful management of wages of players and staff hopefully the balance will see an increase.

Squad - Rotated the squad fairly. Games in this league are really odd. They are like London Buses, two come almost back to back before a weeks wait for the next. Unreal scheduling.

Key Player Profiles:

Daiki Iwamasa - Our rock at the back. Ever present and earned a recall to the national team. Captain and a great leader of men. Yala will learn a lot from him.

Jaturong Pimkoon - Youngster got better through the season. Bagged 17 goals in the league, didn't think I he would cut it. Was going to sell him. Might still do but he has proven he's not as bad as his stats suggest.

Jirawat Makarom - Playmaker for us. Played well as the man in the hole or when called upon in the central of midfield. Things ran through this man.

Radomir Đalović - Clubs premier striker. Delivered 32 goals for us in the league. He was outstanding.

Tanaboon Kesarat - The clubs holding mid. He was excellent, played in front of the defence and mopped up any rubbish. Without him we would have struggled this season. Eventually called up to the national team, frankly amazing he wasn't there earlier in the season.

Tristan Do - The other man in the hole. Do came to the party more often than not and when he couldn't his deputy Makarom was equally at home. This guy supplied the strikers with many a goal whilst also bagging goals himself.

Career Overview

2014 - BEC Tero Sasana F.C. - League Winners and FA Cup Winners

Next Season

The aim is to go back and defend the league title. From there look to progress in the Champions League and see how far we can get. The AFC Champions League looks very strong, I am confident with the right additions in the off season we can progress well here.

Should have loaded Malaysia for JDT, Jorge Pereyra Díaz <3

He's there. He's on my radar. Hopefully we can afford him.

Develops into a bit of a machine
Also, Gilbert Koomson is decent, dunno if you've had a look at him
Great work on winning the league btw

Koomson wasn't registered for the first part of the season because of the foreign cap. He then after the registration window closed became a Thai national so I registered him. He started games and scored 3 goals in 5 games but got a lengthy injury. So ended up only playing 9 league games scoring 7. Tough for him to start with the strikers I have. Also have Honduras international Georgie Welcome at the club. So having to rotate and keep them happy was a challenge.

I had him at Buriram and played him RW as an IF, scored a fair few

Season Expectations - Expected to win the league with a very tight budget. Going to be tough. Rivals Buriram have strengthened heavily.

League Review - Radomir Đalović dominated the league start to finish. He was outstanding.

Career Profile - Nothing major rising stat wise and just applied to step on to the coaching ladder of badges. Hopefully those blue bars will rise too. Slightly worrying that Kevin Muscat likes me ... never enjoyed him as a footballer.

Love to mange this club ... possibly to early to even think about managing them.



So I have attended the interview. Might be moving jobs sooner than I thought.

That's quite a step. Hope you get it.

Interesting to see they offered you job interview

Good luck with this.

Not a surprised I didn't get the job. Basically wanted someone with more experience. Their loss. I will be back.

First step on the ladder complete. Hopefully can continue to develop myself.

Well ... end of the season and he's outta here!

Offered an interview, so taking it. Seems they are more interested this time.

So, impressed them. But the decision of what to do next is a tough one. I have achieved so much with BEC, love the club. But when a job like this comes along is it time to take that jump? Lot of money at the club to help re-build after what can only be said was a disappointing one for Guangzhou. They finished 9th and didn't fair well in the Champions League. Next season they won't have Champions League football either, disaster all round. Could be an interesting but easy project.

So what to do?

End of season update next ...

Take it man.

I would take it as well

It is a tough choice. All will be revealed in the next few mins.



It is an appealing offer, but I have loved my time at BEC (If anyone knows how I could get a shirt of their please get in contact!!!)



Shortly before the job approach I signed a new deal. Bit of security for me and the club, if the job didn't come to fruition I had a backup. If I did take the job BEC would earn some money from me.

My second season in charge, the job was going to be about getting the squad of players to push themselves further and compete on multiple fronts for honours. My aim for the season was to push as far as as I possibly could in the Champions League and to finish in the top two.



League Fixtures -.A successful season in the league. We did go through a mid season blip were injuries and cup runs caught up with us. Meant we struggled for form. Highlight has to be putting 8 goals past Sisaket. The League Table won by a nice margin of 7 points. Very happy to go back and win the league again. Was a true squad effort.

Thai FA Cup - Frankly shambolic. Failed to defend the crown and we looked poor. Upsetting not to progress further.

League Cup - Different story this year. We played very well and we did what we had to do in the League Cup. Highlight would be the thrilling semi final, we managed to scrape through. Leaky defence was the issue.

KOR Royal Cup - Won the Thai equivalent of the Charity Shield. It was a good way to start the season and nice to pick up a good piece of silverware.

AFC Champions League - Runners up in 2003 and not been near the knockout stages since. Winning it is a different kettle of fish. You make your own luck and need a lot of it. We got our fair share. Games against Ulsan and Seoul we relied on the away goal rules to send us through. Taking apart Guangzhou was a particular highlight after being snubbed. The final was unreal, we got lucky and we parked the bus at home. Unreal scenes.

