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chile_paul

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I would say either dealy to end of season or leave.

Delaying my decision isn't an opportunity unfortunately, it was the first thing I looked for! Guangzhou are currently floundering in the relegation zone just over a third of the way through the season so they need somebody in quickly!

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World Footballing News

  • Fans of
    England
    were delighted that the bookmakers favourite, ex-England international,
    Alan Shearer
    was appointed as the new England manager after the resignation of Sam Allardyce, leaving
    Tottenham Hotspurs
    to find a new manager to fill the position at Perryman Park.
    England
    had met expectations by reaching the quarter finals of Euro 2016 where they had been knocked out by eventual champions
    France
    and it was the departing
    France
    manager,
    Laurent Blanc
    who moved into the top job at
    Spurs

  • Shearer
    was not afraid to look to the future in his early games in charge, handing an early debut to West Ham youngster
    . This was followed in subsequent friendly games against South Korea with debuts for Chelsea defender
    and Sunderland's
    Conor Wickham.

  • Just 2 weeks prior to the start of the season
    Sunderland
    fans were devestated to see their hopes and plans for the upcoming season thrown into dissaray as
    Sinisa Mihailojvic
    was poached to become the new
    Valencia
    manager. Jose Luis Oltra the departing Valencia manager had been cast aside in sweeping changes in the club by new owners

  • Fernando Torres
    completed his UEFA coaching badge and was proud to tell the world media that he came top of his class, ahead of ex Liverpool team mate
    Steven Gerrard
    , resulting in speculation that he will shortly be heading straight into a top management job

  • Another ex Liverpool player
    Michael Owen
    was given his first shot at management in the top echelons of English football when he was handed the top job at
    Norwich
    - but once again the League Manager's Association were left shaking their collective heads in disbelief as he was sacked after only 11 games in charge.

  • Gareth Soutgate's Nottingham Forest
    side made a stunning start to the Premier League season with 6 wins from the first 6 games, and the team 4 points clear after 9 games. The Premier League is a long and tough season however and the team just couldn't maintain that early pace, slipping eventually to 9th place.

  • In the end it was another unexpected team who really made the running over the whole season, with newly promoted
    Southampton
    securing an impressive 5th place, earning their manager
    Anton Pierre
    the runners up in the Manager of the Year awards. Down in the Championship it was
    Wigan
    manager
    Danny Cadamarteri
    who picked up the manager of the year award as he steered the team to promotion

  • Chelsea
    sacked manager
    Carlo Ancelotti
    whilst the team were struggling down in 12th place after 11 games of the season, opting for a familiar face by poaching their old first team coach and assistant manager
    Steve Clarke
    from
    Aston Villa.
    Clarke struggled to turn the clubs fortunes around however and Chelsea struggled into 10th place by the end of the season. Another Chelse old boy,
    Michael Essien
    announced his retirement having ended his career with French Ligue 1 side Marseille

  • Arsenal
    splashed the cash on exciting 19 year old French striker
    in a £15.5 million deal from PSG. Vidal had no problem adapting to the pace in the Premier League and immediately started paying back that transfer fee with 18 goals in his first season. Despite that Vidal was not the outstanding young player this season, and instead it was
    Sheffield United's
    young Romanion striker
    who really took the Premier League by storm picking up 22 goals and an average rating of 7.27 - he won't be there to help Sheff Utd next season though, having left on a free transfer to join Roma at the end of the season - what an exciting bargain prospect for Roma fans!

  • Cameroon striker
    became the 4th most expensive transfer of all time as he moved from
    Rennes
    to
    PSG
    in a £34.5 million move and
    Bayern Munich
    were also splashing the cash as they signed
    in a £26m transfer from Dinamo Moscow

