A One Way Ticket to Asia ... and Beyond!

We started badly this month going 1-0 down at home to Guangzhou in the early stages of the game, but a penalty from Herrarte got us level before half time and it remained that way, a decent result given their good form of late. We then traveled Jiangsu where another penalty from Herrarte gave us the lead midway through the second half, Saad finished off a rapid counter to seal the win in the final minute, our 3rd league game in quick succession saw us claim another 3 points on the road, after a boring first half we nudged ahead through Saad in the second half, in the 85th minute it looked like we had thrown it away and Quanjian scored after a rare attack but thankfully Saad saved us with a late strike to hand us a 2-1 win. In the FA Cup 4th round we struggled to get going against A'erbin and fell behind before the break, Saad grabbed his 4th goal in 3 games to send us in to penalties where we were once again defeated, no surprise there then! Focus back on the league and a tough trip to high flying Renhe, things looked good when Saad put us ahead but it wasn't enough and we were held to a 1-1 draw.




Two thirds of the way through and we are still third, a 4 point gap back to Huaxia & Renhe with Guangzhou just a point behind them. Shandong don't look like they can be caught but Beijing are chasing them down. Clearly our defense is causing us problems we have conceded far too many goals.




Had to be this guy, with Weijian out of form up front Saad has picked up the responsibility of putting the ball in the net, with 5 goals in his last 4 games! A great month from the winger who just edged the returning Herrarte and typically good Xiuwei.




Almost a mirror of last months, Weijian remains top scorer but hasn't netted in any of the last 8 games. Xiuwei still the top performer and Saad the best creator now on 10 assists, he's also joined Weijian on 4 player of the match awards.




A fairly straightforward month on paper, we host Beikong & Changqing before going to struggling Chaoyue, should really be taking 9 points from these 3 games.




The transfer window closed this month and nobody else has come in but 2 youngsters have gone out on loan, Liu Yang was allowed to leave having made just 2 appearances this season but the big news of the month was one of our bright midfield prospects Xiaorui moved to Beijing for just under £1m, this is a blow to our side but we have Zhechao available to play there and he';s been playing well, I didn't want to lose Xiaorui but his contract expires at the end of the season and he wouldn't discuss a new one with us despite numerous attempts so I had to cash in on him when Beijing offered almost £1m up front with more to come after 50 league games! This has really upset the squad though they aren't happy at all despite us having another 3 or 4 young midfielders looking to break into the squad, hopefully this won't derail our season!

Absolutely great story this. As I mentioned before, it's great to see some new leagues and exotic tournaments.

Just had a quick question: I saw there are only 9 countries in your South American qualifying group. Has Argentina taken over the organization from Qatar or have they turned into a dictatorship and got robbed of participating in the tournament?

Well that's not exactly gone to plan! Things started comfortably enough as loanee Binbin grabbed his first goal for the club followed by second half strikes from Herrarte & In-Sung handing us a comfortable 3-0 win. Binbin scored again at home to Chongqing early on and despite being very comfortable throughout we never found a second goal were punished once again by a late strike confining to a 1-1 draw, an awful result! Things weren't to get any better when we traveled to Chaoyue, the relegation threatened side battered us in the first 20 minutes controlling possession and raced into a 2 goal lead, I altered the teams style to try and get more of the ball and it worked straight away with Wijian's first goal in 11 games giving us hope, Yifeng got us on terms with over 20 to play but we just couldn't find a winner! Another 2 points dropped against a poor side, not a good month.




3 straight wins for Renhe who are back in form sees them move above us via the head to head record, Guangzhou have also closed the gap on me to 4 points, it looks like it's gonna be a tight contest for the top 4. Shandong meanwhile have pretty much wrapped the title up already, they can't throw that away.




Herrarte's performances have been good but i'd like to see his work resulting in more goals, which will hopefully happen if Weijian's goal boosts his confidence. We need to keep Herrarte fit for the run in if we are going to make the top 3 for ACL Group Stage qualification.




Nothing much to report, Weijian moves on to 21 goals and Saad with 2 more assists this month is now on 12, main thing here is that Herrarte's reward for outshining everyone this month is moving back up to the top of the ratings charts.




Home ties against Fuli & Shenhua are must win games really, it's hard to see us taking anything off of Beijing given their form this season.

Thanks mate!

