Chapter 64: One in and one out
New book on the rise, seeking recommendation votes, collections and member clicks ^_^
It's worth mentioning that in the past, Xu Genbao had once benched Du Wei during his second stint as Shanghai Shenhua manager due to Du's suspected superstar attitude, which led to a deep misunderstanding. However, after Xu stepped down, none of the players he reused came to see him off, but instead, Du Wei, with whom he had a bad relationship, took the initiative to help him pack his bags. The details can best reflect a person's inner thoughts, and Du Wei's unintentional move made Xu Genbao realize Du's character, while Du also realized from Xu's simple and unimaginable luggage that the old coach was dedicated and passionate about football. As a result, the two not only put aside their past grievances but also deepened their master-apprentice relationship more than before.
But even so, at the beginning, Gao Jun was still worried that Lao Shuai's overly strict requirements and his habit of keeping a distance from his teammates and rarely communicating directly would cause problems. Fortunately, Du Wei is currently in a low period of his career, and he can't even get into the national team's big list, and there is Gao Jun, the new core of the national football team, who has emerged out of nowhere in the Dongfang team. He naturally became much more low-key, and Xu Genbao also changed somewhat due to the previous heavy blow, so the relationship between the two has been pretty good. Although this prevented the master-disciple feelings from rising to a higher level, for the Dongfang team, internal stability is the best situation.
However, what Gao Jun did not expect was that before Dongfang team quoted a price to buy Du Wei from Huahua team, Huahua team had already set their sights on Dongfang team's players. Moreover, their approach was not very good, and they even directly contacted the players' parents to persuade them to convince the children to voluntarily ask for a transfer. Although Xu Genbao is known as an "iron-fisted" leader, he is actually very soft-hearted towards these children he has brought up himself. If the children or their parents are determined to leave, not only will he not try to retain them, but he also won't even ask for a transfer fee. As a result, many players who could have been sold at a high price were instead sold at a very low price (this is how it has always been in history, and Hengda was actually quite generous; other teams took advantage of Xu Genbao's weakness to poach Dongfang team's players at low prices). Fortunately, the "Pig Head Three" have not yet taken over Huahua team, so they are not shameless enough to take advantage of Director Xu's softness to get a free ride. They also didn't use government pressure on Director Xu. Additionally, since Dongfang team had already successfully promoted to the top league early on, the gap between this development platform and Huahua team is not as large as it was in history. Therefore, the loss is still relatively small compared to history; at least only one main player, Zhang Chenglin, left...
However, this also has to thank Gao Jun's private and sincere advice. Even if we don't consider the friendship between them, just Gao Jun's identity as a national team core member cannot be easily offended. Moreover, what Gao Jun said is indeed reasonable. The Oriental team is currently on an upward trajectory, having defeated several strong Super League teams to win the FA Cup this year. Next year's Super League performance should not be bad, and it's even possible to surpass Shanghai Shenhua. Additionally, the internal atmosphere of the Oriental team is united and upward-looking, much better than those old and stagnant teams, which is more conducive to the growth of young players. If it's just for temporary double salary, sacrificing future development may not be a wise move.
So Gao Jun didn't just put on a tyrannical attitude to stop his teammates from leaving for the sake of the team, but also because he was worried that those players would not be able to grow fully after leaving Dongfang and might even fall behind or completely degenerate. This isn't Gao Jun being overly anxious, as history has shown that among the players who transferred out of Dongfang, except for a few like Zhang Linpeng, the rest didn't develop as well as their former teammates who stayed with Dongfang, or even their younger apprentices.
Looking at the root cause, the main reason is that most of the Eastern team's players' actual personal abilities are not as strong as they appear in games. It was the Eastern team's overall playing style that made them successful. Except for a few exceptional players like Zhang Linpeng, once they leave the team and go to another one, they completely lose their competitive edge. As a result, they quickly end up on the bench or even can't make it into the starting lineup. Without game experience, how can young players grow rapidly? The less they play, the slower they grow, and the more disappointed the coaches become, which further reduces their playing opportunities, creating a vicious cycle. Moreover, the new team's head coach will definitely have new tactical requirements. Even if it's the same position, the responsibilities on the field will be different. If one's adaptability is poor, they may not have developed good new habits yet and may have lost their old good habits first...
In addition, there is another very important point, which is that the players of Dongfang team are still very young and their ability to resist various temptations is generally poor. Under the strict constraints of Coach Xu in Dongfang team and staying in the relatively remote Chongming base for most of the time, everyone's personal conduct and training attitude can still be guaranteed. In fact, this is also one of the main reasons why the success rate of Chongming base is so high. Once they enter the "big dye vat" too early, a large number of players will inevitably fall, and it is even more rare for someone like Zhang Linpeng to always train hard. How can a player who cannot strictly discipline himself become successful?
Some people may say that the flowers in the greenhouse are useless even if they are cultivated, but letting young people enter society before their personalities are fully formed is clearly a more irresponsible approach. Xu's soft guidance is just a woman's benevolence, which will ultimately harm those young people who have hope for success. On the contrary, it is a truly responsible approach to firmly keep them back. Gao Jun, although very respectful of Director Xu, has always held a reserved opinion on this matter.
Although he tried his best to persuade many players to stay, for some people with poor character or playing style, Gao Jun simply watched them leave. Those few "rats" leaving the Dongfang team early can further improve the team's atmosphere and benefit the growth of other young players. Coach Xu will still tolerate them because of their years of emotional investment and talent, but Gao Jun is different. On the one hand, he has never gotten along with those guys, and on the other hand, as a traverser, he knows that although they have some talent, they ultimately did not achieve anything, and the reason lies within themselves. So if they want to leave, then let them go, there's nothing to regret...
Actually, Gao Jun was able to retain so many people, not entirely due to his own abilities. Another strong team in Shanghai, the International Team, was worried that Hua Flower Team would solidify its advantage after acquiring good young players from Dongfang Team, and they intervened to disrupt the situation, greatly increasing the cost of poaching for Hua Flower Team. In the end, in order to poach Dongfang Team's main defender Zhang Chenglin and several "young bulls", not only did they give away a national team player Du Wei for free, but they also paid some money, so the loss for Dongfang Team was actually not that great.