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Roll of Honour

Premier League

2011/12
-
1st
Liverpool
2nd
Man City
3rd
Man United

2012/13 - 1st
Man City
2nd
Man United
3rd
Liverpool

2013/14
-
1st
Man City
2nd
Liverpool
3rd
Man United

2014/15 - 1st
Liverpool
2nd
Arsenal
3rd
Man City

2015/16 - 1st
Liverpool
2nd
Man Utd
3rd
Chelsea

2016/17 - 1st
Man Utd
2nd
Liverpool
3rd
Arsenal

FA Cup

2011/12
-
Winners
Aston Villa
Runners-Up
Brighton

2012/13 - Winners
Man Utd
Runners-Up
Stoke

2013/14
-
Winners
Arsenal
Runners-Up
Bolton

2014/15
-
Winners
Sheff Utd
Runners-Up
Man Utd

2015/16 - Winners
Chelsea
Runners-Up
Wolves

2016/17
-
Winners
Wolves
Runners-Up
Sunderland

League Cup

2011/12
-
Winners
Man Utd
Runners-Up
Watford

2012/13 - Winners
Derby
Runners-Up
Arsenal

2013/14 - Winners
Stoke
Runners-Up
Wolves

2014/15
-
Winners
Liverpool
Runners-Up
West Ham

2015/16 - Winners
Man City
Runners-Up
Tottenham Hotspurs

2016/17
-
Winners
Aston Villa
Runners-Up
Man City

Champions League

2011/12
-
Winners
Real Madrid
Runners-Up
Lyon

2012/13 - Winners
Real Madrid
Runners-Up
Liverpool

2013/14 - Winners
Real Madrid
Runners-Up
Man City

2014/15
-
Winners
Man City
Runners-Up
Man Utd

2015/16 - Winners
Barcelona
Runners-Up
Arsenal

2016/17
-
Winners
Barcelona
Runners-Up
PSG

Europa League

2011/12
-
Winners
Sevilla
Runners-Up
Marseille

2012/13 - Winners
PSG
Runners-Up
Arsenal

2013/14 - Winners
Fiorentina
Runners-Up
Lyon

2014/15
-
Winners
Wolfsburg
Runners-Up
Arsenal

2015/16 - Winners
Man Utd
Runners-Up
Basel

2016/17
-
Winners
Liverpool
Runners-Up
Napoli

European Championships

2012 - Winners
Spain
Runners-Up
Italy

2016 - Winners
France
Runners-Up
Germany

African Cup of Nations

2013 - Winners
Mali
Runners-Up
Congo

2015 - Winners
South Africa
Runners-Up
Cameroon

2017 - Winners
Morocco
Runners-Up
Ghana

World Cup

2014 - Winners
Mexico
Runners-Up
France

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Football Focus Special Edition - The Chinese Dragon

Gary Lineker:
So, welcome to our second annual edition of Football Focus World Edition where we take the opportunity in the off season to have deep dive into some of the less well known leagues around the world to see how football is developing - and this year we're travelling half way across the globe to the most populated country in the world to uncover the sleeping Chinese dragon.

Alan Hansen:
That's right Gary, and of course it was only a few years ago when we really thought that the sleeping dragon was about to wake up and really make an impact on the global stage by splashing their cash on some pretty serious targets - both Nicholas Anelka and Didier Drogba had been due to move to Shanghai Shenua and that really was going to generate interest on a global scale, until it all fell through.

Gary Lineker:
Of course, it never quite happened for them, did it Alan

Alan Hansen:
No, the money fell through at the last minute, as the global recession bit and the investors in the club had to withdraw their funds and things turned out very differently for Anelka who went on to work as a pundit on French TV and Drogba who is learning his trade as Assistant Manager at FC Toronto in the MLS. But things haven't been all bad for Chinese football since then, they've been making rapid improvements with their national team haven't they and they're going to have a real opportunity to make some friends in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Gary Lineker:
Absolutely Alan, they've shot up the world rankings in the past 5 years, from below 100 in 2012 to a healthy position of 38th in 2017 and it was no mean feat to claim an automatic qualification spot and force Australia into the final play-off against Qatar.

Alan Hansen:
But they haven't been able to produce in a final's competition before have they Gary

Gary Lineker:
No Alan, and lets face it, nobody is expecting them to progress far in the World Cup finals, but you're right to point out that their fans have been heavily critical of their failure to produce when it matters in either the East Asian Championship or the Asian Games. The South Koreans and the Japanese remain just too strong for them in these competitions and they're going to have to start holding their nerve and performing in these big games when it really matters - and the key to that has to be the development of decent young talent through the domestic league - let's face it they have plenty of young, passionate followers of the game in a country with a population of 1.3 billion, they just need to start developing it! Let's have a look at some of the highlights of the Chinese national teams qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup before we look at how their youth are developing through the domestic system

.......................................................

Alan Hansen:
That was an absolute peach of a goal by Hao Junmin there against South Korea, and at such a critical point in the match.