Transfers - Dueramae is the next thing in Thai football. At 18 he is a strong defensive midfielder and had a good start to his first season at the club. He is injury prone so he has to be managed carefully. 100 Thai capped Tholango was instrumental in the midfield this season. Dangda was a purchase for the club for the future as a way of reducing the foreign quotas. Dangda came back from an unsuccessful spell in Spain with Almeria, we took advantage and luckily he was keen to join. He provided a memorable debut when he scored 5 from the bench. The movers were players who were not going to feature so they were either sold or released to help balance the books.

Finances - In a season I have raised the balance significantly. £2 million in the real balance and projected to have increased the finances by £5 million. One of my weaknesses in some of my careers is not looking after the books at some of my clubs, this is something I am very much keen to address in this career. The sad fact is the chairman is refusing to upgrade facilities. What an idiot.

Squad - Do and Welcome were outstanding this year, goals and assists galore. Iwasama was a rock at the back and has helped developed Yala. However it was not all rosy for Iwasama, he took a leave of absence during the period were we had a form slump. He wanted to go home but I knew if I did that my defence would crumble. Luckily he came back and signed a new two year deal.

Youth Intake - Chaplan is the only decent player to come through. He was offered a deal straight away. The rest will be reviewed but I hold little hope for them.



Key Player Profiles:

Daiki Iwamasa - Another solid season for our rock at the back. He continued his good form from last season. His mid season leave of absence was felt heavily. He came back and was one of the reasons why we won the Champions League. Outstanding player.

Kittitat Dueramae - Our most expensive signing and hopefully you can see why. He developed nicely over the season. It led to him being called up to the Thai national team. I am expecting more of the same from him. One for the future.

Naruphol Ar-Romasawa - Came from the back bench to become a real star. He was instrumental for us. He scored goals all over the place and I was truly mystified why he didn't get a call up for Thailand this season.

Tanaboon Kesarat - He was excellent again, played in front of the defence and in the centre of midfield. A midfielder general for us.

Tristan Do - His role changed this year, changed from in the hole to striker and boy oh boy was he good. 40 odd goals for the club this season and really continued his good form from last season.



Career Overview

2014 - BEC Tero Sasana F.C. - League Winners and FA Cup Winners
2015 - BEC Tero Sasana F.C. - League, League Cup, Royal Cup and AFC Champions League Winners



Next Season

The aim is going to be different depending on location. If I stay it's about doing all this again, although it will be difficult to defend the Champions League with the squad, need some drastic foreign import improvements as they are old and knackered. If I move to China, it is about restructuring the club and getting it back on firm footing once again. Time will tell. Still haven't decided yet.

Congrats on winning AFC Champions League

At this stage of my career it is to big of a job to turn down. Club with money and some high quality foreigners. A rebuilding job. My sort of deal. Gutted to leave BEC, loved my time here. Who knows if I will be back?

Johno - Thanks buddy.



Moving away from BEC was going to be tough. I have taken quite a while to decide but I have come to the conclusion that it is the correct one. I do enjoy my time spent in Thailand, quite a promising football nation in Asia and lots of hidden gems here that could make the leap to lower league Premier League sides and could easily hack it in the Championship. The move to Guangzhou is going to be an adventure like none other. Updates are coming slowly, most will appear at the weekend because of the nature of work for me now.



History of the Club

Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club is a professional Chinese football club that play in the Chinese Super League. The team is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong and their stadium the Tianhe Stadium has a seating capacity of 58,500. Founded in 1954, after winning several second-tier division titles they became professional in 1993. This saw a massive upheaval in results. However results did decline again. In 2009 the club were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal it saw them punished with relegation. The intervention of the Evergrande Real Estate Group saw the club be pumped with significant funds, this saw them immediately win promotion as well as gain their first ever top-tier title in the following campaign in the 2011 Chinese Super League season. The club won its first AFC Champions League title in 2013, becoming the first Chinese football club to win the continental title. The club in the same year finished fourth placed in the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup.

Club Profile - First time managing on a written career in China, in FM13 I spent some time with fierce rivals Beijing on a mini adventure as a test for my failed Pentagon adventures. The club has a few favourite personnel, some icons and legends. Will I feature when my stint finishes? Who knows. A massive club that appealed to me. Similar theme with BEC and Wales, play in red and love a bit of fire.

General Info - Been on a solid run of wins of late determined to see those times again here.

Manager Profile - Things are improving slowly. The bars are moving up and I hope to continue this here. I do like pushing contracts out to the DoF at clubs so hands on could well drop. Hopefully as time goes and the coaching badges come my stats will see a rise too.

Facilities - our stadium is a great size, and in good condition. I want to upgrade the youth facilities as best as I can whilst here but knowing that signing high profiled players is what they want, it won't be happening any time soon.

Squad 1 There is a reason for the slump, some outstanding Italian internationals here in Gilardino and Diamanti. The Chinese talent needs addressing so lot of my budget will be focused on bringing top Chinese players to the club. Will also look to go after Giovanni Moreno. Guy is a machine in this league.

Staff - Quality backroom to walk into thanks to Lippi. The last manager didn't cut anyone and no one left when Lippi retired so to have this quality is excellent.

Finances - £15million is a great sum to have, it gives me some money to re-build this squad into a Championship outfit. With being required to sign high profile players the money will come in useful. The issue comes that because of no continental football the club will lose quite a bit of money, so next year qualifying is a must.

Fantastic last season with BEC - including the knock out of Guangzhou!

Now good luck in China.