Well noticed, yes Argentina have taken over from Qatar as host nation, which saves me from a couple of heavy beatings anyway haha

A trip to Uruguay was all we needed at this point, Cavani was far too good for us and opened the scoring in the opening minutes, we managed to keep them at bay until half then to my surprise we came out fighting in the second half and Denis Gonzalez made it 1-1 to make him the country's record goalscorer, we were looking ok until the final 20 minutes where we just couldn't cope mainly with Cavani who made it 2-1 and promptly setup a third to clinch the game for Uruguay. Game 2 and a trip to high flying Venezuela, things got off to a flyer as Sanabria curled in a delicious 25 yard strike but immediately Rondon took the ball round 4 of our 'defenders' and smashed it past the keeper for 1-1, awful defending! Shortly after we were 2-1 down but Gonzalez increased his record tally with the games 4th goal in 17 minutes!! Once again we were comfortable for a while but went behind around the hour mark, we threw everything at them but couldn't carve out a chance to level then Rondon broke away in the closing stages and made it 4-2, game over!




Bolivia's 1-1 draw with Colombia puts us bottom of the table thanks to our terrible goal difference, we face them next month hoping to pick up a first win under my control, we then go to Brazil ... joy! Uruguay are ridiculously good and what Venezuela are doing up there i've no idea, if they didn't have Rondon they would suck! He's a beast!




4 straight defeats sees us drop severely and into the nations lowest ever ranking! That's not good, but I have ti keep plugging away.




This is tough, annoying thing is there are some excellent players but there is also a huge lack of quality in key area, i'm going to switch to a 3-1-3-1-2 which will suit my better players better but it's not a shape i'm keen on, the game against Bolivia is huge chance to boost confidence which is understandably low, we then face Brazil. In November we have 2 friendlies arranged against Honduras & Serbia so there is a good amount of game time to work on the squad.

We started with a win over Fuli thanks to Weijian's 22nd goal of the season, although the performance wasn't great but 3 points is what matters most, next up a trip to Beijing and a match that I employed my more negative counter attacking style and it certainly worked, a second clean sheet in a row and although we never managed to score ourselves, a 0-0 draw here is a good result. The final game this month though, no idea what happened we couldn't get anywhere near Shenhua for the first 20 minutes and found ourselves 3-0 down!! Tactical changes started to effect the game and Zhechao got us a goal back before half time, In-Sung gave us a glimmer of hope towards then end but despite them going down to 10 men near the end they held on and we were punished for our awful start! That could hurt...




Back to third, Renhe have stuttered losing 2 of their 3 games so we move a point ahead of them and will need to maintain that to finish above them, Guangzhou have matched our results this month which maintains a 4 point gap, Shandong have won the league comfortably dropping just 11 points! A fifth league title in a row for them and they contest the FA Cup Final against Beijing looking for a 7th cup win in a row, pure dominance!! These 2 being in the final confirms that 4th place in the league will enter the ACL Qualifiers but I want top 3 so that we can go straight in to the group stage.




This boy is magic, even when the team is playing badly he produces, plenty of key passes creating chances for others, just one assist this month but we only scored 3 goals. Overall performances from him have been excellent again.




Not much different here.




A must win game really against A'erbin at home starts things off before a daunting trip to Shandong and a tricky away tie at Shanggang. Guangzhou's involvement in the ACL may help us out as they are through to the Semi's and Renhe have to go to Beijing & Shandong in their final 2 games, so third place really is ours to throw away, if we can win 2 of the 3 games we should be fine, in truth 1 is probably enough.

Herrarte & Weijian bagged first half goals in a 2-0 win over A'erbin but it came at a cost, Herrarte broke his leg which will carry over in to next season if his contract is renewed. We then held firm against Shandong for just over an hour before they finally broke our resistance to claim a single goal victory. The final game of the season and further disappointment, Renhe had picked up a win at Beijing meaning we would need to beat Shanggang to have any chance of finishing 3rd, which we couldn't do as we fell to a 2-0 loss, meaning we would have to go through ACL Playoff's rather than going straight in to the Group Stage.




So we had to settle for 4th, still giving us continental football as Shandong (of course) went on to win the FA Cup as well as the league, the big surprises being Renhe making the top 3 and Guangzhou missing out on Champions League football, a huge shock and I can't understand how their manager is still employed, a situation i'm monitoring closely!



A poor end to the season so there wasn't a lot to choose from, Diakite was quite solid at the back in the 3 games so takes the plaudits from what will likely be his final 3 games for the club as he's refusing to talk about a new deal.




