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Ex-Watford boss linked to Shenhua
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Spanish manager Enrique ‘Quique’ Sanchez Flores has been strongly linked with Shanghai Greenland Shenhua as the Chinese Super League team gathers this week to start its winter training.
The former Watford and Espanyol manager ended his three-day Shanghai visit on Saturday during which details of a potential contract were discussed. The club confirmed Sanchez Flores as a major candidate, but didn’t reveal whether a final agreement had been reached with him. Once confirmed, the 53-year-old will replace local manager Wu Jingui, whose contract with the club ends at the end of the year.
Shenhua finished seventh in the 2018 CSL, which was won by city rival Shanghai SIPG. Club president Wu Xiaohui unveiled plans to build the team into a strong contender for the league title again within three years.
Shenhua won the 2017 Chinese FA Cup title. In the latter half of the 2018 season, Wu gave more playing opportunities to young local players as the club tried to add new blood to its regular line-up.
A defender in his playing days, Sanchez Flores honed his coaching skills at Spanish clubs, including Getafe, Valencia and Atletico Madrid, before heading to the United Arab Emirates. He coached al-Ahli and al-Ain from 2011 to 2014. He spent no more than a year at English Premier League side Watford before returning to Spain in 2016, where he took charge of Espanyol. He was fired in April.
If the deal is reached, Sanchez Flores will become Shenhua’s sixth head coach in five years since the Greenland Group became the club’s top investor in 2014.
Shenhua’s best league performance in the Greenland era was a fourth-place finish in the 2016 season under another Spaniard, Gregorio Manzano. But Manzano didn’t extend his contract and was succeeded by Uruguayan Gus Poyet, who was replaced by Wu last September, a little more than nine months after taking charge. Wu, who had coached Shenhua three times before, is the only coach that has spent more than one year in the position since 2014.
Shenhua just celebrated the club’s 25th birthday. The players will gather on Thursday, before heading to Spain’s Marbella on January 3 for a one-month winter training.
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