Before this article begins, I would like to say sorry to all readers: in the title, the author also refers to the Guangzhou team as Guangzhou Evergrande... (The specific reason, I believe you will naturally understand after reading it)
12 years ago, Evergrande Group invested heavily to save Guangzhou football, which was in a period of crisis at that time. Although Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Football Club was working hard in the First Division at that time, Evergrande Group bought out all its shares and officially entered the football industry in an all-round way.
Unexpectedly, this step completely changed the development trajectory of Chinese football in the next decade.
How to improve the team's performance? The conventional idea is to bring in high-level players, hire foreign coaches, etc., but it's also limited to reinforcement in key positions. And Evergrande also followed this law, but it became more intense and rough in operation, breaking everyone's understanding of the concept of transfer.
In the past ten years, to be precise, in the first five or six years, Evergrande has almost completely denied its initial team and begun to play in the entire league network. Almost all of the eleven positions on the field are the best performers in the league, or are built according to the lineup of the national football team, and even the bench is almost all international configuration. The way to obtain these talents is also very simple, that is, to directly use high salaries to dig hard. If your original salary is 5 million, you will be given 8 million or 10 million directly, and you don't need to worry about liquidated damages. Just by relying on this method, almost all the excellent internationals have joined the squad.
In addition, in the selection of foreign aid, it is also spared no expense. Coupled with World Cup champions such as Lippi and Scolari, Evergrande used money to create a set of Top Asian squads. His achievements were remarkable, his reputation was great, and he was once prominent in the world.
But in addition to the outstanding achievements, what impact has Evergrande's high capital investment brought?
The most direct performance is that the entire Chinese Super League, and even the Chinese League A, directly entered the era of Jin Yuanhua. The club's annual budget is rising, the player's salary is also doubling every year, and the cost of introducing foreign aid is also to a jaw-dropping point. In order to have a place in the league, the major clubs had to increase their investment, from the initial annual budget of 50 million to 80 million, 100 million, 300 million to the later 810 million, or even more.
There are constantly teams to imitate the operating model of Guangzhou Evergrande, but they can rarely shake Evergrande's hegemonic position. Like the previous Tianjin Quanjian (which has been dissolved), Hebei Huaxia Happiness (although still there, but it has also reached the brink of collapse), the former SIPG relied on strong reserve funds and smashed countless sums of money to win a league championship.
In addition, other clubs are also scarred. The players, on the other hand, are making a lot of money, whether it is the main force or the substitutes, or even the players who can't get the opportunity to play, they can get a piece of the pie. But all the main players, the transfer fee is tens of millions, if there is a background in the international, then basically in a hundred million or even higher. Even so, many clubs are still difficult to find a good player, which is the player market, that is, the player occupies an absolute dominance in this environment.
This is the era of gold yuan brought by Evergrande, which has increased the value of players and the operating costs of the team. However, it has never improved the technical level of the players, and the luxurious and luxurious money life has made the domestic players satisfied with the status quo, easily tens of millions, making them not think of making progress. Players who have not been able to go out to stay in the west are also envious of the income of domestic players, and they have returned to China.
If it were not for the dismal results of the national football team, perhaps this situation would continue.
The poor performance of the national football team, the problems in Evergrande's internal operations, the epidemic has made it more difficult for clubs to operate, and the football association's salary restriction order has struck, breaking this "golden yuan" situation. This is what we have now been called the "post-gold yuanhua" era.
How to go in the "post-Jinyuanhua" era, in fact, no one can say, after Shandong Taishan won the championship last season, everyone once thought that football will return to the law of development. But this season has not yet begun, and the successive conditions of the Football Association and several teams have once again raised various doubts.
Evergrande Group certainly can't throw itself into the first team again like before. The Football Association is about to implement a stricter salary restriction order, and Arthur Junmin broke out the wage arrears of the Wuhan team, etc., all of which make everyone feel that the road ahead is still full of unknowns.
But I didn't expect Evergrande Group to make an important decision again: salary cut!
This salary cut is more brutal than the FA's! There are only 600,000 specifications before tax, which is almost a serious violation of the laws of football development. Here we need to say more, although the performance of the national football team is very poor, and the level of domestic players is not high, but the standard of 600,000 is indeed contrary to the normal club operation market.
The reason why Evergrande Group has such a decision is based on the specific situation of the current Guangzhou team. The team did reach the stage of life and death, and it was rumored that Guangzhou Medicine and GAC were ready to jointly take over the Guangzhou team, but so far there has been no substantial progress. Xu Jiayin of Evergrande Group has made it clear at the meeting that the team will definitely continue to operate, even if it is difficult within the group, the team will certainly not be disbanded.
The high cost of the first team is definitely not enough, and it is necessary to ensure the survival of Guangzhou football. Therefore, in the case of last resort, the team chose the path of reducing costs. The main players of the first team will certainly not accept this salary level, and most players will choose to transfer and leave, which will allow more young players to go up and maintain the survival of the club.
The annual salary is less than 600,000, which is unacceptable for the main players. But for young players, who have no professional experience but are eager to play, there is no problem. Evergrande wants players in the 01 age group to play in the Chinese Super League, 04 age players to play the championship, and players in both ages can be fully exercised. This can not only save costs, but also maintain the seeds of Guangzhou football, but also leave Evergrande Group with a chance to breathe, and more importantly, there is no waste of hard-working Evergrande football resources, which can be described as killing four birds with one stone.
Evergrande Group's personal operation ideas, others have no right to interfere, as long as it can be suitable for the current situation of the team, the author believes that there is nothing wrong with it. But what is terrible, other teams also have to blindly imitate, the first to stand out is the Wuhan team. Since Arthur Junmin put the Wuhan team on the cusp of the storm, the team has been actively doing public relations work for many days in an attempt to change its image of unpaid wages. After seeing the Guangzhou team's salary reduction measures, it seems to see a savior, but also blindly follow, calling on the players to significantly reduce salaries and help the team through difficulties.
Subsequently, not only the Wuhan team, but also several teams also stood up and actively joined forces to further speak to the Football Association. Although it cannot be changed to the standard of 600,000 annual salary, these clubs require the next policy of the Football Association to abolish the contracts previously signed with players and re-sign them. This purpose is very clear, and it is necessary to cut wages significantly!
Speaking of this, the author has to say with admiration: Evergrande, you have won again!
At that time, Evergrande led the era of "golden yuanhua", and the clubs behind followed suit, the cost of clubs rose, and the player salary bubble was serious. After the end of the Jin Yuanhua era, it is still Evergrande who has the final say! Evergrande wants to shake the player's salary to the end, and many clubs feel very reasonable, this time it is still following the trend!
In fact, Evergrande Group is not wrong, in terms of running the club, they do have their own set of theories. You say that Evergrande has broken Chinese football, that is not necessarily true, in short, each has its own reason, but Evergrande's original intention is to develop Guangzhou football and operate its club to the best, and Evergrande Group has also done it. What's wrong with him? Why did he have to be elevated to the national level? The mistake is the fault of the Chinese Football Association, which did not find bad signs in time, but encouraged a series of unfavorable arrogance, and did not make correct and favorable measures to stop it.
Nowadays, there are problems within Evergrande, in order to survive, it has no choice but to drastically reduce salaries to maintain the survival of the club. Even if the first team is disbanded, the club can accept it because there are still more good young players on top. Therefore, as long as the Guangzhou team has Evergrande, the team will not fall.
So, I ask you: what do your other clubs think? Even if the guangzhou team's first team is gone, they still have so many high-quality young players, so what about you clubs? There is no youth training echelon, what else to rely on to stay in the league?