BEIJING GUOAN WON’T win the Chinese Super League title this year but their recent good form has put them well in contention to qualify for next season’s Asian Champions League play-offs.
Ever since Roger Schmidt was appointed the team’s manager and brought Jim McGuinness with him as an assistant, the side has enjoyed a resurgence. From seven games under the coaching team, Beijing are still unbeaten.
From a possible 21 points available, they’ve taken 17 and ahead of a weekend clash with Hibei China Fortune, they’re just two points away from an AFC berth.
Including tomorrow’s fixture, Beijing have eight games left in the campaign. They certainly won’t catch Luiz Felipe Scolari’s reigning champions Guangzhou Evergrande, who are aiming for their seventh successive league triumph. Second-placed Shanghai SIPG seem a little out of reach too but reeling in Shandong Luneng seems very achievable.
Qualification to the Champions League would be a fine achievement considering they experienced a managerial change at a crucial juncture of the season. It would also be the club’s best finish since 2014, when they were runners-up.
With Schmidt and his staff on two-and-a-half-year contracts, short-term progress is a must. The former Bayer Leverkusen coach is the club’s sixth different manager in four years and the hierarchy won’t hesitate in pushing him aside if things aren’t going to plan.
Still, keeping up their good form until season’s end will ensure bigger and better things in 2018 for Beijing, Schmidt and McGuinness too.
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And if he hadn’t tried to amalgamate the middle eastern countries to take control if it’s oil reserves by trading it in denar instead of dollars, he may well still be alive. Great to see Libya thriving today though under western democracy
@domas1507: I must add though that the counter argument would be that if we hadn’t delivered “democracy” then we would have lost control of a vital resource and we would possibly be the countries in turmoil. So it all depends on how you like you bread buttered I suppose
@domas1507: yeah, but more importantly, who won the match?
@Conoroconnor: Watch it tonight… Exclusively on RTE
@Gary Donlan: indeed I will. I have it set to record.
@Conoroconnor: ended 1-1
@domas1507: spoiler alert ffs!
The gas thing here is that Hughey made his close friend Larry Goodman a rich man because of sending beef to Libya. The same fella today has a monopoly on Irish beef factories because he holds the only offal license in the country. He uses this to keep the price of beef paid to farmers low.
Also look up the beef tribunal and how Haughey bailed out Goodman after the US invaded Iraq and Goodman went bankrupt.
Farmer gets €1200 for his product, he keeps them for 30 months. The factory and the supermarket get €1500 in profits for a few days work.
Each animal is worth about €2700 when sold to the consumer.
@great gael of Eire:Didnt know Hughey was friends with Larry Goodman. I’ve never seen him drinking in mccoys
@Peter Govan: Very good. Haha
Poor Gaddafi. Iti was probably the BSE beef that did it.