The 2023 Chinese Super League season is different from the past, with all sorts of off-field interference issues destined to affect the course of the game, especially for Taishan, a double-champion division that first saw the inexplicable departure of an international player and his absence for the entire season, a problem that seemed to be over, but unexpectedly, the head coach disappeared as well, only one round into the season. What is even more confusing is that after the players and coaches quit one after another, the Taishan club remained silent, and now the team's performance has plummeted without any statement or sign of a rebound, which is a far cry from the performance of the past two seasons.
It's reasonable to say that Tarzan's record won't be so far down. Even though it's been more than a year since the 'double', it's still the FA Cup winner for at least 2022. Its strength has stood the test of time. In addition, the winter window championship lineup is not only intact, but also has supplements, which is enough to make fans look forward to the new season, and then feel the huge gap between the current results.
Of course, more troubling than the results is the fact that Taishan's off-field losses are getting bigger and bigger, especially in terms of players, as Taishan had many more absentees in the pre-match training for the seventh round. Among those, the disappearance of 24-year-old Guo Tianyu and 31-year-old foreign aid Sun Junho confused the outside world; after all, they were not injured and should not have been absent. According to informed media sources, Guo Tianyu and Sun Junhao were taken away for investigation, most likely related to head coach Hao Wei.
It's chilling to look back at Guo Tianyu's lackluster performance last season and his poor form in key matches, even Xi'an's watchI. Whether Guo Tianyu can return to the team in the near future will directly explain the seriousness of the matter. The taking away of Sun Junho was even more of a surprise to the outside world, as he became the first Chinese Super League (CSL) foreigner to be revealed to have been taken away.
According to informed Korean media, Son Jun-ho has been taken away for more than 24 hours to cooperate only with the investigation and is expected to be released on the 14th. As a 2022 World Cup player, Son Jun-ho has a certain popularity in South Korea, and is also a mainstay of South Korea's third place in Asia. Now he's been taken away, which has caused concern in the Korean soccer community. The scope of this investigation is unprecedented. In the current situation, with several players absent for unknown reasons, the starting lineup cannot be guaranteed. If the team continues its sluggish performance, Taesan FC is afraid that it needs to prepare for relegation, which will also pose a new challenge to the club's management.
