Transfer Controversy!
Part 29 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode | Football Manager 2023
A New Rivalry Is Born
We defeated Jiangsu FC handily, 3-0.
Everything went our way. Luciano Parra scored in the 29th minute. Mr. Kwon scored a penalty at the start of the second half. And Kristoffer Paulsen finished it up with a third right before full time.
Jiangsu had a player sent off in the 53rd minute for a horrible tackle on Mr. Kwon. It was the sort of play that you usually see in an intense rivalry game.
This hurts Jiangsu’s chances of being promoted. However, I’ve got good reason to believe that this is the beginning of a serious rivalry.
The Adrian Sander Story
We signed a 20-year-old Brazilian kid named Adrian Sander for free near the start of the season.
He looked good, but has never been quite good enough to start for us.
He’s played a total of 2 matches for us, neither of which were all that spectacular. For the most part, he’s been on the bench as an option in case somebody gets hurt.
And, well, he’s not all that thrilled about it.
It all started a few weeks back, when Sander started talking with the press. Articles started to come out about how he was going to force me to move him on to a different club.
Finally, I wound up answering a question from Tang Fei of Sports China about the situation. I told him that we were continuing to discuss the problem with Adrian and that we would solve it internally.
For some strange reason, Adrian thought I mean that he would get more playing time.
Now, I’ve done my homework on this one. Fan Xiang told me in private that Sander’s endless concerns were starting to get on the other players’ nerves. Nobody seems to care whether Adrian stays or goes.
Sander’s biggest problem is simply that he’s not good enough. Paulsen is 2 years younger than him, and is already better. There’s simply no way Sander is going to start at centerback as long as we have Paulsen.
Sander can technically also play in defensive midfield. However, Lee Jin-Yong is the same age, and is already a much better player with a lot more talent.
Sander simply didn’t fit in. And so I decided to sell him.
Guess who bid on him? Jiangsu FC, of course.
And we ended up selling him, for a measly 630,000 RMB. Adrian Sander will be a Jiangsu FC player on January 1st.
Told you we are now rivals.
Goodbye Hou Yu
Hou Yu has been sold as well.
Hou Yu never got over me fining him for giving up 4 goals to Qingdao Hainiu.
That was the match that caused me to bring Wu Ping back up to the senior squad. I was just about ready to sell Hou Yu then.
He never got over his upset feelings, and has been training extremely poorly. And so I decided to cut him loose before things got worse.
Shandong Taishan in the China Super League made a 1.15 million RMB offer for him. That sounded about right to me. I accepted it, knowing full well that we have a whole host of goalkeepers superior to Hou Yu coming soon.
It took only a few days, and it’s now official. The Hou Yu era of Yanbian FC will come to an end on January 1st.
Beijing Renhe
We’re facing Beijing Renhe again.
You probably don’t remember what happened last time. We made short work of them, winning 4-0.
The newspapers are buzzing about our former player Xia Xu facing us again.
I sold Xia Xu to Beijing Renhe not long after arriving. I fortunately still have my notes from those days. Xia Xu let us for only 6,000 RMB, which strikes me as an incredibly low amount. He is a defensive midfielder who I knew would never play a major role with our squad — particularly not when we had the big Koreans coming in.
His biggest weakness is his unambitious personality. We had a lot of that on this club when I first arrived, and there are still some remnants of that problem hanging around here and there.
I’m happy that I sold him. I just hope that we win again.