A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Changchun Yatai will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Tim Chow 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Liu Yiming 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.
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Changchun Yatai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Changchun Yatai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Wu Yake 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.
Something was said to Wu Yake and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Qingdao West Coast in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Changchun Yatai, and both men came out saying it was fine.
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Changchun Yatai has to find a result from somewhere.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Changchun Yatai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Changchun Yatai is running low.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Wu Hao has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Liu Yiming 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Changchun Yatai will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Cao Yongjing 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Changchun Yatai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Cao Yongjing 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Wu Hao after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Tianjin Jinmen Tiger defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Changchun Yatai has to find a result from somewhere.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Changchun Yatai will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
At 39, 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Wu Hao after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Changchun Yatai will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Changchun Yatai is running low.
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.
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.
The money the manager was told he had is now money the manager used to have. $1.8M, gone from the table without a statement, and a dressing room that understands what it means.
Beijing Guoan 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.
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Changchun Yatai will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Tianjin Jinmen Tiger wanted more than $350.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Changchun Yatai will try again when the window opens; Henan FC may not be selling by then.
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Changchun Yatai has to find a result from somewhere.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Changchun Yatai will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Henan FC have accepted the money. What Changchun Yatai do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Changchun Yatai 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.
Changchun Yatai have gone to Tianjin Jinmen Tiger with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mitre have kept their man, and Changchun Yatai go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Liu Yiming 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.
$26.0K is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Changchun Yatai has to find a result from somewhere.
“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.
He is going to Zhejiang FC, the club has $26.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
$16.0K was the most the club would pay and Meizhou Hakka were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Marbella have kept their man, and Changchun Yatai go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Chow 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.
Changchun Yatai asked and Yunnan Yukun said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daiki Sakata and Changchun Yatai agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
203 appearances across 17 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Tim Chow 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.
Changchun Yatai offered $210.0K; Yunnan Yukun said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Tang Chuang was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $73.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Changchun Yatai asked and Meizhou Hakka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Liu Yiming 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.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Changchun Yatai has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$73.0K settles it between the clubs for Tang Chuang
Chengdu Rongcheng have accepted the money. What Changchun Yatai do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Changchun Yatai have gone to Yunnan Yukun with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wu Hao after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Changchun Yatai can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Wu Yake 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Chow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Chow 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Wu Yake
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Liu Junxian
Cao Yongjing 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Changchun Yatai is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Wu Hao left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yue Tze Nam’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Changchun Yatai needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Changchun Yatai can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Chow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Wu Hao to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Qingdao West Coast in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Chow 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ohi Omoijuanfo. 1‑0 against Qingdao Hainiu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Changchun Yatai are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sora Tsuboi and Changchun Yatai agree another 4 years.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Changchun Yatai has to find a result from somewhere.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Liu Yiming 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Chow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dong Yu, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Wu Hao was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Changchun Yatai dressing room was either.
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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Changchun Yatai told Liu Junxian something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chen Keqiang, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Wu Hao was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Changchun Yatai dressing room was either.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Changchun Yatai lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Tim Chow 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Changchun Yatai told Wang Yiwei something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Changchun Yatai lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Up for the corner, and Yue Tze Nam delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yue Tze Nam scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Cao Yongjing 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tim Chow 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Wuhan Three Towns scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Changchun Yatai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Chow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wu Hao after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dong Yu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Changchun Yatai can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Changchun Yatai has been clear about where Zou Dehai stands, which is more than many ever get.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Henan FC go through and Changchun Yatai go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Tim Chow 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.
Everybody at Changchun Yatai saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Zhang Xiuwei 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yan Zhiyu has his answer from Changchun Yatai; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhang Xiuwei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
“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.
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Meizhou Hakka defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Chen Keqiang’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Changchun Yatai needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Up for the corner, and Zhang Xiuwei delivers — 7.45
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zhang Xiuwei scored, was marked 7.45, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ohi Omoijuanfo and Changchun Yatai agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Tim Chow 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Haofan 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Xu Yang has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Changchun Yatai close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 1 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Shenzhen Peng City moved on, Zou Dehai reports back to Changchun Yatai, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chengdu Rongcheng in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Changchun Yatai will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The offer from Bodo/Glimt 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.
