Raware

FC Seoul – End of season 2038 South Korean K-League 1/South Korean K-League 1 progress/South Korean K-League 1 fixtures: Having joined the club with a third of the season already gone, the club were in a bit of a mess as they had only won 2 of their opening 13 league games as they sat rooted to the bottom of the league. Looking at the squad of players though, I felt confident that I could steer them away to safety and at least get a mid-table finish by the end of the season. My first game in charge saw us pick a point up at Ulsan before then going on a bit of a run, winning 8 and drawing 2 of our next 10 games. Gimcheon brought us back down to earth as they inflicted our first loss on us since I took over before we then went on to pick up 17 points out of a possible 24 points in our remaining games which was enough for us to qualify for the top half Group A games. A further 4 wins out of 5 eventually saw us finish at the dizzy heights of 3rd, and with that, Asian Champions League qualification for next season! South Korean FA Cup: A 1-0 defeat to Suwon in the Quarter Final ended our journey in this seasons FA Cup. Transfers: Upon joining FC Seoul, it was clear that additions to the squad were needed, as well as some deadwood that needed to be moved on, so an influx of players arrived and left, with no less than 8 players joining the club over the season. In came Colombians Jhon Jiminez and Cesar Delgado on free transfers, who were players that I had my eye on when I was at Beijing, while I also raided my former club for the services of another Colombian, Juan Carlos Aguirre for £5.5 million. Reza Yousefi came in on a free transfer, which was a deal previously made by the previous manager but I didn’t like the look of him so he went straight into the reserves. Our 4 other arrivals were all South Korean as Lee Sung-Chan joined us from Seongnam for £660k, Heo Jin-Su joined us from Ulsan for £1.7 million, Jin Jun-Sik joined us from Cheongju for £40k and Song Won-Jae joined us from Real San Sebastian (Real Sociedad) for £2.5 million, rising to £3 million, which was a bit of a coup as he left La Liga for K-League 1 football. Squad: A fabulous turn around from the group of players as they pulled themselves away from potential relegation candidates to Asian Champions League qualifiers. I felt quietly confident when I took the job a third of the way through the season that we’d be able to pull away from danger and make a push for the top half of the league and with the addition of key players, that proved to be the case. Joshua Whalley was the key player that I knew we had to build the team around and he showed his class as he hit 23 goals for the season. Seo Ki-Tae also hit double figures but I see Heo Jin-Su as the natural progresser to Whalley in the long term as he made a handful of appearances over the season. New signings Cesar Delgado, Jhon Jiminez and Juan Carlos Aguirre settled in really well while Gu Minjie led by example as captain of the club. Finances: Our finances took a bit of a hit as we lost almost £10 million but much of that was obviously down to bringing players in. We still look secure though as we have almost £14 million in the bank. My views of the season: I’m obviously delighted with how the season went as we went from being bottom of the league when I took over to finishing 3rd and qualifying for next seasons Asian Champions League. I always felt confident, given the size of the club and the players at the club that we’d be able to pull clear of relegation and with the addition of some key signings, I thought we could push for the top half. My aims for next season: We can’t afford to make a poor start to next season, as the club did this season and I’ll be expecting us to at least finish in the top half again and qualify for the Group A games. We’ll also need to bring in some players as we’re definitely lacking in both numbers and quality and with goalkeeper Chae Young-Tae leaving the club for national service for 18 months, we’ll definitely need to bring in another keeper! Career Summary Season Club/Nation League Pos. Achievements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024/25 South China HK Premier League 4th - 2025/26 South China HK Premier League 2nd - 2026/27 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, ACC Winners, Senior Shield Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2027/28 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2028/29 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2029/30 South China/Hong Kong HK Premier League 1st League Champions, ACL Winners, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2030/31 South China/Hong Kong HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners 2032 Beijing Chinese Super League 2nd FA Cup Winners 2033 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2034 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, ACC Winners, Super Cup Winners 2035 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2036 Beijing Chinese Super League 2nd ACL Winners, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2037 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, ACL Winners, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2038 Seoul South Korean K-League 1 3rd - Honours Asian Champions League - 2029/30, 2035/36, 2036/37 Asian Confederation Cup - 2026/27, 2033/34 Hong Kong Premier League - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30, 2030/31 Hong Kong FA Cup - 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30 Hong Kong Senior Shield - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30, 2030/31 Hong Kong Sapling Cup - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30 Chinese Super League - 2033, 2034, 2035, 2037 Chinese FA Cup - 2032, 2033, 2035, 2036, 2037 Chinese Super Cup - 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037

