The overseas journey of the Chinese national football team has ended in failure, with only one remaining player abroad also deciding to return to China for higher pay and is expected to be heavily utilized by the national team under Ivan's management.
Beijing Guoan officially announced that they have signed Wu Shaocong from the Turkish team Istanbul. Wu Shaocong is currently the only player on the national team who has gone abroad, but his overseas experience has been quite bumpy. After not getting opportunities due to injuries at Istanbul, he joined the Polish league team Radomiak. However, upon arriving in Poland, Wu Shaocong suffered a thigh strain during his first training session and did not play in the first stage of the Polish Super League. Due to the lack of playing opportunities, Wu Shaocong decided to return to China, and with Guoan offering high wages, returning to the Chinese Super League was a natural choice.
Guoan will also pay a transfer fee to the Turkish team Istanbul. Guoan is actively selling players, including some young players within the team to balance these costs. It has been confirmed that three players, Ruan Qilong, Ma Yujun, and He Xiaoqiang, will transfer to join the China League One team Chongqing Tongliang Long. Besides this, it is expected that Guoan will not make any big moves in terms of domestic signings.
Currently, going abroad to play football also requires different considerations. Domestic fans always hope that our players will go to the top leagues when they go abroad, but the problem is that their level may not be enough. In fact, lower-tier leagues, or even lower-level leagues, are more meaningful for training than domestic leagues. For the players themselves, they need to consider various aspects, not just income, but whether they can get playing time, especially for defenders, especially center-backs. If a center-back doesn't get to play during their development phase, they can become useless in one or two years. Therefore, Jiang Shenglong is very clear-headed; he doesn't even consider European teams with Chinese investment. Looking back, Li Weifeng, at his peak, spent half a year at Everton, which wasn't very meaningful.
After returning to Guoan, Wu Shaocong immediately received heavy reliance from Ivan. In the last two training sessions, Ivan placed Wu Shaocong in the starting defender position. Wu Shaocong's technical finesse and particularly calm mindset are his greatest strengths. His weaknesses include poor physicality and insufficient explosiveness, but he is agile in turning. With Jiang Guangtai absent this time, it is expected that he will partner with Zhu Chenjie as the main central defenders. After Ivan became familiar with the players, he also adjusted the national team lineup. In recent training, Jiang Shenglong started playing as a defensive midfielder.
Ivan admires Jiang Shenglong and does not hesitate to show his affection for him. As a center-back, Jiang Shenglong can only play as a substitute, but as a defensive midfielder, it is also a good choice.
In addition, Serginho and Oscar, whom the fans were looking forward to, will definitely not be able to participate in the March matches. Fernandinho is causing trouble again, not wanting to return, so unexpectedly, there will only be Hou Yongyong, a naturalized player, available for Ivan to use this time.