News: Suwon Bluewings Appoint Lee Lim-saeng as Manager

Lee Lim-saeng has been appointed as the new manager of Suwon Bluewings on a two-year contract. He will take over from outgoing manager, Seo Jung-won, and will be tasked with rebuilding a team that can get Suwon back into the Asian Champions League. 

(Photo courtesy of Bluewings.co.kr)

A talented and respected former defender, Lee spent most of his playing career at Bucheon and also won 25 caps at international level.

After his retirement in 2002, Lee found his first coaching job with Suwon, where he was a coach from 2003 to 2005, before becoming first team coach from 2006 to 2009.

Lee then moved to Home United in Singapore’s Premier League, where he spent four years in charge. During his time in Singapore, Lee steered the club to two Singapore cup successes but chose to resign in the December of 2014.

Following his time in South East Asia, Lee moved to Chinese second division club Shenzhen F.C.where he spent a year as manager. During that time, Lee guided the team to a 12th place finish in the Chinese 2nd division. Lee won only three of his 19 games in charge of the club, registering only a 15% win rate.

Lee then found himself given the chance to move to Yianbian Funde of the Chinese Super League where he was a coach under Park Tae-ha for the entirety of the 2016 season. From there, Lee moved to Tianjin Teda as a first team coach before being placed in temporary charge at the end of May in 2017. But results did not improve under Lee and the Korean lost his job three months later when former Korean National Team coach, Uli Stielike, took over the reigns as manager.

Lee then took a short break before moving to the KFA as Chairman of Technical Development. But he now returns to full time coaching for the first time since August 2017.

Lee takes over from departing manager Seo Jung-won who has left the club for the second time this year. The 48 year-old, who had been in charge of the Bluewings since 2013 resigned from his post before his team's crunch ACL quarter final in August, but later, bizarrely, was reinstated in October and continued in his role until the end of the season.

Despite reaching the ACL and FA Cup semi-finals, Suwon's league form this season left sections of the Bluewings' fan base frustrated, prompting demonstrations and banners inside the stadium, and Seo and the club decided not to renew his contract going into 2019.

With senior members of the squad beyond their best, a slashed budget due to their loss of ACL football next season and a number of first team players coming to the end of their contracts, the new man at the helm faces the unenviable task of building a team capable of challenging for the top three.