[FM10] Clifford sets his sights on Management

[lutontown1991]

Former Nottingham Forest striker Aodhagán Clifford announced his decision to retire from professional football today, 29th of January 2010. He broke the news to his fans and the football world alongside his agent Graham Smalling and manager Billy Davies. The 29 year old Irish man had his playing career cut short after suffering a second broken leg within a year. "I was both shocked and upset when the club physio told me it would be impossible for me to play football at a professional level again" Clifford told the large media presence. Clifford picked up the injury at the weekends game at home to Plymouth. The fans went silent when they saw Aodhagán grab his leg in agony, the same leg that he had broken not so long ago. It looked serious at the time and today Clifford confirmed the worst.

Clifford started his career in Ireland playing for his local side Cork City FC. It wasn't long before he sealed a move across the waters to play professional football in England at the age of 19. He spent 3 years playing for Luton Town but moved on to better things at Nottingham Forest where he became a club legend in the 7 years that he played there.

When asked "whats next" by James Matthews from the Daily Mail, Clifford replied promptly "management".

"Its something I have always had an interest in" he said. "I hope to be given the chance to show what I can do with a group of footballers. I can relate to the players of the modern era. I want to win the trophies I never got the chance to win as a player. I am confident." inspirational words from Clifford who showed very little emotion throughout the whole press conference.

So its the end of an era in terms of Clifford's playing career but the future looks bright for him as he sets off in search of managerial success.

[lutontown1991]

The Setup

Career Overview

Beijing Guo'an 18th May 2010-

[lutontown1991]

Having retired as a professional footballer in early January the search to find a team to manage began straight away. There wasn't many job vacancies in the first few months, the only one being Tranmere who chose to hire Les Parry instead of an inexperienced Irishman. No harm though as it wasn't long before a couple of jobs opened up. The two vacancies were in China, in the Chinese Super League. Holders Beijing had sacked their former manager after 11 games following a poor start to the season in which they were expected to win. 13th placed Henan were also without a manager and I sent a copy of my CV to both chairmen. Both replied and I was offered both positions. First to come knocking on my door was Henan on the 17th of May. I rejected the offer and the next day I recieved a phone call offering me the Beijing job. I took it. The best team in China? Sounds like a great prospect. An interesting way to start off my managerial career.

[lutontown1991]

I arrived at Beijing in 8th place, 11 games through the 30 game season 15 points adrift of division leaders Shenhua. Having looked at the club I think it has some very interesting characteristics. The club was founded back in 1993 so they are a relatively new team. They play their home games at a place called Worker's Stadium which can hold 56890 fans. We are affiliated with Real Madrid & Ajax so expect some high profile friendlies in pre-season. The only time Beijing have one the Chinese Super League was last season in 2009. In their short history the club have also picked up 3 FA Cup titles. It is my ambition to add to this clubs history and hopefully become a fans favourite. I am not going to promise that I will be here long term but I certainly want to win some trophies before I leave. With regards to the rest of the season, I will aim for a top 5 finish and hopefully build the squad into a title winning season for my first full season in charge.

[lutontown1991]

My first game in charge for Beijing went very well. We were playing Jeonbuk from South Korea in the Asian Champions League final group game. I played a 4-3-3 formation which I am using ever since and it paid off. We won the game 3-0 with Joel Griffiths netting twice and the other came from Darko Matic. Our next game was in the Super League. We beat Tianjin by one single goal to move up one position. We then faced a tough game against Osaka AC in the Champions League 2nd Round. We managed to win 2-1. This impressed the fans. A quarter final spot had our name on it. Two straight league defeats followed this and we slipped to 11th. A month without competitive football followed this so I organised three friendlies to keep the players fit during the break. We won 2 of 3. All controlled by my assistant Lu Jun. The first game after the break was against 4th placed Dalian. Ryan Griffiths scored twice in a 2-1 win. The next game was against league leaders Shenhua who only lost once all season. We beat them 2-0 to continue our ascent up the table. We won the next 2 games also. Beating Quingdao 4-2 and Nanchang 3-0. Goals coming from various members of the team which is good. We now sit in 5th place on 28 points but Shenhua still lead with 43.

[lutontown1991]

Changsha & Chengdu were the next two opponents in the league. We won both matches, 3-1 and 2-1. As usual we had various players scoring the goals. We don't rely on one player to win a game. After six straight league wins we suffered defeat away to Jiangsu, losing 3-1. 31 year old Brazilian Vicente scoring 2 for them. A player I am interested in but his £700k value is a little bit of a turn off. We then drew with Liaoning and lost to Henan to see us fall a few places. This was beginning to look bad. The next game we turned things around beating Shenzen 2-0. This was our last preperation before the Asian Champions League Quarter Finals. We were up against South Korean side Suwon. We lost 2-1 at home in the first leg and a scoreless draw in South Korea sent them through. Not to worry. In between those two CL games we beat Tianjin 1-0 but after the second Suwon fixture we lost 2-1 to Shandong leaving our league table position looking less respectable as we continued on towards the end of the season. We were in 8th. The last four games went well. We beat Guangzhou 1-0 but then lost 1-0 to Chanba. We had moved up to 6th place though. We scored 7 goals in the final two games. We beat Changchun 3-0 and Dalian 4-0. Joel Griffiths was the man who bagged two in the first game and another in the final game. These last two wins boosted us up the table and we finished in a very respectable 3rd place. This was a big boost as it means we will now qualify for the Champions League next season. Our young starlet Huang Bowen won Chinese Young Player of the Year. Vicente won player of the year.

It was a good season if you take where the club was when I took over into consideration. We had a good run in the Champions League and finished 5 places above where I was from the start. End of my first season as a manager and I have to admit that I don't fully feel at home here. I enjoyed it in parts but there is something that gives me the urge to keep checking the 'jobs available' section.

My contract expires in 2013 so I guess we will see how things go. I look forward to delving into the Chinese transfer market and it will be interesting how far we can take this club in my first full season with them.

League Table

[lutontown1991]

Well I decided that I wouldn't apply for the UCD job and instead I would focus on the job at hand. Following on from last season I certainly felt that some area's of the team were strong enough to mount a title challenge for next season but some positions neededed strengthening. I let go a lot of fringe players who I knew I wasn't going to consider putting out on the pitch. I confirmed the signing of Aleksander Zivkovic (link) on a free transfer before the window opened. When I told chairman Luo Ning I was going to win the League next season he decided to allow me £9m for new players. This was a big surprise tbh. I wasn't expecting that much. I feel I spent this money well. I spent £5.75m of the total allowed, on seven new signings bringing our summer intake to eight players. The most noticeable being Vicente from Jiangsu who scored 21 goals in 26 games last season. Sun Xiang another big signing will slot in at left back. An area we were poor in last season. Signed two 16 year old newgens who seem to have a bright future. Mahatma Otoo was another decent signing, the 19 year old looks to have the required attributes to perform very well in China.

There were a lot of other players on my mind but a all of them slipped away and joined bigger clubs or else decided to stay put. It was something that bugged me throughout the window. We had the money for the best players in the league but they had no interest. Do I regret telling the board that I would win the league? Yes. It was a risk I took in the hope of signing some quality players but most wouldn't join Beijing. Now I have to work with what I have and turn this bunch into title winning warriors. It will be a tough season but come next October we should be there or thereabouts.