While Shenhua fans were worried about whether the club would survive, Shanghai Shenhua welcomed the takeover by the Jiuzhi Group. The injection of a new owner will inevitably lead to a restructuring of the players, with five of the overpaid players being cleaned out, two of whom were once Evergrande utility players.
The first player is foreigner Bolaños! Bolaños moved to Shanghai Shenhua on October 1, 2020, the National Day. Bolaños was initially an Ecuadorian international, but his form at Shanghai Shenhua was not good, which led to him being loaned out to Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic for the 2021 season.Upon his return to Shanghai Shenhua for the 2022 season, his form was a concern as he failed to score a single goal in 7 matches. Bolaños is an overpaid and low-energy player in the squad. To put it bluntly, not as good as the local strikers, with the exception of Yang Xu.
The second player is Li Yunqiu! Li Yunqiu is a player from the Genbao soccer academy who initially played for Shanghai Dongya.In February 2014, he moved to Beijing Guoan. After playing two seasons at Guoan, Li Yunqiu came to Shanghai Shenhua. Li Yunqiu is known by fans as the new four villains of the Chinese Super League and often causes trouble for his team. If it was any other club, Li Yunqiu's performance should have been cleaned up. It is time for Li Yunqiu to leave.
Speaking of Chinese Super League villains, Shanghai Shenhua has one more, and that's Qin Sheng. Qin Sheng is 37 years old and is due for retirement. 2022 season, Qin Sheng is already a fringe player, making only 5 appearances in total, all from the bench, with a total playing time of only 78 minutes, which is less than one game. Like Li Yunqiu, Qinsheng was a troublemaker. Fortunately, he played for Shanghai Shenhua, so he wasn't cleared, as Shenhua has a habit of leaving behind Chinese Super League villains. It's just that with Shenhua's new owner, the team will surely have new requirements. Overpaid and underachieving players like Qin Sheng will naturally be in the purge.
The fourth and fifth players were goalkeeper Zeng Cheng and defender Feng Xiaoting, who were transferred from Guangzhou Evergrande. When Zeng Cheng first came to Shenhua, his performance was still very good, and he often played high and low blocking games. However, Zeng Cheng is a 37-year-old player, and with the high intensity of the game, he often missed matches due to injuries. Zeng Cheng only made 11 appearances in the entire 2022 season. At the end of the season, Zeng Cheng posted on social media, suspected to be asking for wages and not satisfied with the club. Fans speculated that Zeng Cheng would leave Shenhua in the new season.
Compared to Zeng Cheng, Feng Xiaoting's life at Shenhua is even sadder. When Feng Xiaoting left Evergrande, it was because he was being questioned in the national team. While his early performances at Shenhua were good, he was too old to compete with the younger players and was able to play less and less. In addition to being able to bring less and less help to the team on the field, Feng Xiaoting was also a frequent participant in variety shows and created right and wrong off the field, much to the displeasure of the club.
