Affected by the bursting of the golden dollar soccer bubble and the epidemic of the last three years, today's Chinese Super League is becoming more and more sluggish.
Against this backdrop, many Chinese Super League clubs have experienced financial difficulties and their teams' league results have plummeted. Former Chinese Super League 8 champions Guangzhou were relegated to the Central League last season, and fellow sister team Guangzhou City, although successful in relegation, did not escape the fate of dissolution in the end.
The decline of many Chinese Super League (CSL) giants in the past has led to the emergence of many "big fish" players in this year's winter window transfer market. Taking this opportunity, Chinese Super League (CSL) newcomers Wuhan Sanzhen, Beijing Guoan, Shandong Taishan and other established CSL powerhouses have all made big signings.
Wuhan Sanzhen ate up three former Guangzhou internationals such as Wei Shihao, Yan Dinghao and Li Yang, while Beijing Guoan brought in many strong reinforcements such as Han Jiaqi, Yang Liyu, Fang Hao and Feng Boxuan. Although Taishan's signings this season are not as big as Sanzhen's and Guoan's, they still brought in new reinforcements such as Tong Lei, Sun Guowen, Hu Jinghang and Fernando in the winter window.
With these new additions, the first team of Guoan and Taishan became extremely bloated and inevitably had to clear out some of the team's fringe players. At Guoan, before the winter transfer window opened, the club had already announced the departure of six homegrown players, such as Yang, Jin Taiyan, Jin Pengxiang, et al. , as well as the departure from the team of two foreigners in Memisevic and Dabbro.
But even so, Guoan, who brought in eight new players, is still seriously overstaffed in the first team. The club can only rent some players who are still under contract to other teams. Former Olympic goalkeeper Guo Quanbo was rented to Meizhou Hakka, while Cao Yongjing and Tian Yuda, potential new stars who just joined the team in the past two seasons, were rented to Changchun Yatai.
Similar to the situation with Guoan, Taishan's first team is full this season. In this case, Taishan FC has loaned eight young players to Jinan Xingzhou.
In terms of foreign aid, Taesan, who already have seven foreign aiders, not only had no chance to bring in new ones, but also cleared out the surplus ones. Brazilian striker Leonardo, who was loaned to K-League side Ulsan Hyundai last season, became the club's first target for the purge.
Leonardo reportedly returned to China recently, but instead of meeting with Taishan FC, he went to Changchun Yatai for a trial. If there are no big surprises, Leonardo will be wearing the Yatai shirt for this season's Chinese Super League.
Although Changchun Yatai are not a traditional Chinese Super League (CSL) team, they do have an illustrious history.In 2007, under the leadership of renowned coach Gao Hongbo, Yatai won the CSL title at Beijing Guoan. Although they were unlucky to be relegated to the Chinese League in 2018, they returned to the Premier League two years later as Chinese League champions.
In the 2021 season, Changchun Yatai was the biggest dark horse in the Chinese Super League. Under the leadership of head coach Chen Yang, they finished fourth in the league table and managed to enter the AFC Champions League. Although last season's league results were unsatisfactory, Yatai didn't give up their pursuit of good results, so they brought in several new recruits in the winter transfer window to strengthen their lineup.
In addition to Cao Yongjing, Tian Yuda and Leonardo on loan, Yatai FC has also brought in a number of local players such as Abdu Hemiti, Xu Haoyang and Liu Yun. The goal of the new league season is no longer relegation, and hitting the top four in the table like in the 2021 season is their ultimate goal. Whether the club can achieve this goal depends on whether coach Chen Yang can make good use of these new assistance...