“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.
Tim Chow and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Zhang Xiuwei 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Changchun Yatai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Everything was agreed with Dalian Yingbo and then the doctor spoke. Changchun Yatai have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Liu Haofan 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
9 new faces, and Changchun Yatai are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Position 14 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The phone has started ringing about Ohi Omoijuanfo again, and this time the name on the line is Bodo/Glimt. Changchun Yatai are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tigre is saying, and nobody at Changchun Yatai is enjoying the guessing.
$270.0K on the table at Dalian Yingbo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Chow was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” João Trevisol and Changchun Yatai agree another 3 years.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Ohi Omoijuanfo talk too
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sora Tsuboi is living that version at Changchun Yatai, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deal with Tigre 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.
Changchun Yatai had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Changchun Yatai asked and Navbahor 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 had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
Yokohama F. Marinos 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.
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.
“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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Changchun Yatai can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zhang Huiyu has, at Changchun Yatai, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Tim Chow 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Chen Xuhuang and Changchun Yatai agree another 4 years.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Liu Junxian signs something — a contract at Changchun Yatai or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Liu Haofan 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 easiest signature of my career.” Wu Zhicheng and Changchun Yatai agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daiki Sakata and Changchun Yatai agree another 1 years.
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.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dong Yu and Changchun Yatai agree another 2 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Liu Haofan 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Yan Zhiyu has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutLu Chaosheng asks for a word with the manager
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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Changchun Yatai will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutZhang Junjie has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutWu Junjie asks for a word with the manager
Tim Chow 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.
SquadQuestions about Fan Chao on the training pitch
15Edition
The Changchun Yatai Sentinel
9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Liu Yiming 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.
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.
Yue Tze Nam 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.
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 Wang Zhenghao is on it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yue Tze Nam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ohi Omoijuanfo signs something — a contract at Changchun Yatai or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 14 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Tim Chow 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
At 36, 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Changchun Yatai are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout19 Oct 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 Wu Hao to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Player ratingsZhang Xiuwei beats them one at a time
“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.
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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Sun Jianxiang has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Changchun Yatai have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yue Tze Nam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ronaldinho Gramadense and Changchun Yatai agree another 1 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Changchun Yatai told Dong Yanfeng something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Daniel Costa is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mutalif has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Changchun Yatai have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Wu Hao chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Changchun Yatai lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Yiming 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Qingdao Hainiu were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ohi Omoijuanfo. 1‑0 against Qingdao Hainiu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ohi Omoijuanfo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Wu Hao, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutWang Yiwei dropped after a run of poor form
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Changchun Yatai can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liu Haofan 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 Changchun Yatai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Tim Chow and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Liu Yiming 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Zhang Junjie is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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 Wang Zhenghao is on it.
Beijing Guoan 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.
Changchun Yatai had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Liu Haofan 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.
Changchun Yatai ran out of time with Shanghai Shenhua. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Wu Hao after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Player ratingsJi Shengpan beats them one at a time
Changchun Yatai and Shanghai Shenhua have settled on $380.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Changchun Yatai close the window on a squad of their own making
26 in and 26 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.
Tim Chow 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Changchun Yatai asked and Temperley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Changchun Yatai scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The match ball belongs to Ohi Omoijuanfo, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Zhang Junjie, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 7.72 for the rest of it.
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.
The fee is $49.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Shanghai Port drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Henan FC have kept their man, and Changchun Yatai go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yue Tze Nam is living that version at Changchun Yatai, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Chengdu Rongcheng for Juan Camilo Salazar 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.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Changchun Yatai are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lu Bingzhuang has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Wei Pengfei has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Wei Biao has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Zhang Xiuwei is living that version at Changchun Yatai, and it tends to show in the first month.
Wu Yake 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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.