Gary Lineker:
You're right Alan, 2-0 down after 25 minutes and China must have been fearing for the worst, but that goal really changed the course of the match and gave China the impetus to eventually win 3-2 - and it was that game that really turned the tide on the qualification race and gave them the extra points they needed to overtake Australia.

Alan Hansen:
Hao Junmin is one of China's greates footballing exports isn't he, and he's one of only a few players to have left the domestic league to play abroad?

Gary Lineker:
Yes, Hao joined Russian side Spartak Moscow in a £7.5m move 3 years ago, and he's been a hit since moving with some impressive performances. But overall, their are only a small proportion of Chinese players abroad, with over 70% of the Chinese national team playing in their domestic league.

Alan Hansen:
What about European players moving in the other direction. Has there been an influx of foreign players into China after the moves for Anelka and Drogba collapsed?

Gary Lineker:
Not really Alan, one thing the Chinese FA has done is to implement a rule restricting the number of foreigners into each squad to 6 players, with no more than 3 foreigners allowed in the starting 11 - this has been done deliberately to allow young Chinese players to develop and get game time. The financial crisis has also had an impact, making China a less attractive option for marquee European players forcing the Chinese clubs to focus more on the South American leagues, in particular Brazil, to source their foreign talent.

Alan Hansen:
So let's talk a bit about the domestic league Gary, who are the big time clubs? The assumption was a few years ago that Shanghai Shenhua were really going to dominate domestically, but that really didn't happen and they've slipped back into mid table obscurity - let's take a look at some clips of some of the major teams in action.

..................................

Alan Hansen:
So we covered 4 of the major clubs there Gary. Dalian are the most successful team in Chinese history with 8 super league titles to their name, but they've struggled in recent history and tend to find themselves in mid-table. We also took a look at Shanghai Shenua, but the other 2 dominant forces that we covered were Shandong and Guangzhou and between the 2 of them they've taken 1st and 2nd place in 4 of the last 5 seasons, with only Beijing managing to snatch 2nd place from Shandong in 2013.

Gary Lineker:
Things are going to change at the top this season though Alan. Guangzhou have really lost the plot and are currently struggling down in the relegation zone almost half way through the season - you can't see them challenging for the title this season.

Alan Hansen:
Absolutely not Gary, I guess that has to be good for the overall league, to introduce a bit more competition, but Guangzhou definitely need to sort themselves out - they're playing some awful football. It's not good for the continental competitions either Gary, China have really struggled to perform in the Asian Champions League and if some of their big clubs are struggling domestically it doesn't bode well for their chances travelling around Asia. I mean for a country with 1.3 billion potential players you would have thought they would compete well against their Asian neighbours - it's quite incredible to think that in the last 50 years they've only managed to lift the title twice, most recently when Shandong lifted the trophy in 2013. In fact in the last few years Chinese sides have failed to progress beyond the second round with Iranian teams appearing to be the only challengers to the South Koreans! So what do you think this means for the Chinese game Gary? Despite the improvements from the national side, it doesn't look great domestically does it and they really need to sort that out and start developing some good youth players in order to push on in the international arena?

Gary Lineker:
You're absolutely right Alan, they're going to need to do something a bit differently - it's going to be an interesting area to keep an eye on though over the next couple of seasons, because rumour has it that troubled Guangzhou are on the verge of appointing a young, talented English manager who's been learning his trade and building up quite a reputation in Cameroon over the last couple of years - we're just going to have to wait and see whether he manages to wake up the sleeping dragon, or whether he ends up getting his fingers burnt!!!

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Chile_Paul's Career - New Club Update - Guangzhou

Name:
Guangzhou Hengda

Nickname:
Southern China Tigers

Stadium:
Tianhe Stadium (58,500 all-seater)

Status:
Professional

Reputation:
Continental

PaulScholeyNews_Inbox-9.png

Well I couldn't really turn this down could I? An opportunity to move to a great club within China with huge potential. I do seem to be finding a habit of moving to clubs with a slightly dubious history however:

"On 21 February 2010, Guangzhou was relegated to China League One in the fallout of a match fixing scandal despite having achieved the ninth place in the previous season of Chinese Super League.
[1]
The match in question dated back to 2006, when the club was still playing in the China League One. Guangzhou paid CNY 200,000 to its opponent to secure a win at home."

At least this time nobody was stupid enough to hand over a bag full of cash on the pitch! Well, this is my opportunity to bring clean and attractive football to China and to take Asia by storm!

