Kitchee boss vows summer spending spree in bid to regain Hong Kong crowns, club will go ‘back to the drawing board’
- Kitchee interim head coach Kim Dong-jin unclear over future, and ‘does not know’ if he wants to stick around
- Club owner Ken Ng-kin says he is ‘always having conversations’ with potential head coaches
Kitchee owner Ken Ng-kin vowed the splash the cash over the summer and said the club would “go back to the drawing board” after a miserable season that saw them lose their Premier League, FA Cup and Sapling Cup trophies.
A year on from treble-winning dominance, Ng said no decision had been made over the future of interim head coach Kim Dong-jin, who “did not know” if he would remain with the club beyond their final league match, against Lee Man next Sunday.
Kim added that he was unsure if he even wanted to stay with the perennial league champions, while Ng revealed he was “always having discussions” with potential coaches.
Determined to reassert his club’s domestic stature, the president said the playing budget for next season would be “as much as it needs”, but had opted to delay any announcement about managerial changes, or player departures, until after Hong Kong’s Top Footballer Awards on May 28.
“We have one more game, then we will go back to the drawing board, and see what needs to be done to try to regain the league and cup,” Ng said.
“[Difficult periods are] normal in football, it is nothing to make a big deal about … I always have discussions [with possible successors to Kim], but I am not ready to talk about that in public, or with the media.”