Weijian ends as top scorer on 23 goals, a very impressive campaign from the youngster, Herrarte was the best performer but doubts remain about his injury problems so i'm not sure if his contract will be renewed although it's hard not to given his capabilities, Saad's first season has been a success and he tops the assist charts with 13. Financially it's been a good season thanks to a few player sales and the ACL games seeing a profit of over £4m even after paying for facility upgrades.




Top player ratings came from Herrarte, Xiuwei & Saad but there were a number of solid performances from players over the season, I have high hopes for Yifeng who has done well and of course Weijian but his performances weren't great considering the goals he scored and he really went off the boil in the second half of the season which concerns me. The likely departure of Diakite will be a huge blow he has been excellent for us over the 2 seasons.




The player of the season award was just about shaded by Xiuwei with Herrarte very close in the voting, Weijian scoops goal of the season and Saad is the signing of the season, Xiuwei claiming young player of the season as well is a bit strange to me given that he's 24! Would have expected Yifeng or Weijian to get it.



Herrarte broke the Super League record that Xiuwei set last season!




Another successful season for Hangzhou with another campaign in the Champions League very possible, a record league win set with a 6-0 thumping of Yongchang being the highlight and rightfully the crazy 5-1 defeat to Renhe being the moment to forget. The Champions League performances exceeded expectations and really boosted our finances but the FA Cup was a big disappointment being defeated in our first game. Thoughts from it are that a number of our younger players have had successful seasons and gained some great experience which will hopefully help us to kick on again next season, will be looking to continue our run of qualifying for the Champions League.

2 of the players released were first team members as Kim In-Sung was let go & Moussa Diakite decided to leave which is a massive hole to fill. 3 players come in to the squad detailed below.



Yongpo has been solid in the CSL for a number of years but is admittedly on the decline especially his physical stats, his versatility was the key in me bringing him in as he can provide cover in times of need to 5 different positions if needed.


I cam across Colman during my time at Paraguay although obviously he wasn't near the national team, he had a decent scoring record in Paraguay at 3 de Febrero but had decided to leave the club for a new challenge, he will provide competition for our young hotshot Weijian and also brings in great ability from set pieces.



Li Songyi is a well known name in the CSL and has been consistent for a number of years so i'm pleased to pick him up from Beijing for just £900k, he is the direct replacement for Diakite and although he won't live up to the standard set by Diakite he displays decent attributes and his determination makes him a perfect fit for us. He will have competition from a couple of youth products that are getting involved in the first team.

The final signing isn't pictured as he is a young player with potential so won't be near the first team yet.




Only one important game in all of these, we faced Indonesian outfit Semen Padang in our ACL Playoff and comfortably beat them 2-0 thanks to goals from new signing Colman and Saad.




Medai expect us to finish 5th with Shanggang tipped to break the top 4, the board expectations remain as a mid table finish and not expecting us to qualify from ACL Group, my personal expectation for the league as per usual is top 4 and hope for ACL qualification.




South Korean side Seoul will be the toughest competition, once again we are drawn up against Saitama of Japan who we should be able to get the better of, the final team is Central Coast Mariners of Australia, they are about half way through their season and are mid table so on that thinking should be an 'easier' opponent than Melbourne City last season who were top then and are again now.With that logic I fancy our chances of getting through this group but don't want to get my hopes up too much.




Beijing got the better of dominant Shandong in the Super Cup, could this be the season their dominance is broken?

Ok so this doesn't look like a good month on the face of it, but it's not as bad as it appears to be. A 0-0 draw away to CCM in the ACL Group and although it would have been nice to grab a win i'm confident we have the quality to beat them at home which would give us head to head advantage on them, we then put in a spirited performance against Seoul but they were just too strong for us, Colman netting his 2nd goal in 3 games for us the positive news from this game. Our league opener was disappointing, after Xiuwei finally opened the scoring I thought we'd done enough and tried to close the game out but we come undone in stoppage time as Beikong leveled, a few days later we improved to smash Huaxia 3-0 with Weijian scoring on his return to the starting line up, Herrarte returned from his broken leg coming on in the 62nd minute and put us 2-0 up 2 minutes later, Saad made it 3-0 to wrap up a great performance. more trouble followed at home in the league as we dominated against Shenhua but just couldn't find the target and had to settle for a draw. We returned to ACL action with a victory over Japanese rivals Saitama, we were trailing 1-0 at half time but the players responded in an excellent manner a fierce Colman strike cannoned off the post but hit the despairing keeper on the back and went in to make it 1-1, Yifeng then slotted home the winner 15 minutes from time. We ended the month with a tricky tie to Guangzhou who had a 100% record at the time and kept that going as a first half strike was enough to see them past us.



