On the 15th August, 2023, I returned to Hong Kong as manager of Kitchee Sports Club – the side I had beaten easily in my final game in the country two years before. Obviously I was not happy to be back to the league. Not that there is anything wrong with it on a purely emotional level: the fans are fantastic and there is a truly lovely grass roots ethos to the game. It's just that it was now confirmed that I would have been completely better off staying with Fuli – especially as even under an inferior replacement manager they had managed to secure a treble the season after I left.
I was determined to be optimistic about the move back to Hong Kong despite the obvious fact that it was as a result of past mistakes and that I had wasted a couple of years, and, on arrival, everything seemed to be in place for us to succeed. This was partially because after some investigation it appeared that there was actually very little difference between the clubs as they all had very similar budgets and reputations and so I was confident that with my management we could win the league without any significant signings. There was also an experienced assistant manager in charge and a director of football that had been at the club for longer than I had been in football management. Because of the players available to me and their respective strengths, I chose to focus on wing play once again and chose a slightly unconventional asymmetric 41221 formation. I was completely satisfied with many of the players at the club, but I was absolutely thrilled with our striker Daniel Rial. I even had a bet with myself that he would be the top scorer that season and was willing to donate my virtual salary to a virtual charity if he failed. Furthermore, the board kindly agreed to fund my Continental C License!
And, indeed, the season started excellently. I was a little nervous in the first game after Chan Kin Chung decided to get sent off, but we managed to see out a 2-1 win and so all was dandy. Though, I was beginning to wonder why it was that I was getting quite so many red cards. Even with China u23s we were averaging 1 red every 4 games... However, I was so relieved that we managed to get the win despite his dismissal that I didn't even fine him.
Annoyingly we weren't able to beat my old rivals Tai Po in the second match, but we did come away with a respectable draw and we continued in that manner with us undefeated in our opening eleven league games. Sadly, we did lose on penalties to Happy Valley in the Senior Shield as I rested some of the lads and gave some youngsters a chance, but there were other cups to compete for so I wasn't too worried and it just felt good to be back at a club and competing again.
I hadn't been away from the league for that long, however I was amazed at how much things had changed. When I was there the league was incredibly close and we didn't win the title till the very last game of the season. This season, though, a gulf in quality was clearly evident and my old club were floundering only a couple of points above the relegation zone. This was depsite the fact that ten of their starting eleven were the guys I won the league with and that they had achieved a treble the previous year. Whilst we were three points clear at the top of the league and unbeaten, things were not going so well for me elsewhere as I had been sacked from my job with the under 23s.
Sacked is possibly a little extreme as I didn't do anything particularly wrong. It is true that we were beaten narrowly by Japan in the Quarter Finals of the u23 Asian Nations Cup, but then Japan were a superior side and we had expected to lose. The reason I was let go is that Louis Lancaster was sacked from the China manager role on Christmas eve and the returning Wang Bo, the man who gave me the job in the first place, decided that he wanted to go in a new direction and let me go. Not only does this mean that I was overlooked again for the main job, but that thanks to Mr Lancaster's incompetence I had also lost my current job. I was not pleased.
On the 11th February, 2024, however I was thanking my lucky stars for Bo's decision as I got my first taste of true international football as the manager of Hong Kong. In many ways this was a confirmation of my backwards step over the last couple of years as with China u23 I had a chance of winning things, and, indeed, I did win things. Hong Kong, meanwhile, were ranked 123rd in the world at that time and my job was nothing more than to 'attempt to be competitive.' Annoying, yes, but at the end of the day I was the manager of a nation and competing for the title in that nation's top division. Things could have been a lot worse: I could have been the incompetent and unemployed Mr Lancaster trying to pour tea from a chocolate teapot.
My time in the Hong Kong league was going incredibly calmly and was thoroughly enjoyable as with five games left of the season we were in contention for a league and cup treble. Quite pleasingly the semi-finals for both competitions happened within a week of one another and were against the same team: HK Pegasus. They were also our closest rivals for the league title and it was becoming clear that these games were going to be the defining matches of our season. The pressure was on.
Or not. We won every remaining game and I completed my second Hong Kong treble and shot up to sixth in the nation's Hall of Fame. And yet when the curtain came down on the season I was not left with a sense of triumph and pride, but instead with a bitter taste in my mouth. The taste of a lost bet: Daniel Rial wasn't the top scorer in the league, he wasn't even second. I knew his incredible talent however and so doubled the bet for the next season.