A Football Manager Career

8b: Last Chance Saloon

I immediately started planning for the new season and Kitchee's return to the top. My biggest issue going into the new season was what to do about Daniel Rial. He had an awful 2026/27 season and had also picked up an injury. I had deep reservations about whether or not he was able to get us back to the top of the league, and what's more, his contract was expiring and to keep him we would have to give him the absolute max of our budget – meaning we couldn't sign anyone. Not even free signings. It was a painfully emotional dilemma.

Fortunately, I had some Denmark games in the summer to offer me a distraction and a chance to get away and think. There's nothing better for a fragile manager's ego than the beautiful simplicity of a Euro Championship Qualifying campaign. In our first two games we managed to score 10 goals against Kosovo and Liechtenstein combined and next up we had games against Malta and Belarus. Some beautiful European countries and some nice easy games. As I watched us bang in our fourth against Belarus, I signed Rial up on his new mega contract. Football is the beautiful game, and goals are its foundation. He would earn 575 pounds a week with a further 150 per appearance and 85 per goal. I tiny amount compared to some of the figures I would have to fork out in the years to come, but a huge amount for the club and league.

Whilst I had arguably been a little complacent the year before, in 2027/28 I had a fire in my belly: we were going to win. When the top goal scorer odds came out I got my first little zap of concern however. Rial didn't make the list of top ten likely winners. The fire was in my belly, yes, but I didn't want to dwell. I just wanted to get the job done. 

After nine league games we were ninth in the league, just three points above the single relegation spot and fourteen points below Fuli in first. Clearly Rial's injury in the off-season had cost him dearly because he hadn't managed a single goal in those nine games. He wasn't the only one. All of the players I had relied on were now aging and it was hitting us hard. The squad needed a complete rebuild and yet we had neither the youth academy nor the budget to do so. I had invested our funds in experienced players when I first joined and that had brought us three years of incredible success, but now in my fifth year it was costing us and we were already dropping out of title contention with the pensioners limping around after twenty minutes. 

My job was once again in jeopardy. However, we were doing okay in the cups and I was confident that success in those would be enough to cling onto my position. Just as importantly, if I could cling onto my job and win all the cups then I would overtake Chan Hung Ping and fulfil the entire reason for staying in Hong Kong as long as I had. 

On the 29th January, 2028, I had the first chance to add points to the board with the Senior Shield Final against my old side Fuli. Rial hadn't scored and so for the first time in my career at Kitchee I dropped him to the bench and played an 18 year-old who the staff didn't even deem worthy of a star on their system. His finishing was ranked as a three and his work rate was  even more appalling. All I could hope is that being dropped to the bench would give Rial the needed kick up the arse he needed so that I could bring him on for a late impact. I needed more than just a Rial performance and was sat on my stool sipping my gin and praying that the whole squad would play for their lives. Just hours before the match The Hong Kong (China PR) Football Messenger posted an article saying that if we didn't win, I would be sacked.

Rial didn't score. But we won 1-0 thanks to an incredibly dogged counter attacking performance and a lucky penalty decision. I was thrilled as it was the first win I needed for my legacy and I was now just eight points behind in the Hall of Fame: my 108 to his 116. Next up was the Quarters against HK Pegasus – a side fifteen points above us in the league with us stone dead last and sinking into oblivion. We won, but then lost the game two days later in the Sapling Cup and went crashing out. 

I would have to win the one remaining competition available to us, the FA Cup, in order to draw level with the legendary Chan Hung Ping. And, with us so low in the league and with me now having lost a majority of the player's support in the dressing room, there was no hope of a contract extension.

On Wednesday 23rd February 2028 at 19:53, I was sacked.