FC Seoul – Youth intake 2038 A steady first youth intake saw Kim Jung-Woon (38B), Park Hyun-Wook (38D), Ryoo Jae-Hee (38J) and Han Min-Kyun (38O) all offered contracts with Park Hyun-Wook (38D) looking as if he’s ready for first team football already! Unfortunately for him though (and us), as he’ll be on a youth contract for a couple of years, he won’t be able to play in any league games because of the South Korean K-League 1 rules. Some cup games and a potential loan for him could be what he needs to see him turn into a very good defender. Kim Sung-Hwa (38A) Kim Jung-Woon (38B) Gwon Chul-Woo (38C) Park Hyun-Wook (38D) Choi Won-Jae (38E) Kong Nam-Pyo (38F) Choi Yong-Hyuk (38G) Park Sung-Woo (38H) Song Nam-Pyo (38I) Ryoo Jae-Hee (38J) Kim Chung-Yong (38K) Jung Jae-Hyung (38L) Seo Sang-Woo (38M) Kim Tae-Young (38N) Han Min-Kyun (38O) Lee Jeong-Ho (38P)

FC Seoul – Pre-season 2038 League expectation South Korean K-League 1: Board expectation – Avoid relegation : Media expectation – 6th (out of 12) Cup expectations South Korean FA Cup: Reach the latter stages. Transfer budget: £9.75 million Wage budget: £375k p/w Current wage bill: £300k p/w Season tickets sold: 15,611 My views for the season ahead: A slightly different challenge to what I faced at Beijing as there’s no sign of challenging for league titles, but rather trying to stay in the league as the board have set an expectation of avoiding relegation. This is due to the poor start to the season that’s seen the club win just 2 of the opening 13 league games. The squad looks like it has more than enough quality in it to achieve the expectation of avoiding relegation with Lima, Gu Minjie and Joshua Whalley looking like the standout players. Hwang Min also looks like one of the better players but he’s out on loan at Gimcheon as he serves his national service. Our finances are looking ok and with almost £12 million to spend, I should be able to bring in a bit of quality to help us achieve this season’s expectations.

Club information | Club profile | Club facilities | Club history

FC Seoul : A background Seoul enjoyed a dominant decade in the 2010’s, finding domestic success easy to come by while establishing themselves on the continental stage, but more recently they have found it much harder to win silverware. Seoul finished runners-up in the Asian Champions League in 2002, 2013, 2028 and 2031, won the South Korean K-League 1 six times and are five-time runners-up, won the South Korean FA Cup in 1998 and 2015 and finished as runners-up five times, won the South Korean League Cup in 2006 and 2010 and finished as runners-up four times. Seoul World Cup Stadium

...but, like you, I thought the move made sense In a similar scenario to when Beijing approached me in the 2032 season when things were going well at South China, things are going well at Beijing – but having dominated Chinese football for a few years now, it feels like the right time to move on and try another Asian league now. Seoul are a big club and have struggled over the duration of this save with just one top three finish in the 2023 season. The following 14 years has seen lots of underachievement and mid table obscurity, which for a club the size of Seoul is quite surprising. Given the size of the club and the potential to wake up this sleeping giant again, it seems like a good, exciting project to move onto at this stage of this save.

