A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 May 2035
Jovan Šljivić 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.
400 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Taverna. 2‑1 against Qingdao Hainiu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Lucas Taverna was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Shenzhen Peng City next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings21 May 2035
Jovan Šljivić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Jovan Šljivić
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.28 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Chen Boqing, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shanghai Port have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Du Yuezheng was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.55. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Šljivić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Shanghai Port, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Song Haoyu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shanghai Port the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Jovan Šljivić 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.
Haruna Hassan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luis Asué has come out of that comparison in the side, and Shanghai Port have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Yunnan Yukun in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shanghai Port have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Words at Shanghai Port training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Šljivić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Baihlam was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Lyu Zheng kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shanghai Port lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deal that would have taken Lucas Taverna to Henan FC has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Shanghai Port with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Shanghai Port until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shanghai Port have done the hard part with Shandong Taishan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Shanghai Port asked and Shenzhen Peng City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Haruna Hassan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chengdu Rongcheng have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shanghai Port lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shanghai Port will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Josías Palais was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Haruna Hassan 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.
Nobody at Shanghai Port 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.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shanghai Port lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shanghai Port will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shanghai Port have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shanghai Port this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Shanghai Port 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shanghai Port will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shanghai Port this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Šljivić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Shanghai Port will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Arthur Monteiro is on it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Jovan Šljivić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Josías Palais is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shanghai Port know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shanghai Port, another week without a signature from Vinni Triboulet.
Position 5 on 55 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shanghai Port, and both men came out saying it was fine.
115 minutes played. Vinni Triboulet found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dalian Yingbo went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shanghai Port is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $130.0K of what Shanghai Port paid for Jian Tao is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zhejiang FC had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Shandong Taishan for Wei Chao was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zhejiang FC keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Chen Boqing is living that version at Shanghai Port, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Words at Shanghai Port training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Monteiro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Shanghai Port asked and Beijing Guoan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Vinni Triboulet and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.