Huge Signing!

Can this team get even better?

Daniel Evensen

Mar 11, 2023

Liaoning FC

Maybe I brought in too many players at once.

We beat Liaoning FC. That was never really a question. But we didn’t do it with our normal Yanbian style.

The match was scoreless until the 67nd minute, when Andrija Kolundžić came on. I haven’t said much about the 20-year-old Kolundžić, who was kind of rotting away in the under-21s at the start of the season. I was worried that he couldn’t survive playing at this level.

Well, I was wrong. I gave him a chance in the first team after he spent a quiet year in the under-21s. This was in part because there were rumors going around that he was upset at his lack of playing time.

He came on as a substitute, and promptly scored a goal.

Rovaglia followed up with one in the 75th minute.

That set the stage for Cheng Binbin, one of those new signings that I haven’t mentioned yet. Cheng Binbin’s story is even more amazing than Kolundžić’s. Cheng Binbin was on Liaoning FC until coming to us at the beginning of the transfer window.

Cheng Binbin wound up with the third goal, scoring a real wonder in the 88th minute. He ended up being name the man of the match, with a goal and an assist in what was otherwise an ugly match.

There were 14 yellow cards in this match. Liaoning striker Wang Zhiyu was finally sent off with a second yellow card in the 90th minute. This really wasn’t a great mach for casual observers.

Liaoning isn’t a bad team. They’re in a solid position in 4th place in the table, and probably could beat us if we had to keep facing them. I’m happy that we got away with this one.

The Huge Signing

I love my scouts. However, they don’t always know what is right.

I’ve had my eyes on Suphanat Mueanta for a long time now — even since before I came to manage Yanbian FC. I kept my scouts looking at him constantly to see if he would be willing to come down to our level.

He’s been in pretty poor form recently, and Buriram United seemed willing to sell. I made a 12 million RMB offer and kept my fingers crossed.

Well, we got our man this time.

Mueanta is a 20-year-old full Thai international who is a wonder to watch. Check him out on YouTube if you don’t believe me. He’s got incredible potential, and is clearly the best striker on our club. He’s also got 8 caps and 3 goals, which itself is quite impressive.

Even with concerns about his recent form, Mueanta has played incredibly well in Thailand. He is injured, though, and won’t see his first match for a few weeks. That might pay off in the long run, though, as it gives us a chance to get him more fully integrated with the squad.

The catch (and there always is a catch) is that Mueanta thinks he’s going to use Yanbian as a stepping stone. We did have to include a minimum release clause. My plan is to try to sign him on more money once the season is over and we’ve been promoted, hopefully with that clause gone. I want to take him to the Champions League, and would feel devastated if some European side came in to get him.

However, Mueanta wasn’t exactly a popular signing with the squad. Pietro Rovaglia started making noise about how he might be replaced by the new guy.

I tried to get Fan Xiang to calm down Rovaglia, but it didn’t quite work. I know that Fan Xiang has those great leadership traits, but I’m worried that his relative lack of skill compared to the rest of the squad makes him the wrong player to ask in these situations. I really don’t want to break up our Three Musketeers core, but that day might come.

Anyway, I talked with Pietro, who expressed his concerns quietly, and then backed down in the end.

This is why it’s important to cultivate good relationships with your players.

The Other Big Signing

I give myself the credit for Mueanta. Our next signing, though, is entirely due to our scouts.

I kept hearing rumors from our scouting team about a 20-year-old Brazilian left back named João Victor.

Now, I’ve been under a bit of pressure from our more hardcore group of fans for not having a proper left back. And I really heard it at home the other day when I was forced to use Lee Jin-Yong in that position. It turns out that the ladies in the Lee Jin-Yong fan club really don’t want to see him filling up fullback holes, even if there are offensive overlapping chances.

Anyway, the scouts loved Victor, and so I went and bought him. It only cost me 7 million RMB.

Victor’s not quite the massive signing that Mueanta is, though he does come in with quite a bit of potential. It’s not quite as easy to make the Brazilian international teams as it is to make the Thai teams, apparently.

However, Victor’s form with Red Bull Bragantino in Brazil has been more than good enough to impress me.

And the best part, of course, is that he’s fast. We like fast players in the back. We need more.

New Faces

I should introduce you to at least some of the new names that I haven’t mentioned yet.

First up is Andrija Kolundžić, the 20-year-old Croatian right winger who has put in his time in the under 21s.

We bought him in the summer from GNK Dinamo Zagreb, where he was also stuck in the youth team. It only cost 400,000 RMB; I think we likely got a bargain.

The best part about Kolundžić is his fantastic pace, which is exactly what we need in that position.

Second is the hero from the Liaoning game, Cheng Binbin. He’s a 25-year-old Chinese striker who originally comes from Langfang in Hebei Province, and he’s stayed in northern China for his entire career.

He scored 18 goals in 20 appearances for Liaoning this season, and was one of the best players in our division. That’s precisely why we signed him. And he only cost us 850,000 RMB.

My one complaint about Cheng Binbin is that he’s slow. He’ll probably wind up being a 4th or even 5th choice striker for us. But at least he’s got a better attitude than Huang Bowen.

Football Manager 2023 Elias Dahle Haugland

Next up, and last for today, is Elias Dahle Haugland, another player I brought up from the youth team. Haugland is a 20-year-old Norwegian centerback (told you we had a lot of Norwegians) with a great attitude and a lot of potential.

Haugland came to us from Molde, where he had been rotting away on the reserve squad. The real kicker here is that we got him for free. That’s right: with all of our wealth, we didn’t pay anything in this case for a kid who is now on our first team.

Haugland has a great attitude, has trained well, and is a great asset for our squad.

Going The Wrong Way

Share Football Manager Projects

Sadly, some players I’ve mentioned before are moving on. We’ve wound up loaning a number of players out to April 25, our North Korean affiliate club.

This includes Gustavo Rico. And this is a fascinating story.

Rico is a 20-year-old Mexican right winter who is actually a good player. He’s played about 7 games for us so far, and has done well in his few appearances.

However, he really isn’t going to get any playing time at the moment — not with the squad that we’ve built.

The hilarious thing here is his career trajectory. We found him playing for Ballard FC in the United States, and signed him on a free transfer at the beginning of the season.

That’s right: in 6 months he went from playing in the United States to playing in North Korea. That’s got to be a first.

Goodbye Huang Bowen?

I’ve been trying to offload Huang Bowen, whose morale keeps declining.

Kitchee Sports Club in Hong Kong finally made an offer for him. They’re offering 3 million RMB, including fees after installments and a certain amount after league appearances.

Kitchee are one of the most successful clubs in all of Hong Kong, and have a bit of money to throw around — though clearly not as much as we do. I can’t say that this would be a step forward in Huang Bowen’s career, but I also can’t say that I foresee a bright future for him here.