Stranger things: changes ahead for Shanghai Shenhua and SIPG after upside down (but successful) seasons

Despite a stadium fire, a misfiring forward and a fiery manager, both of Shanghai’s Chinese Super League sides secured a seat at the Champions League table, which is all either would have really expected at the start of the season

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Shanghai Shenhua coach Wu Jingui (centre) celebrates with his players after their triumph over rivals Shenhua. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 13 Dec 2017Updated: 9:04pm, 13 Dec 2017

Football, we’re always told, is a funny old game. The only problem is that they never tell you which kind of funny it is. Should you laugh, cry or warn the kids to stay away?

In the case of both of the Shanghai sides in the Chinese Super League perhaps all of the above.

At the start of the season expectations were cautiously optimistic after incoming manager Gus Poyet and Carlos Tevez were added to the fray but somehow Shenhua were out of the AFC Champions League before the Chinese Super League season had even started, losing to Brisbane Roar in the play-offs.

Shanghai SIPG’s Hulk was a bright spot for the Super League runners-up. Photo: AFP

Shenhua did win their opening game of the league campaign 4-0 but that was a false dawn and by the end of March the only thing burning bright was their home ground: Hongkou Stadium was literally ablaze.

The fire damage meant six away games on the bounce for Poyet’s boys and when they did return home in May? A 3-1 loss to rivals SIPG without Carlos Tevez, who was enjoying the first of what would become a series of trademark absences.

The summer was a long one. An uncharacteristic 8-0 hammering and FA Cup wins over Beijing Guoan and Shandong Luneng were interspersed with losing to the same teams in the league and by mid-September, after four defeats on the spin in the league, Poyet was gone.

Shanghai Shenhua’s Carlos Tevez experiment was a massive flop and he is expected to return home to Argentina. Photo: AFP