Board Expectations:

Pirelli Chinese Super League:
Win the title (given our current position in the league I'm grateful that the board won't be judging my performances this season)

CFA Cup:
Not Important

Champions League:
Learn from the experience

My Expectations:

Liga BBVA:
Recover our position and achieve mid table security, more importantly build the team for next season

Copa Del Rey:
We're already in the quarter finals, any further would be nice but not a priority

Champions League:
We're already out and our chances for qualifying next season are slim

Finances:

Transfer:
£11.85m

Wage Budget:
£280,062 p/w

Wage Total:
£108,124 p/w

Balance:
£30,766,616

Average Ticket Price:
£10.50

Season Ticket Price: £129

Season Ticket Holders: 2,457

Estimated Value: £34m

According to my new assistant (promoted from the role of Coach after the last Asst Mgr packed his bags on my first day in the job) we have some decent players in the squad for this level of football - why have they not been producing when it matters then?

Key Player(s):

- the first of my foreign players that I consider to be any good, this young centre back from Brazil looks solid as a rock, hopefully he will play a key part in shoring up my defence

- at 32 years of age I'm concerned that he is my only decent midfielder. He should have a good few years in him yet, so plenty of time to build a team around him

-
the second of my foreign players to have any potential - again however Cleo is well into the second half of his career and at the age of 31 I'm worried that his pace and acceleration are already starting to decline

Facilities:

Stadium:
Tianhe Stadium

Location:
Guangzhou

Rent:
£650k per year

Stadium Condition:
Very Good

Pitch Condition:
Very Good

Under Soil Heating:
Yes

Roof:
No

Surface:
Grass

tianhestadium.png

Corporate Facilities:
Top

Training Facilities:
Average

Youth Facilities:
Adequate

Junior Coaching:
Average

Youth Recruitment:
Above average

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Great club badge.
I was about to say the same thing :) ALso...Drogba is an assistant manager in Toronto?!?!

Thanks both, a good club badge always makes a move to a new club a bit more special!

Regarding Drogba, he left Chelsea at the end of the 2013 season and started off his coaching life as a youth coach for Shakhtar Donetsk before moving to Toronto in November 2014 - he's clearly keen to travel the world as much as I am!

Good luck in China!

Thanks AK22, I think I might need it!!

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Four games in and we've not been beaten - that has to be a good place to start my time here in Guangzhou, but if I harboured any hopes of a rapid rise up the table and a push for the Champions League next season then I need to start re-thinking my plans.

We improved game on game between the Tianjin fixture where we were really quite lucky to pick up a point with a late equalizer, to the Dalian game where we probably should have pushed on for a win after they went down to 10 men whilst we were 2-1 up, finally in the 2-0 win against Henan we completely outplayed them and fully deserved the victory and the 3 points.

Fuli are a much tougher kettle of fish, second in the table prior to our match and again we acquitted ourselves well, taking the lead early from a headed corner before they equalised from a penalty (the second penalty we've conceeded in four matches!)

GuangzhouHengdaFixtures_Fixtures.png

So, all in all I can't complain too much, we're out of the relegation zone and we're unbeaten - I just hope that the board hold to their promise of not judging me on this campaign as I'm struggling to see a rapid rise up the table. I really can't see how this squad could possibly have finished runners up last season, in particular I'm concerned that we're weak up front and we're going to struggle to pose a goal threat - most of my goals so far have come from headed goals from set plays by my defenders............My scouts are all out looking for opportunities to strengthen the squad, but the transfer window is now closed until the end of the season, so we're not going to be able to bring anybody in to help this campaign.

PirelliChineseSuperLeagueOverview_Stages-2.png

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Only 3 games this month and it became a month of two halves. Our first match at home to Shandong saw my first defeat in China - my Brazillian central defender Muller had picked up a 3 week injury in the previous fixture and we really missed his presence in the back 4 - despite creating the most chances we failed to hit the target with all but one of them and they managed to score just after half time to take the lead.

The next fixture was a tough away match against league leaders Beijing. I didn't expect to pick up anything from the match, and I didn't; succumbing to a lucky goal, an intial shot rebounding off the keeper and straight back to their top goalscorer in the 50th minute. On the positive side we once again put up a good performance - on the downside my record of played 6, won 1, drawn 3, lost 2 is now starting to look positively poor.