A tough decision as it'd be a bit of a step down; plus Seoul have had a difficult start to the 2038 season...

With us just about to kick off the new season, an interesting offer landed on my desk…

Beijing Gu’aon – End of season 2037 Chinese Super League/Chinese Super League progress/Chinese Super League fixtures: Having surrendered the league title to rivals Shanghai last season, we needed to retain it this season, especially after I had to make promises to the squad that we’d win the league this season, and not to mention the demands that the board were making. We were no better than last season and in fact scored less goals this season as we finished with exactly the same amount of points this season as we did last season. It wasn’t a case of us making huge improvements but rather Shanghai being poorer than they were last season as we went on to win the league 9 points ahead of them. Asian Champions League/Asian Champions League Group I: Having won the Asian Champions League for the very first-time last season, we were out to at least make the latter stages of the competition this season. We qualified from our group at the end of last season which saw us make the knockout rounds where we disposed of Australian A-League side Melbourne City in the Second Round, before seeing off Japanese side Urawa Reds in the Quarter Final and then South Korean side Pohang in the Semi Final. Surprisingly, there was no sign of any Saudi clubs in the Final as we were drawn against Iranians Persepolis who on paper, looked a very different proposition to the Saudi clubs. Without raising expectations, I fancied our chances in the Final and after a 2-2 draw in the 1st leg, I was confident of winning the return leg. As always though, it wasn’t that straight forward as despite taking the lead to put us 3-2 up on aggregate, Persepolis turned the tie upside down and scored a goal in each half as they looked to have won the game. However, Juan Carlos Aguirre popped up in the 90th minute to grab a late equaliser before then popping up again in the 93rd minute to snatch a winner and with that, once again handing the Asian Champions League trophy to us! An unbelievable game that had me on the verge of tears of frustration and then tears of happiness! I’ve not experienced such a rollercoaster ride of emotions since the 2026/27 season when I was managing South China in the Asian Confederation Cup, when we snatched a similar kind of victory against Kitchee! Onto this seasons Asian Champions League campaign and once again we’ve qualified from Group I after 5 wins and a draw saw us top the group as we wait to see who we’ll play in the knockout rounds. Club World Championship: I was still under the impression that the Club World Championship happened every year, so I was surprised when I found out that it happens every four years now. We were given a tough group as we were put in Group E alongside Benfica, Pachuca, and PSG. A win, a loss, and a draw though was enough for us to qualify from the group and make it to the knockout stages where we were drawn against Liverpool. That’s where our journey ended though as we lost 1-0. Chinese Super Cup: A Gerson Bouth brace to win 2-0 was enough to once again claim the Chinese Super Cup. Chinese FA Cup: A straight forward route to the Final once again saw us lock horns with rivals Shanghai as a 2-1 win in the 1st leg and a 0-0 draw in the 2nd leg was enough for us to retain the Chinese FA Cup. Transfers: Just the one transfer for us this season but it was a significant transfer as Jin Fan joined us from rivals Shanghai for £18 million. Squad: Another brilliant season from the squad of players with our stalwart, Gerson Bouth leading the way as he smashed in 47 goals in 51 games as he claimed the Chinese Super League Player of the Year award but NOT the Chinese Super League Golden Boot award this season. That award went to Shanghai’s Japanese striker Takumi Ishii as he scored 32 goals in 30 games to put a halt to Gerson Bouth’s 5-year reign as top goal scorer in the division. Mitsuo Fukano had another great season as he grabbed 12 goals from left wing whilst Yao Qi also had another great season as he grabbed himself 10 goals and 18 assists from right wing. New signing Jin Fan was worth every penny of his £18 million fee as he shored up the defence as well as scoring 5 goals whilst Zheng Jianwei continued to attract the interest of Saudi clubs as he hit double figures with 11 goals. Finances: Even after spending £18 million on Jin Fan this season, the board injected money into the club to take us back to a secure level. My views of the season: An unbelievable season for us and the most successful season since I’ve been at the club as we won the league, the Asian Champions League, the Chinese Super Cup, and the Chinese FA Cup. There’s still some players getting unsettled throughout the season as a lot of Saudi clubs continue to sniff around our players, in particularly Gerson Bouth, Zheng Jianwei, and Juan Carlos Aguirre, which is having an effect on their happiness at the club. All 3 of them have requested a transfer this season but I’ve rejected their requests as they’re still under contract. If they weren’t so pivotal, I would allow them to leave, but without them, I think we’d struggle to keep up with Shanghai. My aims for next season: The board will obviously be expecting us to win the league next season and the FA Cup, whilst they aren’t bothered about the Super Cup. As I mentioned before, the challenge is now in the Asian Champions League as we’ll be looking to make it to the latter stages and hopefully push towards another defence of our title. Keeping players happy will also be a challenge as it’s becoming more difficult to appease them due to the regularity of Saudi clubs putting bids in for our better players now. Career Summary Season Club/Nation League Pos. Achievements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024/25 South China HK Premier League 4th - 2025/26 South China HK Premier League 2nd - 2026/27 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, ACC Winners, Senior Shield Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2027/28 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2028/29 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2029/30 South China/Hong Kong HK Premier League 1st League Champions, ACL Winners, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2030/31 South China/Hong Kong HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners 2032 Beijing Chinese Super League 2nd FA Cup Winners 2033 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2034 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, ACC Winners, Super Cup Winners 2035 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2036 Beijing Chinese Super League 2nd ACL Winners, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2037 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, ACL Winners, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners Honours Asian Champions League - 2029/30, 2035/36, 2036/37 Asian Confederation Cup - 2026/27, 2033/34 Hong Kong Premier League - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30, 2030/31 Hong Kong FA Cup - 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30 Hong Kong Senior Shield - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30, 2030/31 Hong Kong Sapling Cup - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30 Chinese Super League - 2033, 2034, 2035, 2037 Chinese FA Cup - 2032, 2033, 2035, 2036, 2037 Chinese Super Cup - 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037

