As the prologue of the 2022 Chinese Super League season slowly kicks off, Guangzhou City will soon embark on their journey. At 4:20pm today, the team will take off from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on a China Southern Airlines flight to Haikou. Yesterday, a special bus loaded with the team's gear and medical equipment arrived in Haikou.
According to the club's first team roster, a total of 35 players have signed up for this stage of the tournament, with an average age of just 25.4 years old. During the break, Guangzhou City successfully renewed the contract of last season's head coach Van Garst, while core players such as Tang Miao, Cheng Yuelei, Zhang Gong, Wang Peng, Chen Junlei, Long Wenhao, Chen Zhizhao, Jiang Jihong and Song Wenjie have also completed their contract extensions. At the same time, Tang Jiayan, Li Zhuoxuan, Wei Feng, Liao Jiajun, Li Yongjia, Yang Yang, Wu Junjie and other seven "after 00" star was transferred to the first team, together with a long time in the Chinese Super League game in the emergence of Wu Chengrun, Wen Yongjun, Su Yuliang and Jin Liangkuan, the Guangzhou City team "00" players have reached 11! The number of "post 00" players in Guangzhou City's team has reached 11, and the team as a whole is showing a trend of rejuvenation.
However, Guangzhou City's road to reform has not been smooth. It is reported that the slow progress of the share reform has resulted in the club being unable to utilize 100 million yuan of funds on its books despite having deposited the money. The repeated postponement of the previously promised payment of salary arrears has triggered players' dissatisfaction. Some players even pressurized the club to solve the problem of salary arrears, otherwise they will follow the example of Chongqing team to strike and refuse to enter the competition area.
Fortunately, after many efforts, the club and the players finally reached an agreement, this problem has been temporarily resolved. The club said that the new investor will actively promote the share reform, and the players also promised to enter the playing area on time. However, it was rumored that the players proposed a 14-day deadline, hoping that the club would raise funds to pay three months' salary within this period. Therefore, the Guangzhou City team may still face new challenges in the early part of the opening season.
According to the schedule, Guangzhou City will play Changchun Yatai, Dalian Ren, Shandong Taishan, Henan Songshan Longmen and Zhejiang in the first five rounds.