Guangzhou & Shanggang lead the way with 100% records and Shandong just behind having drawn 1 as well as Beikong, we are in the pack behind them with 5 points, not too concerning but certainly should have been better.



We can count ourselves a little unlucky not to be second really as CCM got the better of Seoul in match day 3, we're still in with a shout of qualification.




Mr Reliable is a t it again, a solid start to the season for Xiuwei and he claims the first acknowledgement.







An unusually busy month in the league as we face 6 fixtures, home games against Renhe, Changchun & Jiangsu and trips to Meizhou, Yongchang & A'erbin it what looks fairly straightforward on paper, have to be aiming for 12 points minimum really. 2 decisive games in the ACL Group as well as we host CCM and then travel to Japan to face Saitama, realistically we need to win both to go through I think.

It started so well, we saw off the challenge of Renhe with goals from Saad, Yifeng and a brace from Herrarte in a 4-2 win before picking up what could be a massive win in the ACL as goals from Saad, Weijian & Yifeng eased us past CCM to put us in to 2nd. FM then decided to start it's 'you shall not win' game with me, Weijian put us in front early on against Meizhou and then we completely fell apart as they deservedly beat us 3-1, Weijian gave us the lead again in the next game at home to Changchun in the second half but again we threw it away conceding with around 10 minutes to play. With games coming thick and fast we head to Yongchang and were ahead early on again with a strike from Jinshuai in the 7th minute, yet again we failed to see it out and had to settle for a draw. Spirits were low and they got even lower as we traveled to Saitama in the ACL and got ripped a new one, we were never in the game and come out with a 3-0 hiding, the woe continued at home to Jiangsu where we went into the break 1-0 down, Weijian had us on terms for all of 2 minutes as we slumped to a 2-1 defeat. The final game of the month was slightly more spirited as fought back from going behind twice to snatch a draw thanks to Saad & Yifeng. So disappointing as it looked like a month that we could have made good progress in but it couldn't have gone any worse really!




Not good reading at all, languishing down in 10th with just 2 wins from 10 games, I knew we would be slightly weakened by the departure of Diakite but not in this way, need some of the younger players to start stepping up to the plate and to be honest this season looks like a good chance to get them involved.



This might look ok on the face of it but, we go to Seoul in the last game and if the other game ends in anything but a draw then we will need to get at least a point from Korea, so no it's not looking good here.




Not much to choose from this month but this guy never gets a bad rating! Doesn't matter where I play him, he can even get sent off and still get a decent rating!




We start the month looking to end our awful form with a trip to Quanjian before the crucial ACL trip to Seoul, return to league action at home to Flui before traveling to Beijing and then ending the month with a visit from high flying Shanggang, some tough games this month so we need to get some confidence back asap.

Good luck mate, try steal a point from Seoul!

Another poor month then, we started brightly when Weijian put us ahead early on against Quanjian but a goal in either half had the hosts in control, Yongpo came on to net his first goal for the club and rescue a draw but it was far from convincing ahead of our big trip to Seoul, which was an absolute humiliation for 85 minutes! By the time Saad netted in the 56th minute we had already shipped 5 goals with our defense having a nightmare, Seoul were running rings round us and made it 6-1 in the 83rd minute, we managed to restore a little pride with late goals from 18 year old Tan Lin & Weijian getting among the goals again, but it's a shambles of a result really. Back to league action and we made changes at the back which saw us hold firm until the 89th minute when Fuli netted an undeserved winner, another loss! The shock of the month came in a game I expected nothing from, we were excellent and deservedly got the better of Beijing thanks to strikes from Jinshuai & Weijian, hopefully the slump was over, we managed a goalless draw against one of the better sides in the league this season as we shut out Shanggang to claim back to back clean sheets.




Really not looking good, just 3 points above the drop almost at the half way point! We're 10 points behind the top 4 finish I had hoped for so i'm at the point where I consider this season a write off, main concern for me now is the FA Cup really and getting some of our prospects some experience in the first team. Maybe a bit early to give up on top 4 but we just aren't good enough at the moment.



We didn't make it, which should ease the pressure on the squad at least. CCM didn't just beat Saitama, they destroyed them! At one point we were 5-1 down while CCM were 5-1 up so there was no hope. Really frustrating as I thought we were good enough to qualify from that when it was drawn.




