Marked for Liu Jun
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Qingdao Hainiu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Nov 2026
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market2 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nemanja Anđelković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Qingdao Hainiu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Liu Jun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Qingdao Hainiu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jin Yangyang 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 Qingdao Hainiu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Malcom Edjouma. Qingdao Hainiu will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Malcom Edjouma asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gao Yixuan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qingdao Hainiu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gao Yixuan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Oct 2026
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Qingdao Hainiu money.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Malcom Edjouma’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Kuang Zhaolei gets picked when it counts
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 Kuang Zhaolei is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Liu Shibo has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Liu Shibo has written the date down.
Market12 Oct 2026
The shop window has Liu Jun in it
Qingdao Hainiu have let the market know Liu Jun can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Qingdao Hainiu's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Qingdao Hainiu has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nemanja Anđelković 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Qingdao Hainiu
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match19 Sep 2026
Zhejiang FC left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Qingdao Hainiu
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Qingdao Hainiu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Qingdao Hainiu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gao Yixuan 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.