During the preseason of the new season, there is a flurry of personnel adjustment information among various clubs, with the rumors related to Shandong Taishan being the most numerous. Unexpectedly, two weeks after the opening of the winter transfer window, other teams, big or small, have had both departures and arrivals. Some teams have already started playing friendly matches after assembling their squads quickly. However, only Taishan has seen more than a dozen players leave without any confirmed arrivals. There was only one domestic player, Tang Chuang, who was confirmed to have joined the team but left due to failing the trial. The two Brazilian foreign players who were once hotly discussed suddenly disappeared without a trace, turning the claim of "the second CSL team to complete its five foreign player lineup" into a joke. Even the entry of famous veteran Su Maozhen into the club's management seems to have come to nothing... What is going on here? It appears that despite being widely recognized as lacking passion, Taishan Club is not short of composure.
Some might say, why rush? The winter transfer window closes on February 18th, and Taishan may be carefully selecting their targets, ensuring that they don't waste time sharpening their axe. The problem lies in the fact that Taishan has two AFC Champions League matches on February 11th and 18th, and registration needs to be completed before the holiday. Even if domestic and foreign players arrive immediately and the squad is fully assembled today, there will only be 20 days left for targeted training! Currently, none of the expected arrivals have come, especially the two foreign players in midfield and defense are missing, making it impossible for the team to integrate their overall tactics. How can they prepare for the AFC Champions League like this? If they perform poorly in the AFC Champions League, the team's confidence will be damaged, morale will plummet, and how can they cope with the upcoming CSL season that follows?
Despite knowing the urgency of the situation, the club remains unhurried and inactive, which can be attributed to two reasons: firstly, limited energy and inability to act. Either the financial resources are insufficient to meet the asking price, or the resources, connections, and experience are lacking, leading to low execution efficiency. This results in repeated attempts in the transfer process with no results. This is a high probability scenario, as the club's financial difficulties have long been an open secret. At the beginning of this season, there was a salary cut for all members, and players who could be sold or loaned out to save costs were not retained. Domestic players are only sought after if they are free agents, and the transfer fees for foreign players do not exceed six figures. The team chose Shanghai for their winter training, where the nightly room rate is eight hundred yuan, instead of Hainan, where it is over a thousand... These are essentially cost-cutting measures, as the club is financially strapped and must bend to the demands of survival. It is estimated that when negotiating transfers, they can only afford the price of cabbage, and efficiency comes from spending money. Without money, they can only rely on words, slowly enduring, unable to rush.
If the first reason is passive helplessness, then the second is a proactive choice. What is the second reason? Is it possible that the club's policy of only letting players go and not bringing in new ones, of wide exits and narrow entrances, stems not only from an empty wallet but also from a plan for the long term, as people often say, playing a big game? For example, Taishan's aging lineup urgently needs to start the process of renewal and replacement, or it risks missing strategic opportunities. Renewal and replacement first requires renewal, followed by replacement. Renewal means that those who should leave do so first, while those who should join gradually come in. The purpose of leaving is to create space, but how to fill that space? Is it about filling gaps as they arise, or taking this opportunity to explore new paths? That is the key question.
Over the years, Taishan has primarily built their lineup and tactics around foreign players, implementing a high-cost team-building strategy of "strong foreign players + mature domestic players." Their own top-tier Chinese Super League football school, Luneng, and unique Brazilian base youth training resources have yet to be fully utilized. With the club's financial difficulties set to continue in the long term, the "commoner team" positioning has already taken shape. The previous approach of relying on large funds is no longer sustainable. Returning to the low-cost route of establishing themselves through youth training and rebuilding a new model based on "practical foreign players + local youth training" has become a necessity.
Following this logic, can we explain Taishan's current situation of having departures but no arrivals and remaining silent? Of course, I am not sure whether these thoughts are mine or the club's. I tend to think positively about others and hope to find a positive side to negative phenomena. However, even if the club shares my thoughts, perhaps they are thinking even higher and further. For the team's immediate needs, even if no domestic players are recruited, veteran players whose contracts have not expired are placed on the bench, and all local players use trainees, the two foreign players in midfield and defense should still be brought in as soon as possible. Otherwise, the team will have gaps in their lineup, be top-heavy and bottom-light, and their attack and defense will be imbalanced. The path of transformation and reconstruction may stumble at the very beginning, fall hard, and may not be able to get back up.
The club is also facing difficulties, as reclaiming the transfer rights has made the Choi Kang-hee team dissatisfied, wanting to change coaches but unable to afford the breach of contract fee; significant salary reductions have caused player dissatisfaction, with those who should not leave also departing, and those who should leave are stuck due to contracts and cannot reduce their salaries; high performance indicators conflict with the plan for renewal and replacement, while low performance indicators make leaders and fans unhappy; wanting to accelerate the speed of new and old alternation, the promising newcomers who should be added have been taken away by the National Games team, and this year they basically cannot be counted on... This grand strategy is being played out amidst great suffering.