Weijian has been in good form in front of goal and is keeping Paraguayan Colman out of the team, he has scored 3 and made 2 in his last 5 games and his performances have been good, needs to work on his consistency though.




A tough month ahead, we travel to Shandong before a trip to high flying Beikong, finally we host Huaxia who are currently 6th, a very tough month but only 3 games to contend with might help out a bit.

We remained unbeaten in a very tricky month so i''m happy with that, we started with an impressive 2-0 win over Shandong with second half goals coming from Herrarte & Songyi, we then picked up a point at high flying Beikong with a Weijian strike cancelled out by a late equaliser, finally we struggled to a draw at home to Huaxia thanks to a late equaliser from Yifeng.




Too many draws this season means we are struggling to achieve our expectations, languishing down in 9th and 11 points behind Beikong for our pre season hopes of a top 4 finish which looks like a bust now. In other news Guangzhou's lack of continental football is clearly working a treat as they are on course to be the first team in years to better Shandong.




Herrarte again, he's not up to his usual high standards but is still by far the best player at the moment, managed a goal and an assist in the Shandong game which was probably enough on it's own to get the star performer.




A real quiet month with just 2 games scheduled, we travel to First Division side Wuhan in the FA Cup and then to Shenhua in the league, if we get through our FA Cup tie the Quarter Final will be played before month end too.

We made hard work of getting past our lower league rivals in the FA Cup, despite being the better side by far and leading through Saad's first half strike we were pegged back just before the 80th minute, thankfully we won a penalty just minutes later which Yongpo converted to send us through. Our return to league action was a huge disappointment with our forwards again mis-firing, we were the dominant side but were made to pay as Shenhua grabbed the only goal of the game. The FA Cup Quarter Final saw us face Second Division side Liansheng which was a blessing and a curse really, due to them being 2 divisions below us we weren't allowed to play any of our foreign players, with an international break coming at the same time we were without over half of our regular xi and had to dip in to the U19's to field a side! The game was very even but our youngsters managed to hold their nerve and qualified after a sudden death penalty shootout!




Only one game played in the league this month so very little change to the table although our defeat to Shenhua has moved us down to 10th, not good reading!




Tough this month ass there were 3 very different line ups, Yue Xin was one of few to play all 3 games and was solid in them so i've selected him.




Alysson has been imported from Brazil to try and bolster our struggling defense, he has similar attributes to Varela but the latter lacks consistency which is something i'm hoping Alysson can bring to the side. Another very determined player added to the squad as well.

Central midfielder Chen Zhechao has moved on as well, with an offer of almost £500k I couldn't refuse really, I have 3 young players that are similar in ability already with potential to improve and wasn't planning on offering Zhechao a new deal anyway, so might as well cash in now.




Busy again next month, 5 league games to come with a visit from Guangzhou the stand out fixture at the start of the month, we also face visits from Meizhou and Yongchang at the end of the month and travel to Renhe and Changchun. Between all those we host the Semi Final 1st Leg against Fuli with the return trip the following month.

Thanks for the comment mate, Seoul were just too strong for us but ultimately the Saitama game was the one that cost us.


Just realised I forgot to post my final Paraguay update, in brief we beat Bolivia and then lost to Brazil in the qualifiers, we then lost to Honduras in a friendly and then I made the decision to resign and focus solely on Hangzhou, didn't feel I was gaining anything from managing Paraguay so was the right thing to do.

Far better results this month although performances are still a slight concern, we trailed for much of the game against Guangzhou but Yifeng came off the bench to net a late equaliser and give us a point against the league leaders, we beat Renhe 2-0 thanks to goals from Saad and Herrarte in our second league game then headed into the first leg of our Semi Final, with an emphatic 4-1 win over Fuli we made a huge stride towards the final and potentially getting into the ACL again, a strike from bit part player Yangpo adding to a fantastic hat trick from Weijian. We then scraped a 1-0 win as we failed to take our chances but managed a clean sheet meaning Herrarte's 1st minute penalty was enough to secure a win, Yifeng & Weijian scored first half goals to put us in control at home to Meizhou and despite a late goal we held on comfortably, finally we made it 5 straight wins as we saw off the challenge of Yongchang, we went behind early on but Herrarte had us level soon after, a brace from Weijian put us in control and again we conceded late but held on comfortably to wrap up a productive month.




