The Chinese Super League is coming to the end of the season and the suspense for the title has almost disappeared. Shanghai Harbour Team is doing well, clinging on to a 53-point lead, leaving second-place Taishan more than 9 points behind. As long as they keep up their normal play in the next six games, they can secure the title. The fight for the three suspense is extraordinarily intense, with little difference in points between second and sixth place. For the time being, Taishan are in second place with 44 points, Shanghai Shenhua are in third place with 42 points, and Beijing Guoan are catching up with 41 points in fourth place. Zhejiang and Wuhan Sanzhen both have 39 points, ranking fifth and sixth respectively.
Of the three teams in this season's competition, Beijing Guoan have seen a roller-coaster ride. Opening the season, they suffered a four-round unbeaten streak, swooping down into the relegation zone quickly proving Stanley Menzo's low level of coaching and poor clinical adaptability in laddering up to the next level. It also proved that the recruitment strategy of Beijing Guoan's senior management failed, and betting on Zhang Yuning became the biggest pitfall, resulting in a weak striker at the beginning of the season and frequent injuries to Zhang Yuning. The two new midfielders, Ademi and De Souza, have become chicken ribs and do not match Beijing Guoan's pass control.
In the middle of the season, Beijing Guoan corrected its mistakes in time to complete a coaching change. New coach Ricardo Suarez took over, but he had his ups and downs. Initially, he failed to shake off the decline of Stanley's tenure and continued to reintroduce Ademi and De Souza, but the two veterans were still unable to play the central roles expected of a foreigner.A disappointing 1-3 loss to Meizhou Hakka and a 0-3 loss to Taishan saw the problems up front slowly ease. Fabio Abreu, brought in during the summer window, raised the offensive flag, scoring six goals and assisting three times in nine games.
Recently, new coach Ricardo Suarez rebuilt Beijing Guoan's first line, the midfield line, dropping two foreigners in Ademi and De Souza. They couldn't make it into the starting lineup for four consecutive games. On the one hand, they were not well. On the other hand, they didn't play a big role. The inside backers of Li Ke, Ji Zhongguo and Zhang Xunzhe carried the midfield line and achieved good results. Guoan's last five consecutive rounds of Chinese Super League are undefeated, with four wins and one draw.
As we all know, Ademi was the king of Beijing Guoan's bidding at the beginning of 2023, generating a €1 million transfer fee of around RMB 8 million. In the end, it didn't get kicked out and became a parallel commodity. The players themselves are suffering at Beijing Guoan.
On September 5, Beijing time, Croatia's Dinamo announced the completion of Ademi's transfer on social media platforms, but details have yet to be announced. Ademi gave up his salary at Guoan and the transfer deal is expected to be officially announced on September 5th. As a result, Beijing Guoan will compete for three foreigners in the next six rounds. Guoan's initiative for Ademi to give up his salary for the transfer can also be seen as a way to cut their losses, after all, the player doesn't have much of a role to play in the lineup anymore, so the sooner he leaves, the better. De Souza will leave the team at the end of the season and according to his contract, it will expire at the end of the year.
