The Changchun Yatai Sentinel
Market21 Oct 2030
Xu Yue is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Changchun Yatai is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Romário Baldé 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 Changchun Yatai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Yugo Masukake 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 dugout21 Oct 2030
Zhu Yue has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Changchun Yatai 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.
Market21 Oct 2030
The Yao Junsheng story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yao Junsheng signs something — a contract at Changchun Yatai or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
Liu Shibo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Liu Shibo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Garabet Takesian is finding his feet at Changchun Yatai
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
Chen Pu keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Chen Pu plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Match21 Oct 2030
A season winding down at Changchun Yatai
Position 9, 45 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.