Our form this month has moved us up to 8th and broke us away from the bottom half, we've also closed the gap on the top 4 to just 4 points so still have an outside chance of the finish I desired at the start of the season. Just 2 points separate the top 3 so the title run in will be a close one, 7 games to go...




Weijian has been much improved this season and just outshone Herrarte who had another good month, 6 goals and an assist in 4 starts for the young hotshot, looks like his stint on the bench gave him the required kick up the backside.




We start at home to A'erbin just as they are finding some form and then travel to Jiangsu before the second leg of our FA Cup Semi Final against Fuli then finish the month at home to Quanjian.

A mixed month for us, starting off with a 4-0 demolition of A'erbin who had been in good form, 4 different scorers in Yifeng, Saad, Alysson and Jinshuai. Returning to league action we were destroyed by Jiangsu, despite a fairly even game they took their chances and we didn't, Yangpo managed a late consolation, another poor result in the FA Cup 2nd Leg and I honestly thought we were going to throw away a 4-1 lead, at 2-0 with 10 minutes to play if Fuli had have scored another we would have gone out on away goals! We held on to book our place in the Final! Finally we eased past Quanjian thanks to a Colman cross being diverted in to his own net by Shi Ke, Colman then got on the score sheet himself and Jinshuai wrapped up the win with 10 minutes to go.




We've climbed to 7th but the good form of Beikong has realistically put the top 4 out of reach, we will need to win the FA Cup if we want to play continental football again next season. The title race is wide open with Shandong taking over at the top after going to Guangzhou and smashing them 3-0! Just 4 points separates the top 4 but Shandong do have a game in hand so could put themselves firmly in control.




Xiuwei has been solid as usual, with no other spectacular performances from anyone in a very mixed month for us, but Xiuwei's performances have been very good.




Fang Ning's attributes are up there with the best i've seen for a youth candidate since i've been at Hangzhou so i'll be keeping a close eye on his development.




A tough run to the end for us, we head to Fuli to start with and they've had a decent season currently just above us in 6th, we then have home games against Beijing who are 5th and Shandong the league leaders. Our final league game is away to 2nd placed Shanggang who we will then face over 2 legs in the FA Cup Final, my first shot at a trophy for Hangzhou.

Can you link me to where you got the Chinese badges from pls?


Good stuff so far, nice to see someone else having a bash at one of the games more obscure leagues.

Thanks for the comment Ninja, it's enjoyable managing in these leagues.

Logos are part of the TCM16 Megapack can be found here http://www.passion4fm.com/football-manager-tcm16-logo-megapack/

Thanks for the comment Ninja, it's enjoyable managing in these leagues.

Logos are part of the TCM16 Megapack can be found here http://www.passion4fm.com/football-manager-tcm16-logo-megapack/

Back to back 3-2 wins to start with goals from Colman, Saad & Alysson netting eaerly goals and we managed to hold on for a win despite Fuli pulling 2 back, we then saw off Beijing by the same scoreline with goals coming in from Yifeng, Herrarte & Weijian. A valiant performance wasn't enough against league leaders Shandong as we were beaten by a first half strike despite matching them for much of the game, we then faced Shanggang in our final league game and a rehearsal of the upcoming FA Cup Final, a brace from Herrarte wasn't enough as we conceded a late equaliser and had to settle for a draw. We were fortunate in the first leg at home to Shanggang, very fortunate, we led for much of the game through Weijian's first half strike but were on the back foot, after thwarting attack after attack from Shanggang we broke away and Weijian made it 2-0 with the final kick of the game, a goal that would be vital. Knowing that a goal in the second leg would have us in control we never looked like getting it and found ourselves clinging on for penalties at 2-0 down, constantly on the back foot lightning struck twice as we launched a last minute counter attack resulting in Weijian securing the clubs first ever trophy! The FA Cup was heading to Hangzhou!



So Shandong win the league yet again despite being less dominant this season, the surprise of the season being Beikong who secured 2nd place with Guangzhou having to settle for 3rd which at least sees them return to ACL. Shanggang claim 4th but miss out on ACL football thanks to losing the FA Cup to your truly. Fuli's impressive campaign sees them finish 5th just above us in 6th after a disappointing season, we got the top half finish but not the top 4 I wanted at the start of the season.




Herrarte of course, 3 goals and an assist from the games he played and a number of top quality performances as always.




Weijian claims the clubs top scorer again with 19 goals, Herrarte leads the ratings and player of the match charts and Saad ends as the top creator with just 8 assists. Finances have remained stable for the past few months and we finish the season over £2m better off than how we started it.