Beijing Gu’aon – Youth intake 2037 Probably our worst youth intake since I’ve been at the club as only Byron Wright (37E), Liao Xinpeng (37J) and Gao Jiansheng (37O) looked good enough to be offered contracts. Chen Hui (37A) Wang Junhao (37B) Zhang Zhiqiang (37C) Yan Jin (37D) Byron Wright (37E) Zhang Chang (37F) Zhang Cheng (37G) Chen Lu (37H) Yu Zhe (37I) Liao Xinpeng (37J) Zhang Song (37K) Wu Peng (37L) Chen Liang (37M) Bu Yi (37N) Gao Jiansheng (37O) Xing Mingyang (37P)

Beijing Gu’aon – Pre-season 2037 League expectation Chinese Super League: Board expectation – Win the league : Media expectation – 1st (out of 16) Cup expectations Asian Champions League: Reach the knockout stages. Asian Chinese FA Cup: Win the Chinese FA Cup. Chinese Super Cup: Not important. Transfer budget: £30 million (last season £45 million) Wage budget: £600k (last season £550k p/w) Current wage bill: £360k (last season £335k p/w) Season tickets sold: 43,784 (last season 43,784) My views for the season ahead: After giving up our league title to rivals Shanghai last season, it’s no surprise that the board are wanting us to win the league this season and take back our 4th league title in 6 years. Given how strong Shanghai were last season though, it’s not going to be as straight forward as I’d have liked. We’re also expected to win the FA Cup and the Super Cup is seen as nothing but a season opener now. We’re also into the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League after topping our group so we’ll also be looking to at least make a challenge at retaining our Asian Champions League title. Just the one signing has come in to help us but it’s a significant signing as central defender Jin Fan joins us from rivals Shanghai for £18 million. A bit more than I’d have liked to have spent but after last season, I felt that we needed a little more strength in defence. I’m actually surprised that Shanghai let him go given how strong he was last season…hopefully he can be the difference for us this season!