I needed to turn around our form soon, and I was able to with some good luck in the next fixture. Muller was back into the defence but I'd now lost my goalkeeper, and the back-up who came in to replace him pulled off some great saves in an even fixture - but his counterpart in the Huangzhou goal was awful, conceeding 4 goals from 6 shots on target with a brace from striker Duan Xin. So, we picked up a resounding and confidence boosting 4-0 win with 2 home games next against the 2 teams at the bottom of the league - time to notch up some wins!

GuangzhouHengdaFixtures_Fixtures-1.png

PirelliChineseSuperLeagueOverview_Stages-1.png

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Building up the backroom nicely. What's the capacity of the stadium?

It's a 58,500 all seater - but we're only averaging about 32,000 at the minute. Definitely feeling that the backroom staff is more developed now, but there is more work still required!

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A truly disastrous month which has really thrown us back into a relegation dog fight.

We had 3 home games in the month, 2 of which were against the bottom 2 teams in the league so I was looking for a minimum of 6 points, but we came up short, conceeding penalties in each of the first 2 games at critical moments to conceded the points. In the 3rd game to Jiangsu we went behind to a really poor goal where they punted the ball over the top of my defence and then beat my defenders for pace before taking it round the goalie and tapping in before we equalised from a headed goal from my central defender after a free kick.

GuangzhouHengdaFixtures_Fixtures-2.png

It's been a long time since I've been in charge of a team that has been playing so badly and I need to work out the winning formula as soon as possible - I'm still out of the relgation zone at the minute and have a few points gap, but all it will take is a couple of wins for those bottom teams and we'll be in real trouble.

Our defence are as leacky as a rusty bucket, our strikers can't score and I can't bring anybody in until January - great!

PirelliChineseSuperLeagueOverview_Stages-2-1.png

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A promising if unspectacular set of arrivals into the squad - there are several players of potential there, although I don't think there is anybody who could slot straight into the first team.

Some promise for the next couple of years however. In the meantime I need to convince the board to continue increasing spending on junior coaching so that these players are more match ready by the time the join the squad.

GuangzhouHengdaYouthCandidatesSquad_Players.png

Liu Zhen - an impressive looking defensive midfielder; strong determination and work rate but as with most of my players (maybe this is a Chinese trait?) he really needs to work on his physical attributes in particular his strength if he wants to be able to own the centre of the park

Pan Junyan - great technical attributes for a 16 year old and he looks like a great prospect for a winger, good acceleration, pace and crossing, but once again a Strength of 2 is not good enough - get down the gym my lad!!

Ji Zhaoxu - starting life as a left wing back, I would normally immediately set him to work re-training as a left back, but having looked at his stats I think he will add more value on the left of midfield.

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A complete turn around of form this month as the players realised that if they didn't pull their fingers out, we'd be playing football in the Jia League next season.

Transfer listing Cleo and telling him that he wasn't good enough for the team definitely had the desired effect as he put his goal scoring boots on - we were lucky in the first game with 3 goals going in within 10 minutes of the second half starting, we took the lead through Robinson with a headed goal from a free kick, they equalised immediately but we picked up a penalty almost straight away as Cleo was pulled down as he ran into the box - he got back up, dusted himself off and slotted the ball home.

We struggled against a much better side in Shenhua and eventually left without any results for our efforts, but we were straight back onto the winning path in the next game against Chanba as my new partnership, forged by moving Zhang Chendong off the wing and up to partner Cleo really paid off. Two great results and perhaps as importantly two clean sheets to go with it.

The 4-1 win against Tianjin was perhaps a bit flattering to us, we were 2-1 up in a very tight game until the 80th minute when we scored a 3rd courtesy of Vinicius and Duan Xin then put the icing on the cake with a 4th in injury time.

GuangzhouHengdaFixtures_Fixtures-3.png

Those results effectively guarantee our place in the league next season, but we need to maintain the run if we want to climb up the table to a more respectable position

PirelliChineseSuperLeagueOverview_Stages-3.png

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Nice to see my efforts in turning round our form recognised - although I do now expect to lose the next game - my first ever Manager of the Month award!

PaulScholeyNews_Inbox-2-1.png

Great to see Cleo get some recognition for his improved form as well

PaulScholeyNews_Inbox-1.png

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A worrying slip back into old habits this month as we dropped points which could have seen us rise up to mid table. Whilst we continued to score more goals, we were sloppy at the back which is something I'm going to have to tighten up for next season.