3 key players again this season Xiuwei, Herrarte & Weijian.

Well done on the FA Cup, still enjoying this Gaz! keep it coming

Thanks Dan, nice to win a trophy and of course gives me a 3rd season in a row in the Champions League.

A short pre season in terms of friendlies this time around, we held a training camp in Ukraine before the games and we face Shandong in the Super Cup before the ACL Group Stage gets going so didn't want a hectic schedule pre season.




Board expectation this season has increased to a top half finish, they still don't expect qualification in the ACL Group. Media expectation is 5th and personally I would like to break back in to the top 4 but i'd take top 6, hoping to see signs of progress from some promising youngsters this season.




A typically tough ACL Group, drawn against Seoul again and Melbourne City with Japanese outfit Osaka completing the group, will be tough as ever but we've got a chance.



Took a bit of convincing but the board have agreed to invest some of our wealth to improve youth facilities further, personally feel we need the best youth facilities we can get to try and keep us in touch with the big teams, we simply can't match their ludicrous spending, how they stay afloat i've no idea!




3 players come in and 5 head out, but we've lost 2 big players with left back Yue Xin heading to Beijing for £1.4m and start striker Wang Weijian moving to Shandong for an initial £5.75m that could rise to £8m, I didn't want him to go but with his contract running out next season and him refusing to talk about a new one as we weren't good enough for him, the off was too much to turn away. Replacements for these 2 have been drafted in as well as a new defender.



A replacement of sorts for Weijian, Assis will provide cover for Herrarte just behind Colman and with Herrarte able to play either role I will be looking for these 3 to rotate the 2 roles between them as well as some youngsters getting opportunities. Hoping Colman can come good this season now he should get a run in the side.



Zhang Chen joins for a small fee from Beikong to cover for the departure of Xin, he isn't up to the same quality as Xin but is still solid at this level and with a promising left back breaking through to the first team squad i'm hopeful the youngster can reach Xin's level, so Chen will become a backup player over time.



Our big signing is Gao Zhunyi who joins from rivals Jiangsu, has been solid in the CSL for a number of years and should provide us some consistency in the defence, especially with Alysson getting on in years and expectedly starting to decline i'm hoping Zhunyi and Songyi can provide a solid foundation for years to come.




Competitive fixtures start for us in late February as we travel to Shandong for the Super Cup after our FA Cup success last season, we then face Melbourne City and a trip to Osaka in the ACL before the league gets going. We start at home to Yongchang before a trip to Shanggang who we defeated in the FA Cup Final then host Fuli before returning to ACL action at home to Seoul. The final 2 games in March are away to Beijing and home to Shenhua, a packed schedule as usual at this time of the year.

An awful start in the Super Cup, Herrarte grabbed a late goal for us but it was little consolation as we were destroyed 5-1, Things picked up after though as we raced into an early 3-0 lead thanks to a brace from Jinshuai and a Colman strike, Melbourne got one back before half time but Colman bagged his 2nd to make it 4-1 and we held on for the win after Melbourne scored 2 quickfire goals as the game drew to a close. We trailed in Japan at half time but our 2nd half performance was terrific, a brace from Herrarte either side of Saad's strike secured a superb comeback and a perfect start to our ACL Group. Herrarte continued his good form with a brace against Yongchang added to by an own goal in a 3-0 win, we then secured another win against Shanggang despite being on the back foot for much of the game, Xiuwei struck a late screamer to snatch all 3 points.Fuli visited us and frustrated us in game 3 and we had to settle for a 0-0 draw, a 3rd clean sheet in a row but we just couldn't find a way past their keeper, we returned to ACL action and were put in our place by Korean giants Seoul who inflicted another 5-1 defeat on us, Herrarte struck for us at 3-0 down but we went on to lose 5-1 in the end, so deflating! With games coming thick and fast we were beaten 1-0 at Beijing and then ended the month with a 1-1 draw at home to Shenhua despite being the better side by some distance, a second half strike from Herrarte was cancelled out by a scrappy goal late on.




A mixed start to our CSL season with 8 points from 5 games, currently sitting 4th. Shandong and Guangzhou are of course the early pace setters.



6 points from our opening 3 games puts us ina great position, the next game against Melbourne could be crucial to who progresses, them holding Seoul to a draw didn't help though!




Weijian who?? Since Colman went down with injury Herrarte has taken the burden of scoring on his shoulders and has notched 7 goals in 9 games over this period also providing 3 assists and typically good performances.