Beijing Gu’aon – End of season 2036 Chinese Super League/Chinese Super League progress/Chinese Super League fixtures: As mentioned in the title race update, Shanghai were leading the race with 5 games to go as we sat 4 points behind them. We did our job and won our remaining 5 games, but so did Shanghai as they went on to claim the title by 4 points and put an end to our 3 year league dominance. Whilst I’m obviously disappointed that we couldn’t retain the title, as are the board, it certainly made the season interesting and could prove to be the beginning of a real rivalry! Asian Champions League/Asian Champions League Group I: Having qualified from our ACL Group at the end of last season, we continued our journey this season in the knockout rounds where we disposed of South Korean side Suwon in the 2nd round, Japanese side Kobe in the Quarter Final and South Korean side Ulsan in the Semi Final to book our place in the clubs very first ACL Final. Al-Hilal have been strong in this competition having made the final in the last 2 years, winning the competition last season and finishing as runners-up the season before, so understandably they were the favourites over the two legs. Saying that, they had a lot of injuries to key players which worked out well for us as we clinched a 3-0 win in the 1st leg. Despite losing the 2nd leg 1-0, our win in the 1st leg was enough for us to clinch the clubs very first Asian Champions League trophy! We began this seasons ACL having been drawn in Group I alongside Sydney FC, Abahani KC, and once again Suwon where 5 wins and a draw was enough to see us once again qualify for the knockout round, where we can hopefully make an attempt at retaining our ACL title. Chinese Super Cup: A 2-0 win in the season opener was enough for us to pick up our first trophy of the season against rivals Shanghai. Chinese FA Cup: A very early scare for us in the 4th round against First Division side NJ City almost saw us exit the competition early on, but thanks to a penalty shootout win, we managed to progress all the way to the Final, where we disposed of Changchun over two legs to once again claim the Chinese FA Cup. Transfers: Our activity in the transfer window came at the start of the season as Colombian Juan Carlos Aguirre joined us on a free transfer from Atletico Bucaramanga, whilst young goalkeeper Ji Xun joined us from Guangzhou for £300k. Squad: Gerson Bouth continued where he left off as he smashed in another incredible number of goals as he hit 55 goals in 47 games, that included his 150th league goal for the club, whilst also claiming the Chinese Super League Golden Boot award. Mitsuo Fukano also had another great season as grabbed 17 goals and 21 assists from the left wing, whilst Yao Qi grabbed himself 12 goals and 21 assists from the right wing, as well as claiming the Chinese Super League Most Popular Domestic Player award. Zheng Jiawei continued to develop how I’d hoped he would as he scored 12 goals but in the process has attracted the interest of a number of Saudi clubs and with a £13.25 million minimum fee release clause in his contract, it could prove to be difficult in trying to keep him at the club. Finances: Another season of profit sees us with nearly £60 million in the bank. My views of the season: A bittersweet kind of season for us this year as whilst we finally managed to win the Asian Champions League, we failed to win the Chinese Super League as Shanghai proved to be just too strong over the course of the season. We ran them close and although we didn’t lose a game, the second season in a row that we remained unbeaten in the league by the way, we ultimately drew too many games. Still, we managed to win the Chinese Super Cup and the Chinese FA Cup as well so we’ve got to see this season as another really successful season, despite the board stating their displeasure at my performance as manager. My aims for next season: Several members of the squad have come to me wanting reassurances that we’ll win the league next season after failing to win it this season, so I’ve had to promise them that we’ll win it to keep them onside, or I’d have faced a squad mutiny! Given that Shanghai have further improved their side with some more additions though, it’s obviously going to be another tough league season. We’ve also got our Asian Champions League title to retain as well as we’ll continue our journey at the start of next season where we’ve made it through the to the knockout stages. As always as well, this time of the year sees clubs from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, and even some European clubs taking a look at some of our players and upsetting them, with the draw of playing in bigger leagues and picking up bigger pay packets convincing them that they want to leave so hopefully, we can once again fend these vultures off! Career Summary Club Season Club League Pos. Achievements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024/25 South China HK Premier League 4th - 2025/26 South China HK Premier League 2nd - 2026/27 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, ACC Winners, Senior Shield Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2027/28 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2028/29 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2029/30 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, ACL Winners, Senior Shield Winners, FA Cup Winners, Sapling Cup Winners 2030/31 South China HK Premier League 1st League Champions, Senior Shield Winners 2032 Beijing Chinese Super League 2nd FA Cup Winners 2033 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2034 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, ACC Winners, Super Cup Winners 2035 Beijing Chinese Super League 1st League Champions, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners 2036 Beijing Chinese Super League 2nd ACL Winners, FA Cup Winners, Super Cup Winners International Season Country Competition Achievements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2030 Hong Kong - - 2031 Hong Kong - - Honours Asian Champions League - 2029/30, 2035/36 Asian Confederation Cup - 2026/27, 2033/34 Hong Kong Premier League - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30, 2030/31 Hong Kong FA Cup - 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30 Hong Kong Senior Shield - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30, 2030/31 Hong Kong Sapling Cup - 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, 2029/30 Chinese Super League - 2033, 2034, 2035 Chinese FA Cup - 2032, 2033, 2035, 2036 Chinese Super Cup - 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036

