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Paul McNamara

Head coach Edgar Cardoso has been told his time at Kitchee is coming to an end after he oversaw the club’s first season without a trophy in more than a decade.
The Portuguese, who will stay in charge until his contract expires this summer, learned his fate in a meeting with club president Ken Ng Kin after a 2-1 home loss to North District last week.
He revealed the news moments after a dire 4-0 defeat at Lee Man on Saturday, as the club’s supporters noisily called for his removal.
“I’m out of Kitchee at the end of the season,” Cardoso said. “It’s mainly the club’s decision. I had very good intentions to play good football, to entertain the fans, but the fans are not entertained.
“My contract is coming to an end, so it was an easy decision for the club to not renew.”
Cardoso, whose last game in charge will be against Eastern on May 25, was installed last summer following the exit of predecessor Kim Dong-jin, who lasted only eight months after he replaced 2022-23 treble winning boss Alex Chu Chi-kwong.

Under Kim, Kitchee won only the Senior Shield. Cardoso was given the remit of delivering trophies, while playing sophisticated, attractive football.
His team clicked only occasionally, however, and league wins over Tai Po and Eastern, in January and February, respectively, were rare bright spots in a desperately disappointing campaign.
“I truly believed we could do something special, we had moments of playing well and not winning, then we had two good months in January and February, and closed the gap to [league leaders] Tai Po to three points,” Cardoso said.
“It’s a huge disappointment, but I’m very proud of the players and the quality we tried to show every week.”
The writing was on the wall for Cardoso after Kitchee surrendered a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to North District last Saturday. That followed hot on the heels of two instances of Kitchee losing from 2-0 in front, against Kowloon City in the league, and Tai Po in the FA Cup.
Cardoso attributed the slump to a combination of “a lack of experience compared to last season’s team, a lack of quality in some moments, and bad decisions from my side”.
“I take the responsibility, when you don’t win it’s always the coach,” added Cardoso, who said he would not have done anything differently.
“We had the players we managed to bring [last summer] and I knew in July I needed to work with them I never complained. I’m proud of the way we tried to play football … it’s always a pleasure when opposition players say we play the best football in Hong Kong, but it’s not enough. We needed to win and I didn’t.”

Kitchee are fourth in the league, nine points behind Tai Po, with only four games remaining. They lost a Senior Shield semi-final to Lee Man, and exited the Sapling Cup at the group stage.
Cardoso said he “would not answer” whether he could have turned around the club’s fortunes next season. On the fans’ open dissent, which began early in the Lee Man defeat, he said: “This is normal, when you don’t win, they don’t care how you play. They are right to be disappointed.”
Lee Man’s victory at Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground, courtesy of goals from Everton Camargo, Dudu, Henri Anier and Mitchell Paulissen moved them above Eastern into second, three points behind Tai Po.
“We came to show personality, responsibility and professionalism, but when things are bad, it’s difficult to turn the page,” Cardoso said. “In the final four games, we’ll try our best to clean our image, and change the fans’ opinion of the players.”


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Sport

Football

Manager out with club poised to finish season without a trophy for first time since 2009-10 campaign


Manager out with club poised to finish season without a trophy for first time since 2009-10 campaign.


Kitchee SC