Look at those finances! Incredible progress really hoping the club is now in a position where we can keep hold of our young prospects but continuing to improve our youth facilities to keep good quality players coming through just in case.




Another hectic month ahead, we have 8 games with a trip to Melbourne and hosting Osaka in the ACL, trips to Quanjian, Liaoning, Jiangsu & Guangzhou and home games against A'erbin & Qingdao in the league.

Cheers,

It is fun. I'm now into my 14th season in China, but I can't help but think it would be better if SI paid the slightest bit more attention to the league.

You finding it is really easy to pick up great players because their teams just aren't renewing their contracts?

No, quite the opposite i've had an eye on many players whose contracts are due to expire but they always sign a new one before I can approach. I'm struggling with player acquisition in general really, clubs are demanding ridiculous sums of money for bang average players which is forcing me to turn to youth players.

I agree about paying more attention to the league though, in the 3 countries i've been in so far some really weird stuff goes on.

Thats the current top players, every single one, apart from Luo Jianfeng (who I had bids accepted for but never could convince to come back to China) was signed on a free, Wang Le went to Nice after I didn't think he was worth the wages he was asking for.

I go for a twin approach. If I want a player and their contracts running down I wait it out, normally clubs don't offer new deals until the last week or so, by which point the players value has plummeted and then I swoop in lowballing the club and one-upping the contract offer. And if they don't offer them a new deal, then even better.

But contracted players is a whole different ball game, my longterm aim here is to try and win the World Cup with China. So I'm hoping between teams and improving youth and training facilities, aiming to improve the standard, but its slow work. And because clubs have more money than there is available talent the prices are ridiculous. Just dropped over £5m on this ffs:

We comfortably saw off Quanjian to claim our first win in 5 games with Xiuwei & Herrarte goals giving us a 2-0 lead at the break and Assis' first goal for the club making it 3-0 12 minutes from the end, this was followed by disappointment as we fell to a 3-1 defeat at Melbounre in the ACL Group meaning our fate was no longer in our hands, Saad had given us hope when his strike made it 1-1 but Melbourne took control in the second half and ran out 3-1 winners. We picked up another league win as we saw off newly promoted Liaoning thanks to 19 year old striker Wang Yi grabbing his first senior goal and Ge Yifeng making it 2-0 before a late Liaoning goal ensured a nervy finish but we held on for a 2-1 win. We then held Jiangsu to a draw despite spending large periods under pressure we managed to hold firm and claim a point from our rivals, the next game saw us return to winning ways as we beat struggling A'erbin 2-0 in front of our fans, Jinshuai & Yifeng getting the goals to seal the win before the break. Osaka grabbed an entirely undeserved late winner out of nowhere in a game we should have won comfortably that in reality sees us knocked out of the ACL, a huge disappointment after winning our first 2 games we just haven't been good enough! We bounced back from disappointment to finish the month strongly, although it took time as lowly Qingdao took the lead midway through the 2nd half which seemed to spark us in to life, Colman converted a penalty on his return from injury to level it up before Jinshuai and Saad secured a 3-1 win, a trip to Guangzhou looked daunting and our record against them isn't great but it got better here as Colman struck the only goal in the first half and we claimed all 3 points from what was a very even game. Our final game this month was a visit from Renhe which had been brought forward for TV coverage. Another 1-0 win for us, Luo Dong grabbed his first goal for us early on and that was enough for victory.




A combination of our solid form and inconsistency from other sides has seen us move top of the table, with a 5 point lead! The performances of Shandong & Guangzhou are a huge surprise, both are struggling at the moment but there's a long way to go yet.



Not looking good, Melbourne have us beat on the head to head results so we need to win away at Seoul and hope that they fail to beat Osaka, not asking for much.




This little gem has been outstanding, just 19 years old and he has been our best player this season in my opinion, even though he is playing a role that isn't best suited to him to allow Xiuwei the freedom of the midfield he just keeps turning in quality performances! Could develop into the league's best midfielder in the future if he keeps this up!




A tough start as we head to Seoul in our final ACL Group game and 3 days later host Shandong in the league! We then face 3 straight away trips against Huaxia, Beikong & Yongchang before almost a month off due to the World Cup, which is why i'll post May & June in the same update. I've arranged some friendlies to keep fitness up although they aren't shown here.

Great read as always gaz.. That Seoul followed by Shandong is going to be huge for you. I really hope you can pull off the double win!