Beijing Gu’aon – Youth intake 2036 A slightly better than usual youth intake as Lyu Jiajie (36A), Li Hui (36B), Sun Hongyang (36F), Wang Hongxu (36M), Cui Xiaolin (36O) and Li Yuhang (36P) were all offered contracts, with Li Yuhang (36P) looking as if he could have a bright future. Lyu Jiajie (36A) Li Hui (36B) Chen Gang (36C) Huang Yang (36D) Li Kun (36E) Sun Hongyang (36F) Li Yang (36G) He Xiang (36H) Lin Qiang (36I) Wan Xinyu (36J) Yang Jiahao (36K) Du Yi (36L) Wang Hongxu (36M) Zhang Jingwei (36N) Cui Xiaolin (36O) Li Yuhang (36P)

Beijing Gu'aon - Title race 2036 It's not often that I update about a title race, most probably because in recent years we've been head and shoulders above our nearest challengers, but as I mentioned in last seasons end of season update, with both Shenhua and Shanghai improving their squads during the close season, this season could prove to be one of the toughest league campaigns yet...and it's seeming to be just that! With just 5 league games remaining, we're currently 4 points behind Shanghai with both of us looking unbeatable at the minute. We'll need Shanghai to drop some points though if we're going to have any chance of retaining our league title, but with a favourable looking fixture list for Shanghai, that's looking unlikely. We've got some favourable looking fixtures too, on paper, so we have to make sure that we win our games first and foremost, and then hope that Shanghai drop points.

Beijing Gu’aon – Pre-season 2036 League expectation Chinese Super League: Board expectation – Win the league : Media expectation – 1st (out of 16) Cup expectations Asian Champions League: Reach the knockout stages. Asian Chinese FA Cup: Win the Chinese FA Cup. Chinese Super Cup: Not important. Transfer budget: £45 million (last season £36 million) Wage budget: £550k (last season £482k p/w) Current wage bill: £335k (last season £358k p/w) Season tickets sold: 43,784 (last season 43,784) My views for the season ahead: As is the norm now, winning the league and the Chinese FA Cup is the minimum expectation this season, whilst we’re also expected to reach the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League, which we’ve already done after topping Group J at the end of last season. Given that we lost Juan Carlos Salazar last season, I felt that we needed some depth on the wing, so I’ve brought in another Colombian in the form of Juan Carlos Aguirre on a free transfer from Atletico Bucaramanga, as well as young goalkeeper Ji Xun from Guangzhou for £300k.