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[FM11] Way of the Dragon


Raware

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Unlucky with those loses to South China mate.

I was a 'little' peeved at our ACL exit especially as like you say we beat them in the ACC final. They took all our ACL group prize money :mad:. This definitely means war!

That immediately reminded me of the 30 seconds to mars album 'This is War' :p

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That was my initial thought! Where are they gonna put it?! There's no room in Happy Valley...maybe we'll relocate to the south of the island...or the new territories :D.

The new stadium (imaginatively named Happy Valley Stadium) will hold 2175. Not massive I know but bigger than the 1152 all seater we currently have.

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Happy Valley

Season 2018/19 : Preview

League expectation

-------------------------

Hong Kong First Division : Board expectation - Compete alongside the top teams in the league : Media expectation - 2nd (out of 10)

Cup expectations

---------------------

Hong Kong Senior Shield : Not important

Hong Kong League Cup : Not important

Hong Kong FA Cup : Not important

Transfer budget : £121k

Wage budget : £12.8k p/w

Current wage bill : £10.9k p/w

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:D No pressure luckily...although no continental competition for us this year so the finances will be taking a bit of a battering :(. Looks like it's just the league for us to concentrate on this year then.
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Happy Valley

Season 2018/19 : Mid-season update

Hong Kong First Division : We hit that halfway mark of the season again and as expected, we’re up there challenging. While our main focus is to win all of our games if we want to challenge for the title, it is a massive help for us that South China aren’t in top form and that’s probably the main reason why we’re sat at the top of the table at the minute, albeit by only a point. We can’t count on them slipping up though if we want to claim our 3rd title in my 8 years in charge so we have to make sure we pick up as many points as we can from now until the end of the season if we want that title. Whether we can do it is the big question though!

I don’t usually comment on signings until the end of season report but after signing this man, Hu Feng who introduced himself by smashing in a

on his debut as he collected a
, I feel that he could well be a key signing for us, especially at the cheap price tag of just £40k! Hopefully he’ll carry on scoring goals for us just as he’s started! :D
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It seems that I was wrong about qualification for the Asian Confederation Cup as i've been entered into it after finishing as runners up in the league last year :D. I was under the impression that it was just the league winners and the winners of the Senior Shield so this is a real bonus for us as it'll bring in some much needed money from it :D.

Confcupgroup-4.png

We've been drawn with Home United, Perlis and SLNA so i'm quietly confident of progression.

While we're on the subject of the Asian Confederation Cup, Kitchee went all the way to the final last season only to lose to SAFFC, meaning they qualified for this years Asian Champions League and have actually managed to get through to the group stages which is an achievement in itself! So, with that, coupled with ours and South China's participation in the ACL a couple of seasons ago, i'm hopeful that with the new DLR addition, the Hong Kong league rep can start to rise :).

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Things have stayed just as tight at the top and there's only a few games left! It's "squeaky bum" time as SAF says. Hu Feng has settled in quickly and I have high hopes for him as he seems like a natural goalscorer...plus he's Chinese so should gain citizenship in another year and a half :). He'd be perfect for the WPL! :)

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Happy Valley

Season 2018/19 : Review

Hong Kong First Division/Hong Kong First Division progress/Hong Kong First Division fixtures : With another great first half of the season under our belts, it was up to us to continue our great form throughout the second half of it if we wanted to reclaim our title that we gave away to South China last year. Things began well in January with a win against Sun Hei but then fell apart as we lost at home to South China, leaving us trailing them by 2 points. There was still a chance for us to claim the league title with 8 games remaining but South China just weren’t losing…until their penultimate game that is, where Sun Hei beat them. Thankfully, we managed to take advantage and keep our nerve to go on and win our remaining 2 games to claim the title :D.

Hong Kong Senior Shield : The board weren’t bothered about this cup but we were out to claim our third successive cup. It wasn’t to be though as relegated Pontic caused a big shock by beating us on our own patch 1-0.

Hong Kong League Cup/Hong Kong League Cup Group Stage : Another cup which the board weren’t bothered about and another cup in which we were out to defend. We strolled through the group stage but were once against shocked, this time by TSW Pegasus in the semi final.

Hong Kong FA Cup : This is the cup that constantly evades us so I was delighted to win it even if we did make hard work of the relatively easy run we had to win it for only the second time.

Asian Confederation Cup/ Asian Confederation Cup Group Stage : We qualified easily from the group stage which set us up with a tricky tie against Al-Nwa’ir of Syria. We managed to dispose of them and then last seasons ACC winners SAFFC in the quarters. This once again pitted us with fellow Hong Kong side and arch rivals South China where after a nervy two legs, we managed to progress to the final where we met Indian side Pune…and they were just that who after having a man sent off, didn’t really threaten us as we comfortably won 3-1. Another shot at the Asian Champions League for us next season! :D.

