A pensive Lee Jang-Soo mulls over his departure from Guangzhou
Guangzhou Evergrande have fired Korean coach Lee Jang-Soo and will name Marcello Lippi as his replacement tomorrow, according to Chinese media.
Speculation over Lee’s future at the Cantonese club had been mounting for some time, despite the club repeatedly issuing assurances over the future of the former Beijing Guoan head coach, who master minded Guangzhou’s first-ever Chinese Super League championship win last season.
Rumours have also persisted this season about Lippi being brought in to replace Lee, but Evergrande also denied these, as did the veteran Italian coach himself. But it now appears that Lippi is set to take over, Sina Sports report Guangzhou will make an announcement tomorrow at 2pm.
Lee has departed Evergrande despite the club leading the Chinese Super League at the moment, and qualifying from the group stages of the ACL last night, albeit narrowly. He announced the news to his players in Thailand last night (pictured, top).
Sohu Sports quoted Korean media sources as saying Lee had an agreement in place to resign after the final ACL group game, however, its unclear if he was pushed or jumped of his own volition.
Lee is no stranger to suddenly departing clubs during succesful spells – he was sacked as Beijing Guoan manager in 2009 whilst the capital side were leading the Chinese Super League in September 2009.
Speaking of his latest misfortune, Sohu Sports reported Lee as saying, “It’s no problem, it’s not important. But I do think its a bit hard to take, after all the team just qualified for the last 16 of the Asian Champions League, and they are top of the Chinese Super League after ten games.
Of his future, Lee said, “I am going to rest for a while, there has been too much pressure on my shoulders recently, I need to relax. I need to go back to China for a few days to take care of some arrangements, then I’ll return to Korea.”
Football used to be such a simple and logical game: Win your matches – you must be doing something right.
The cruel world of modern football…
Even Di Matteo is not guaranteed to be permanent coach of Chelsea if they win the CL…
Farewell Lee, u r a gud coach
Could it be they are preparing Lippi to replace Camacho in the future. After all, there are a lot of NT players in Guangzhou Evergrande. Perhaps starting to fit in China and understand how things work with chinese football.
Maybe i think too much…LOL
You’re thinking too much. Zheng Zhi and Sun Xiang should no longer be national teamers, leaving Gao Lin, Rong Hao, Feng Xiaoting, and Zhang Linpeng. Of those four, there isn’t a single one who has a solid lock on a starting position. Lippi’s coming because he’s a big name and nothing more. Camacho, for worse, is the manager until 2014, I can’t see Lippi being around that long.
Yet somehow my gut instinct tells me that in a few years Lippi gonna be China coach….
Seriously, look at the man’s impressive resume, i bet that Camacho must be sweating now.
From your weibo panel on the home page: “After watching how Buriram’s Frank Acheampong dominated Evergrande, local rival R&F are now trying to sign the 18 year old starlet .”
God that would be so funny if it happened!
A sad day in football!
I will laugh if Lipi losses his matches and asks time to buod a winning squad!
Still shameful to do that to someone who has done so much for Guagnzhou and Chinese football!!
*to rebuild a winning squad