Spring 2022.
Shanghai Shenhua (soccer team)
The club has welcomed a new face - Wu Jingui, who has been officially appointed as the team's head coach and has been tasked with leading the team into the new season.
Looking back twenty years ago, the reporter first met with Wu Jingui, when the old Peter was still coaching at Shenhua. The years go by like a shuttle, and now more than twenty years have passed. Wu Jingui in the Chinese Super League in the first line of coaching these years, witnessed the capital prosperity of the heyday, but also experienced the capital withdrawal after the trough.
Facing the reporter, Wu Jingui said, "To take over the coaching whip of Shenhua at this moment is my honor as a domestic coach, a Shanghai coach, and a Shenhua man. Under the double pressure of trust and responsibility, I will do my best." Although the new season may be full of challenges for Wu Jingui, he firmly believes that the clouds will eventually clear and the sunshine will always come.
"Ten years in a cycle, I don't think the current situation has to make people pessimistic. Pessimism and complaining won't solve the problem, instead, at this time, we should do our own thing. As Chinese coaches, whether we can do things well in this kind of crisis and accompany Shanghai Shenhua out of the most difficult road is what we should really think about. It's meaningless to think too much about other things, and we can't decide. We have to compare ourselves and see if we can work harder than last season and than ever before." Wu Jingui's words were full of determination and resolve.
Wu Jingui revealed that he dared to take on the burden at this time not only because of the sense of responsibility, but also because of the good cooperative relationship and mutual trust base established with the management of Shenhua. The management has made full preparation for him to start his work.
"Both chairman Wu Xiaohui and general manager Zhou Jun did not have a good rest during the Spring Festival. On the one hand, they kept communication with me at work, and at the same time, they paid close attention to the players' dynamics and tried to do a good job in everyone's thinking. In fact, Mr. Wu and Mr. Zhou were under more pressure than me. During the training, I saw the effectiveness of the two leaders in the ideological work of the players, and every player who participated in the training embodied a high degree of professionalism and self-discipline. All of this did not appear by chance, behind the management too much effort, but also the players' gratitude and understanding, and the team's cohesion and unity molded over the years." Wu Jingui said so.
Wu Jingui said that cohesion and unity have always been the team culture that Shenhua endeavors to build, and in this time of crisis, this culture reflects its value and role. Unity is an important prerequisite for Shenhua to overcome all difficulties.
Since March 1, the Shenhua team has been training, with one day off per week and two days of two-a-day practice. With the change of the epidemic situation, from this week, Shenhua team began to centralized closed training. Currently the players involved in the training are close to 30, and some players have been transferred to the national team and the U23 and U21 national teams.
The reporter asked Wu Jingui about the plan to adjust the team's lineup for the new season, after all, from the second half of last season, the call to promote the rejuvenation of the team is getting louder and louder. So, will Wu Jingui further promote the rejuvenation of the team?
"At the moment the players have just returned from vacation and we don't have a full squad, so the focus at the moment is to get all the players fit and then make a comprehensive assessment of how everyone is doing. This year our situation may be a bit special, none of the foreign players were able to return. We can't rule out the possibility of playing the Super League with a full Chinese squad this season. If we play with a full Chinese team, we have to consider the task of relegation first and foremost, and the first priority is to rebuild a new set of lineup and playing style. The proportion of new and old players, it is impossible to be the same as the foreign aid are in the same time, so the adjustment of the new season lineup is certainly a comprehensive consideration of the results." Wu Jingui explained.
So does that mean the lineup slimming program is going to stop? It shouldn't. After all, the Chinese Super League for the final number of enrollment restrictions, the total number of Shenhua domestic players is certainly overstaffed. Wait until the pre-season registration time, or will make corresponding adjustments, then the main and replacement lineup basically already have a relatively certain candidate, and thus will be able to choose more accurately. There may be concerns about how these players cut by Shenhua will find their next home by that time, in case the transfer window closes.
In the current situation, teams are cutting redundancies, especially for highly paid players. If a highly paid player has a better option or is worried about not being on the list in the future, he can renegotiate his contract with the club ahead of time, and I believe that the clubs will not put up any obstacles in this regard.
The epidemic has brought economic difficulties to the whole soccer industry, and Shenhua club is trying to maintain a good atmosphere and positive mentality to face this crisis together.
It's not a good time to be without a foreigner, and among the few who are still under contract with the club, defender Jonić has confirmed his departure to join the Japanese league. Whether other foreigners will choose to leave next is still unclear. Basogo and Dumbya are both under contract with Shenhua, and they have yet to return. How the contractual issues of these two foreign aiders are going to be resolved, either by staying or terminating their contracts early, may require a large sum of money. Although the league's entry process has not officially begun, the proper resolution of contracts with foreign aiders has traditionally been a threshold for entry. Perhaps the principle of access has been adjusted this year, but I'm afraid it won't be easy to relax the foreign aid contract, so I hope Shenhua can handle it properly.
In fact, within the Chinese Super League, there is more than one club with foreign aid salary disputes, some clubs have been appealed to FIFA, and even FIFA has been punished accordingly, being prohibited from introducing and registering new players.
If it is true that none of the foreign aid is coming back and none of the foreign aid can be registered, this should be the first time in the history of Shanghai Shenhua since the establishment of the club that it has to have a full Chinese class to play in the Chinese Super League. I have to say, this is a risky move, but on the current situation of the personnel reserves of other teams in the Chinese Super League, if Shenhua really do not go on the foreign aid, even if the goal is only set at relegation, is not easy to accomplish.
As far as the current transfer market is concerned, Shanghai Seaport has the most names of Chinese players rumored to be in the market. Whether the rumors will eventually become reality is not yet known, but the city's seaport's goal of strengthening the team's lineup and pursuing results in the new season is obviously difficult for Shenhua to reach.
In 2021, Harbour missed out on the title, and if nothing else, Harbour will still be aiming for the league title in 2022. Shenhua's positioning for relegation and Seaport's pursuit of the title may be the biggest gap between the two teams in the same city in terms of seasonal goals since Seaport entered the Chinese Super League. Shenhua has not been without its woes before, in 2013, the club had also experienced large salary arrears, investor Zhu Jun even plans to take the team to Kunming, Yunnan Province, leaving Shanghai, in 2013, there has also been a foreign aid to strike training strikes to recover the arrears of wages of the big action. Later, Zhu Jun could only sell Wang Dalei and Dailin to ease the financial pressure. At that time, Shenhua also had fans worried about disappearing from Shanghai, but in the end, Shenhua was able to retain.
The one who completely solved the dilemma and kept Shenhua in Shanghai was Greenland Group, and it has been investing continuously since then, winning the AFC Cup twice. Greenland has been relatively rational investment in the past few years, Shenhua is not the team that spends the most money in these years, but also in five years, twice won the AFC Cup, which is the best return to Shenhua in times of crisis to lend a helping hand to the Greenland Group.
Greenland Group has been exploring a long-term development path for professional soccer clubs, Shanghai Shenhua FC has also been working hard to promote their own brand and build their own youth training system, but due to the overall inadequacy of China's soccer consumer market, the lack of soccer talent and the ups and downs of the market, it will take quite a long time for both the commercial brand and the youth training brand to have a truly substantial return.
Shenhua fans are generally able to rationalize the situation of Shenhua this season. It is generally believed that Shenhua just need to keep the qualification of the Chinese Super League, and can work out some new people, even if the task of the season is completed. As Wu said, the difficulties are only temporary and everything will be fine. This difficult period is both a low point and an opportunity. Do what you need to do in order to blossom again when the light comes.