Transfers : An unusually busy couple of transfer windows for us as players both came and went. Out the door saw us recoup £205k as our whole back line from last season (they were all too old now), Ling Cong, Bryan Marin (who was whining about moving , Yoo Sung-Hoon and Wen Shuo (who was out of contract at the end of the season and was refusing to sign a new one) all left. In came Guo Zhaolu and Gu Bin on free transfers, Zhong Sheng for a club record £75k, Lu Lijun for £4k, Feng Zhuoyi for a bargain of £2k and Hu Feng for £40k who, as I said in my mid-season report, looks to be a real bargain as he smashed in a brace on his debut.

Squad : As I said this time last year, we definitely needed to make improvements defensively and that’s just what we did as we brought in 4 quality defenders. However, we’re looking a bit weak going forward now as our midfield is getting on a bit so I’ll probably try and look at bringing in some younger guns over the summer. Wang Xuanhong is still doing the business up front as he was our top scorer, netting 12 in 30 and Hu Feng is looking like a promising prospect as he bagged 7 in his debut season as he was included in the Hong Kong First Division Team of the Year as well as claiming

and the Hong Kong Fans’ Player of the Year award. Our youth product Yeung Ka Wai is plodding along nicely as he continues to be selected for the national team and Gilberto, our Brazilian full back should be claiming citizenship during the summer.

Finances : We made a slight profit but nothing to shout about. We desperately need to be involved in the ACL if we’re to make any kind of money…bar selling our players of course! :D.

Some other good news is that our youth facilities have finally been upgraded so hopefully we’ll see a few more academy players coming through the ranks and I claimed the Hong Kong Manager of the Year award for the 5th time in 6 years.

Career Summary



Season   Team              League          		    Position   Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2011/12  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           7th      -
2012/13  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           7th      -
2013/14  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           1st      [b]League Champions[/b], [b]Senior Shield Winners[/b], FA Cup runners up
2014/15  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           2nd      League runners up, [b]League Cup Winners[/b], FA Cup runners up
2015/16  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           2nd      League runners up, [b]FA Cup Winners[/b]
2016/17  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division	      1st      [b]League Champions[/b], [b]Senior Shield Winners[/b], [b]League Cup winners[/b], [b]ACC Winners[/b]
2017/18  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division	      2nd      League runners up, [b]Senior Shield Winners[/b], [b]League Cup Winners[/b]
2018/19  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           1st      [b]League Champions[/b], [b]FA Cup Winners[/b], [b]ACC Winners[/b]

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Congrats on the ACC success and best of luck with the ACL qualification (no South China this time at least!)

How have the other HK clubs been getting on in Asian competition? Has the league rep changed at all?

Thanks DodgeeD :D. As you say, no South China to stand in our way this time!

ACCwinners.png

As you can see, theres been three HK clubs in the ACC final for the past three years and Kitchee actually made the ACL group stages this season! This hasn't changed the reputation of the HK First Division though as it's still rated at half a star :(.

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Nice work Raware. Good luck in the ACL, and maybe you can be one better than what South China did in my save and advance to the 2nd Round!

Thanks rancer, i'd just be happy to make the group stages of the ACL to get a bit of money! :D South China have done well in your save if they've made the 2nd round!

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Way to go, Raware! A very good season. Next season, the ACL is yours! ;)

Thanks DSYoungEsq. Ha ha, I like your optimism. I'll just be happy to make the group stages!

Great work Raware. Good luck in the ACL.

Ive got a long way to go in my save before im competing in the ACL

Thanks Jay007. I think I may need it! :D

It took me a while to get into the ACL and i've only been in it once before. Because I play in the HK league, the rep isn't great so I have to reach the ACC final before I can be entered into the following seasons ACL. Because you're playing in the Chinese leagues, once you reach the top 2 or 3 in the CSL, you should qualify for the ACL easier because of the leagues rep. Keep plugging away though :D.

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keep bringing in talent and working your squad up and the league rep should increase :p

I'll try to :). It's just persuading that talent to come and play in Hong Kong! :D Other HK teams (South China and Kitchee) aswell as us are performing well in Asia so i'm hopeful that if that continues then we may see an increase in the leagues rep in a few years :D.

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Thanks DSYoungEsq. Ha ha, I like your optimism. I'll just be happy to make the group stages!