We conceeded a hat-trick to the fantastic Mahama Awal away to A'erbin, but 2 of the goals should have been bread and butter for my central defenders - instead an up and over long ball caught them both out and Awal ran behind them to pinch the ball and take it round the keeper to score. The 3-0 win against Henan was another signal of progress as we played them off the park, but we then slipped up again in a tough away match to Dalian.

GuangzhouHengdaFixtures_Fixtures-5.png

So, the team have definitely made progress, but our final league position is still embarassingly poor for a team of this size - there needs to be a radical shake up over the Winter close season in order to allow us to compete next season

PirelliChineseSuperLeagueOverview_Stages-4.png

Only 3 teams in the league managed to score more goals than us over the course of the season - that points to where I need to focus most of my time and investment before next season I think!

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Looks like Yakubu made it to China IRL and in game, even though Drogba and Anelka didn't.

Ah yes! I'd missed that piece of news - loos like in real life he has gone to play for Guangzhou Fuli - my bitter rivals who've just lifted the title in my game!

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cfacup2.png

The meaningful rounds in the CFA Cup take place after the conclusion of the league season, and I was already qualified for the Quarter finals, courtesy of the clubs performances in the cup and league in previous seasons. However I had a very tough quarter final draw in the shape of league runners up Beijing - they had beaten me in my one previous meeting with them in the league, the one thing I had going for me was their disastrous end to the season - they hadn't won a game since September and that awful form had cost them the league title.

GuangzhouHengdaFixtures_Fixtures-2-1.png

In the end we really battered them, taking a 4-1 lead by half time to effectively seal the tie with only 45 minutes on the clock. We took our foot off the pedal in the second half to allow them to close to 4-2 but there was never any real chance of them getting back into the game and we really put the game to bed when Liu Jian put away his second to make it 5-2.

The semi-final was a much tighter affair against a weaker opponent. Changchun finished 2 places above me in the league so were never going to be a push over and we were probably a bit over confident after demolishing Beijing and in the end we had to rely on penalties to win through after it remained goalless during 90 minutes. They missed their first 2 penalties, which relieved the pressure on my spot kick takers and we won comfortably 3-1.

In the other semi-final there was a major shock as recently relegated Hubei knocked out Dalian - Hubei had beaten me in our encounter earlier in the season and had also taken 3 points from my predecessor earlier in the season, but depite this I couldn't help but think that with our improved form we'd be going in as favourites..........

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cfacup2.png

A really great performance by the team results in my first cup in China - a great surprise given how poor our league form has been. In reality Hubei were really poor and just didn't turn up to the races and we could and perhaps should have scored more. But, no complaining from me, we lift the trophy and that makes a very nice silver lining to end what was otherwise a poor season for the club.

GuangzhouvHubeiInformation_Overview-2.png

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It wasn't a major objective for the board but glad to see they're pleased with the win

PaulScholeyNews_Inbox-5.png

PaulScholeyNews_Inbox-4.png

This piece of news however is far more significant to the future of the club in the next couple of seasons - a very nice and unexpected surprise!

PaulScholeyNews_Inbox-7-1.png

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Chile_Paul's Career - Season Review - 2017 - Guangzhou Hengda

Chinese Super League - 12th place

Frankly, a disastrous season for a club of this stature, having either won or finished as runner up in the league for the last 5 seasons. I took over with the team in the relegation zone in 14th place and whilst our form recovered towards the end of the season, there is significant work required in order to get back into a position where we can challenge for the title.

The one silver lining to an otherwise poor season was that we lifted the CFA Cup on the final day of the season - with the exception of Beijing in the quarter finals we were given a lucky draw and in the final recently relegated Hubei were no match for us. More importantly perhaps than the cup win was the fact that this allowed us to qualify for next seasons AFC Champions League competition allowing us to attract the best Chinese talent in the forthcoming transfer window.

Transfers

The transfer window had already closed when I arrived at the club, so nobody has arrived - expect that to change imminently however

Finances

Without a significant opportunity to either invest or spend the chairman's money, the bank balance remains at the same level as when I arrived, with circa £28m in the bank. Plenty to spend in the close season!

Squad

Player of the Season - 32 year old Liu Jian was the stand out performer in midfield towards the end of the season. Despite his advancing age he is one of the few players in the squad who will comfortably retain his place in the team next season

Fan's Player of the Season - the fans agreed with my decision and handed the award to Liu Jian

Team of the Year

Season Summary - not nice to be picked out as the league's underperformers!

Next Season?

Rebuild the team from bottom up and try to challenge for the title

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