In recent years, the Chinese Super League giants Shanghai Shenhua have been hit by the bursting of the gold dollar soccer bubble, epidemics and other difficulties, and its internal contradictions.
Hampered by arrears of foreign aid and foreign coaching salaries, Shenhua unexpectedly became a fan favorite last season after FIFA ordered them to suspend transfer operations. Luckily, decorated coach Wu Jingui took over the team at a critical time. Under his command, even with a disorganized squad, Shenhua completed the relegation task early.
This season, the Jiuzhi Group has joined Shenhua, sweeping away years of debt, lifting the team's transfer ban, and the team's performance in the league is getting better and better. Currently, Shenhua is at the top of the Chinese Super League table, a qualitative leap from last year.
Shenhua can successfully complete the transition and achieve such bright results, Wu Jingui credit. However, his limitations have also restricted Shenhua's development. Tactical ambiguity, the main defensive counterattack, over-reliance on veterans, so that many young players lack of exercise, the league performance is increasingly bleak.
Currently, Wu Jingui's work at Shenhua seems to be nearing its end. If the club hopes to make a breakthrough in the coming season, a coaching change is inevitable. Currently, two potential successors have entered the vision of the Jiuzhi Group.
A local youngster, Xie Hui, is a veteran of Shenhua. As a player, Xie played for Shenhua for 6 seasons and won the 1995 AA Championship with the team. 2000, he went to Germany to join Bundesliga Aachen, and since then, he has returned to Shenhua several times. 2009, Xie announced his retirement, and Shenhua held a grand retirement ceremony for him.
After his retirement, Xie Hui stayed with the team as an assistant coach until he left in 2016. Since then, he has also served as an assistant coach for Shanghai Ports and head coach for Nantong Zhiyun.After briefly leaving China in 2021 due to a drunken outspokenness, Xie Hui returned to China last year to become the head coach of Dalian Ren on merit.
Xie Hui is a passionate coach, and his tactical philosophy of "just play" is quite popular in the Chinese Super League, which is what Shenhua lacks at the moment. In addition, he is good at training new players, in recent years, Wang Zhenao, Huang Jiahui, He Yupeng and other young players under his coaching rapid growth. Shenhua also has a number of young players with potential, and is in dire need of a good coach like Xie Hui.
Another potential successor is Portuguese Pontes. In August this year, Shenhua club officially signed Pontes, who will serve as the team's technical director. On the one hand, Shenhua hopes to introduce Pontes to establish a mature tactical system, and on the other hand, they also value his ability to train young players.
It could be argued that both Xie Hui and Pontes are ideal successors to Wu Jingui. Xie Hui, with his Shenhua bloodline, seems to be the logical choice to return to coach the team. Pontes has already spent half a season at Shenhua and is getting familiar with the team, so there is not much pressure on him to take over the team next season. Let's wait and see which coach the Jiuzhi Group will choose to take over the reins at Shenhua...