Thanks Jay007. I think I may need it! :D

It took me a while to get into the ACL and i've only been in it once before. Because I play in the HK league, the rep isn't great so I have to reach the ACC final before I can be entered into the following seasons ACL. Because you're playing in the Chinese leagues, once you reach the top 2 or 3 in the CSL, you should qualify for the ACL easier because of the leagues rep. Keep plugging away though :D.

Ahhh, thats good to know. But i need to get promoted 1st. Having a bit of a blip at the min in the league, it seems to coincide with the little injury crisis im having :)

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HappyValley.png

Happy Valley

Season 2019/20 : Preview

League expectation

-------------------------

Hong Kong First Division : Board expectation - Challenge for the title : Media expectation - 2nd (out of 10)

Cup expectations

---------------------

Hong Kong Senior Shield : Not important

Hong Kong League Cup : Not important

Hong Kong FA Cup : Not important

Asian Champions League : Learn from the experience

Transfer budget : £134k

Wage budget : £14.75k p/w

Current wage bill : £13.6k p/w

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After my initial application to manage the Hong Kong national team was turned down back in 2014 when Lee Kin Wo was sacked, (in which the FA opted to appoint Brazilian Lawrence instead :() I decided to apply again 5 years later when Lawrence was sacked for failing to make it past the World Cup qualifying 1st round…and this is the response I got :D

HKjoboffer.png

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Go you!

Flamers

:D

Nice work. Managing the nation where u work is great because you can scout all their players if you need locals for froeign players limits

My thoughts exactly! :D. Plus, I can help to further develop my own players by giving them some international experience...plus give my foreigners (once they've gained HK citizenship) international caps that they deserve :)

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Hot diggety dog, raware!! That's a nice assignment! You should enjoy that. :)

Would that Wales' job was open for me. Sadly, the bloke in charge is actually quite competent, and fairly young.

Thanks DSYoungEsq :thup:. It should be an interesting job because the previous manager wasn't picking the best players available for some reason. Now i'm in charge, I can pick the better foreign players who are eligible :D. It's going to be tough as there's some really strong national teams in Asia but i'm confident of making it to the 2nd or 3rd rounds as opposed to them always going out in the 1st rounds! :)

As for that Wales job, hang on in there, here's bound to mess up sooner or later and you'll be ready to pounce! After my initial rejection, I was unsure as to whether i'd get a shot at the national job as it just didn't seem as if he'd get sacked! Time told though.

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Happy Valley

Season 2019/20 : Mid-season update

Hong Kong First Division : The table at the halfway mark of the season has a familiar look to it with ourselves and South China battling for the title. We’re playing well, confidence is high, we’re scoring goals and we’re still unbeaten this season. While in comparison, South China have already lost two (one of those being against us in the first game of the season :D) and are looking flaky at the back and beatable :D. Wang Xuanhong and Hu Feng continue to knock the goals in for us as the former has netted 4 in 9 while the latter has 6 in 9, but saying that we’re managing to get goals from all over the park which is always a good thing to have. Providing we can continue our current form throughout the remainder of the season, I’m confident of retaining our title :).

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Great career so far Raware! Good to see a steady but strong progression in Hong Kong, which isn't the easiest of countries to get it right in!

Now that you are Hong Kong Manager as well, would it be safe to assume you aren't planning on moving further afield should the right opportunity arise?

If you are planning on remaining Happy Valley Manager, can you see yourself ever winning the ACL, or is it simply not realistic for a team/league of your size?

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Ah, you have upset the natural order of things. The feng shui will need to be resettled. I suggest moving a couch to compensate.

They don't use couches in Asia, they sit on the floor ;)

Great career so far Raware! Good to see a steady but strong progression in Hong Kong, which isn't the easiest of countries to get it right in!

Now that you are Hong Kong Manager as well, would it be safe to assume you aren't planning on moving further afield should the right opportunity arise?

If you are planning on remaining Happy Valley Manager, can you see yourself ever winning the ACL, or is it simply not realistic for a team/league of your size?

Thanks Chutney :). Now i'm the HK national manager, I would like to stay in HK for the next few seasons to 1) Try and improve the standard and rep of HK football and 2) (and more importantly :)) Help the fortunes of my own club and players by taking advantage of my role and giving international experience to my players (bad I know!). But, linked to your following question, I honestly can't see us ever winning the ACL as we're such a small club in a lesser footballing nation with no ability to ever compete with the top clubs in Asia to get the best players (despite the addition of DLR) so I probably would have to concede in moving to another club/country if I wanted to win, or attempt to win the ACL. Whether I get that opportunity...who knows :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

HappyValley.png

Happy Valley

Season 2019/20 : Review

Hong Kong First Division/Hong Kong First Division progress/Hong Kong First Division fixtures : We’re now becoming somewhat synonymous with good starts to the season as another one put us in a good position of retaining our title. I was feeling fairly confident of doing that at the halfway mark of the season and in the end, my mid-season confidence was correct as we went on to retain our title by 6 points :D. We played some superb football at times as we managed to go the season unbeaten for the second time in three seasons!

