The Shandong Taishan Courier
Squad22 Feb 2027
Chen Pu damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market22 Feb 2027
Jerónimo Pourtau puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Shandong Taishan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Cryzan in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shandong Taishan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Guilherme Madruga falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Zhao Jianfei is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Liu Binbin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shandong Taishan will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
- Market The Wei Shihao question follows Shandong Taishan around
- Market Peng Xiao goes looking for football
- Squad Chen Zeshi is the talk of the training ground
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Chen Zeshi