On July 26, Shandong Taishan officially announced that their head coach, Choi Kang-hee, had returned to South Korea for medical treatment due to illness.
In response, media figure Xu Jiang wrote on social media, “After the 0-6 loss to Shanghai Shenhua, upon returning to Jinan, [Choi] implemented military-style management, requiring players to gather before each of their three meals and proceed to the dining hall as a team. Even those who previously trained individually were required to join for breakfast.
The training remained much the same. Previously, it was mentioned that one and a half players suffered muscle strains—Wu Xinghan with a partial strain and Tong Lei with a full strain—resulting in further reduction in the squad! Later, Wu Xinghan was included in the starting lineup but was replaced at the last minute for this reason.
These incidents occurred about half a month ago but were not made public, in the hope that the team could internally process the negative emotions.
Why did Choi do this? Personally, I believe that Choi was creating conflict, stirring up emotional opposition, with the aim of provoking player resistance, poor results, leading to his dismissal by the club, and ultimately receiving compensation to leave. Fortunately, the recent opponents were not particularly strong, resulting in a draw against Qingdao Hainiu and a win over Nantong.
Furthermore, the departures of Ji Xiang and Song Long were understandable in terms of personnel turnover, but the dual-faced nature of human relations highlighted the cold reality. When he arrived last year, Choi invited four senior players to dinner, showering them with praise and referring to them as the backbone of the team. After their contract renewals at the end of the year, however, his attitude changed drastically. Ji Xiang and Song Long were banned from the training ground and even barred from using the gym with the rest of the team, eventually forcing them to leave prematurely. Following this, without any significant conflict, another player was also let go.
As a result, by the end of the season, the squad of 35 players couldn’t even muster 22 players for a practice match, with Wen Huyi filling in the numbers—can you imagine that?
Choosing to depart temporarily due to illness at this time was tactfully timed, as Shandong’s next two opponents were Henan and Shanghai Port. By leaving for two weeks, he avoided these matches where losses were highly likely.”