Letters From Shanghai: The king is dead. Long live the king.

Letters From Shanghai: The king is dead. Long live the king.

Letters From Shanghai: The king is dead. Long live the king.

image

By Andrew Crawford, writing from Shanghai

Events in Shanghai have taken a dramatic turn in the last week and suddenly a season of promise is teetering on the edge of complete chaos following a dressing room mutiny that ousted Joan Tigana from the Shenhua bench and put in its place, the team’s star player, Nicolas Anelka. No amount of experience in football betting could have prepared anyone for this. News is still creeping out as to what actually took place but regardless of what happens, no-one still picking up a pay cheque from the Hongkou Stadium is going to be coming out of this debacle smelling of roses. 

The first real signs of trouble appeared last Wednesday when it was announced that Shenhua were sacking all of Tigana’s coaching staff due to player displeasure. Whilst fans scrambled to find out why there was a sudden in-house purge, news started to spread later on Thursday night that Anelka had announced his appointment as player-manager on twitter (which is banned in China so this would have been difficult to confirm within the country initially). Cue utter chaos.

A day later, Anelka’s debut as a manager ended in complete humiliation as his Shenhua team lost 1-0 at home to Tianjin TEDA for the first time in their history. Cameramen gleefully photographed an unoccupied technical area whilst on the pitch itself, a rudderless home side with no clear formation and Anelka drifting aimless between midfield and attack, were easy pickings for a Tianjin side that couldn’t believe their luck. Shenhua were booed loudly by their ‘Blue Devils’ ultras at both the halftime and full time whistles whilst the rest of Chinese football- who have spent an entire preseason listening to the club’s bluster about a new Galacticos era in Shanghai- sat back and laughed.

 Now, a couple of days after the hatchet job on Tigana, people are still weary of what is still yet to come. Anelka has obviously no managerial experience and also has a lengthy track record of causing disruption in dressing rooms (as the British football writer, Henry Winter, mused recently, Anelka might have to be the first manager to read himself the riot act). How he is going to unite a young dressing room in desperate need of stability remains to be seen although he is a household name in footballing circles and that alone will command respect with his young charges.

However, the mood is still bleak to say the very least. The dark days of last season, where the club drifted towards the relegation zone, were supposed to be banished to the history books but instead Shenhua now travel away to old foes Dalian Shide having taken just five points from a possible eighteen and have now only won once in six games. Tricky ties against a strong Shandong Luneng and then Liaoning Whowin will come after that. The club is still yet to find a fixed line-up even before the turmoil and now with an unproven manager calling the shots from the pitch itself, it is difficult to say whether things could actually get even worse.

image

Nicolas Anelka was supposed to be the saviour of Shanghai. Instead he may well prove to be the author of another ruined season. Such is life for a Shenhua fan…

Andrew Crawford can be found on twitter @shouldergalore. Comments below please.