The deal with Shandong Taishan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
A season average of 7.42 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Zhejiang FC close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zhejiang FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed El Messaoudi 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 2‑1 win over Beijing Guoan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
1‑4 against Shandong Taishan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Bernardo 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed El Messaoudi 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.96, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Nobody left the Zhejiang FC dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Chen Boxi after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Zhejiang FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Shenzhen Peng City had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bernardo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Zhejiang FC have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Ahmed El Messaoudi 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zhejiang FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Alexandru Mitriţă is somebody else's player now, and $310.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Changchun Yatai defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed El Messaoudi 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liu Yiming was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Shandong Taishan next, and one man in the Changchun Yatai dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Changchun Yatai have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 offer from Shandong Taishan for Ohi Omoijuanfo 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: Corinthians keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liu Haofan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Changchun Yatai are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zhejiang FC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zhejiang FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed El Messaoudi 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zhejiang FC will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zhejiang FC, another week without a signature from Shi Songchen.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Zhejiang FC have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Shi Songchen arrives at Zhejiang FC with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“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 Changchun Yatai, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Changchun Yatai have done the hard part with Zhejiang FC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Tim Chow 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.
Changchun Yatai asked and Shandong Taishan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 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.
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 Zhang Junjie is on it.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Ohi Omoijuanfo keeps the shirt for now, at Changchun Yatai's convenience rather than his own.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Qingdao West Coast had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal with Shanghai Shenhua is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zhejiang FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Yokohama F. Marinos have kept their man, and Zhejiang FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Changchun Yatai will make the call about Wu Wei this week. Zhejiang FC have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ye Daoxin 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tao Qianglong signs something — a contract at Zhejiang FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed El Messaoudi 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.
Alexander N'Doumbou 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.
9 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 view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Chen Boxi to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Zhejiang FC has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ahmed El Messaoudi is living that version at Zhejiang FC, and it tends to show in the first month.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zhao Bo and Zhejiang FC agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zhejiang FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed El Messaoudi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zhejiang FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zhejiang FC have made the call to Shanghai Port. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Shandong Taishan 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Chen Boxi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.