Hong Kong Senior Shield : We once again met our old foe’s in the final where unfortunately we couldn’t hold our nerves as South China beat us on penalties. In truth though, we were lucky to take them to penalties as they were the better side throughout much of the game so we can’t really complain.

Hong Kong League Cup/Hong Kong League Cup Group Stage : We sailed through the groups stages and really, we sailed through the competition as we claimed our 4th league cup in 6 years after beating Kitchee 2-1 in the final. It did help though that we avoided South China en route to the final!

Hong Kong FA Cup : Disappointed to go out in the Semi’s as this cup continues to be the one cup that we really struggle in…I don’t know why. But the board didn’t view it as important so I shouldn’t really worry.

Asian Champions League/ Asian Champions League Group Stage : Our previous appearance in Asia’s elite club competition saw us crash out in the Preliminary round semi final to arch rivals South China so this time I wanted it to be different. And thankfully it was as we managed to get through the preliminary rounds to make it to the group stages. Both I and the board had no expectations in this competition other than to earn some money from it and we did that as well as surprising a few people by finishing 3rd in the group!

Transfers : We brought some more quality to the club as Hong Kong national Law Chi Hong joined us on a free transfer after being released by AFC Wimbledon. Cui Chun joined us from Shandong for £28k while Abou Koffi came in for £4k and Daniel Ordonez joined from local rivals Kitchee for £65k. The only departure (other than Yeung Ka Wai who went out on loan) was our Brazilian keeper who left for £65k. While I was disappointed to see him go, he just wouldn’t shut up moaning about moving so I had no choice really but to sell him.

Squad : I’m very happy with the look of the squad and feel that we have enough quality and depth to maintain our status as Hong Kong’s top club next season. However, 3 of our players are retiring at the end of the season (Noh Seung-Hak, Huang Xiyang and Li Zhixing who are all midfielders) so I may have to look at getting some players in to replace them. Other than that, things are looking good as both Hu Feng and Wang Xuanhong both continue to score goals as they managed to net 37 goals between them which led to Wang Xuanhong becoming the clubs all time goal scorer :).

Finances : Thanks to our exploits in the Asian Champions League, our finances are looking very healthy indeed as we sit with nearly £3 million in the bank!

Career Summary



Season   Team              League          		    Position   Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2011/12  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           7th      -
2012/13  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           7th      -
2013/14  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           1st      League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup runners up
2014/15  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           2nd      League runners up, League Cup Winners, FA Cup runners up
2015/16  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           2nd      League runners up, FA Cup Winners
2016/17  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division	      1st      League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, League Cup winners, ACC Winners
2017/18  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division	      2nd      League runners up, Senior Shield Winners, League Cup Winners
2018/19  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           1st      League Champions, FA Cup Winners, ACC Winners
2019/20  Happy Valley      Hong Kong First Division           1st      League Champions, Senior Shield runners up, League Cup winners

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Congratz on another solid season. :)

And congratz to Forest for signing Tshabalalalalalalalalala. :)

Cheers rancer.

I don't think we've actually signed Tshabalalalalalalalalala yet although we've signed the American striker Robbie Findley after his work permit was accepted.

Feng Shui restored, the new home for the throw pillows on the floor must have worked. ;)

A couple years of group play will see you to a healthy place in your Happy Valley.

Thanks DSYoungEsq. Happy Valley is one more a peaceful place!

I'm starting to get itchy feet though and think realistically i've probably taken them as far as I ever can. Maybe another season with them (a testimonial if you like :)) then I may look to move.

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Cheers rancer.

I don't think we've actually signed Tshabalalalalalalalalala yet although we've signed the American striker Robbie Findley after his work permit was accepted.

Tshabalalalalalalalalala wants to finish the season with his South African club and win another championship with them before coming over to England, so he'll be a Forest player starting July.

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Tshabalalalalalalalalala wants to finish the season with his South African club and win another championship with them before coming over to England, so he'll be a Forest player starting July.

Yeah, I heard that he'll be with us by the end of the season. Hopefully he can do the business for us! :D

Nice work on staying with Happy Valley so long and taking them to success :)

Thanks greenwhitearmy. One more season with them will make 10 seasons at Happy Valley which after what i've done with them is probably as much as I can. I feel a new challenge coming on, preferably in China/S.Korea or Australia

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