Newly appointed Shanghai SIPG coach Andre Villas-Boas has been set the target of claiming the Chinese Super League title in his first season at the club after taking over from former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Eriksson steered the club to second and third in the standings in his two seasons with the big-spending outfit before parting company with Shanghai at the end of the just-concluded season to be replaced by Villas-Boas.
The former Porto, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur boss was named as Eriksson's replacement last month and he has been handed a clear objective in his first year.
"My task is very simple: they have asked me to put all in on a project that can win in the first year, so our priority is the Chinese league," Villas-Boas said. "It was what was proposed to me and I hope to accomplish it.
"Of course we can have a focus on the other competitions but our main priority is to win the Chinese league."
Shanghai have spent huge sums acquiring an impressive squad since the club was taken over by the SIPG group in late 2014, signing former Guangzhou Evergrande duo Elkeson and Dario Conca before splashing out €55 million in June for Brazilian forward Hulk from Zenit St Petersburg.
Injuries to Conca and Hulk in the latter stages of the season saw Shanghai fail to mount a sustained challenge as Guangzhou claimed the title for a record-extending sixth straight season while Shanghai finished third.
The club also exited the Asian Champions League at the quarterfinal stage, losing out to South Korea's Jeonbuk Motors, but their third-place finish in the league means the club will appear in the qualifying rounds of next year's competition, and Villas-Boas is looking forward to the additional challenge.
"Of course we still have to play in the qualifying round, but I think it's great," he said of the continental club championship. "It's a competition between the Asian teams and it's going to give me experience, not only professionally but personally, of other countries and it's gives me a chance to get to know this side of the game."