The Guangzhou soccer team has been preparing for the Chinese Super League (CSL) season since this week, and members of the team have been assembled according to the spring training schedule.
With the Guangzhou team launching a new salary policy, the highest annual salary of the first team is set at 600,000 yuan per year, and only three players can get this treatment, which makes the team lineup update more rapidly. Many voices predicted that most of Guangzhou's starters from last season will leave the team. At present, including Zhang Linpeng, Wei Shihao, Jiang Guangtai, Liu Dengzuo, Gao Junyi, Wu Shaochong, Deng Hanwen, Yan Dinghao, Yang Liyu, Liao Lixiang and other ten players are training with the national team in Hainan, some of the players have basically confirmed that they will join the new owner. And two senior players Zheng Zhi and Huang Bowen may also be directly retired, into the coaching field.
It is reported that the Guangzhou team's coaching team has selected dozens of youth players at the Evergrande Football School, some of whom will be supplemented to the first team, while others will participate in the AFC Champions League as the second team. Despite the limited scale of the team's current investment, the club's primary goal is to secure qualification for the Chinese Super League.
At the end of February this year, Guangzhou Football Club made a major personnel adjustment. Wang Yajun, the principal of Evergrande Football School, was promoted to chairman of the club, and Gao Han, the former chairman, was transferred to the position of general manager. Subsequently, the club appointed a brand new coaching team, Liu Zhiyu continued to serve as head coach, his assistant team basically retained the members of the previous season, and added Li Bai, the interpreter of the former head coach Carnavaro.
From March 7, Liu Zhiyu led the coaching team of the first team and the second team to carry out the selection work at the Panyu base. The number of players to be examined will reach 60, mainly targeting the second team players who participated in the AFC Championship last year and the youth training players of Evergrande Football School. The coaching team plans to complete the inspection in one week, from which about 35 players will be selected to form the first team. Players who fail to make the cut will be involved in the selection of the second team and other teams planning to participate in this year's Chinese Champions League, which may also take on the AFC Champions League.
Previously, Changchun Yatai had announced its withdrawal from this year's AFC Champions League, triggering speculation that the Guangzhou team might also withdraw. However, Evergrande Group executives have explicitly asked the team to participate in the AFC Champions League in order to continue exercising the team. Given the overlap between the AFC Champions League group stage and the Chinese Super League schedule, it will be Guangzhou's second team that will travel to the AFC Champions League group stage, which will be held in Malaysia.
