It was all looking so promising for Dalian Yifang F.C. after a takeover by the Dalian Yifang Group in 2015, and three positive seasons in China League One, the team finally got their long awaited promotion to the Chinese Super League (CSL). To make sure their run was more successful than their last attempt, Dalian Yifang was completely taken over by the powerful Dalian Wanda Group, who used their connection with Spain’s Atletico Madrid to bring over star players Nicolas Gaitan and Yannick Carrasco to bolster the midfield, alongside West Ham United’s Jose Fonte.

And then the season started.

In their opening game against last year’s runners up Shanghai SIPG, Dalian Yifang were humiliated 8-0, in a loss that included both Oscar and Wu Lei getting hat-tricks – Oscar’s began with a goal in the very first minute – and a penalty from Hulk. 

In their next game, they lost 2-0 to Guangzhou R&F and then, in their first game at home, they lost 3-0 to Beijing Guoan. Not only is this an appalling run of form but, with a goal difference of -13 less than a month into the season, they have essentially already lost any potential relegation tie breaker – a position they likely never expected to face so soon into their latest CSL run.

And so, three games into a 30 game season, Dalian Yifang have replaced manager Ma Lin with German footballing legend Bernd Schuster. As a player, he spent only one season in his native Bundesliga but thrived for fifteen years in La Liga, becoming one of the very few players to move from FC Barcelona to Real Madrid, and then (perhaps even more controversially) from Real Madrid to Atletico Madrid, winning the Copa Del Rey with every team.

Upon retiring in the late 90s, he began a managing career that, before his appointment to Dalian Yifang, spanned 12 years, nine teams and four countries, but his hiring is still a surprise. Throughout his career, he has failed to win leagues, trophies and promotions, with his biggest success coming as manager for Real Madrid in the 2008 season. In which he won the league and the Supercopa – a pre-season fixture that pits the league winner against the Copa Del Rey winner from the previous season – but failed in Europe and very quickly became antagonistic to the press. A trait he carried with him to Turkey, where it quickly became his defining feature.

As pointed out by Xinhua Sports, his hiring makes him the seventh former Real Madrid manager to coach in the CSL. But, unlike others, such as Fabio Capello and Manuel Pellegrini, who have won leagues and titles across the world, Schuster’s CV doesn’t suggest he will be a meaningful replacement for Ma Lin. However, it does suggest a worrying trend of teams defaulting to foreign managers with a particular set of credentials when their Plan A goes awry.

On June 19, 2017, the CSL implemented a new rule that levied a 100 percent tax on any incoming players, with the money accrued from that sale going towards a fund to support home grown talent. Not only will that money pay off down the line in the form of training, development and other schemes but, by limiting the amount of internationals in teams’ starting XIs, the domestic players will immediately benefit from more play time, allowing them to develop their skills in real, competitive games.

There is currently no such rule for managers – and it shows. With Ma Lin being replaced, there are currently only three Chinese managers in the CSL: Wu Jingui of Shanghai Shenhua, Chen Jingang of Changchun Yatai and Li Xiaopeng of Shandong Lunen Taishan. 

Of those, Wu is the most distinguished, with at least four and a half years in the top flight, but the others have managerial careers built on stints with under-20s and women’s teams and often have large gaps between positions. Chen was away from the game for ten years between his time with Changchun and, besides for less than a year with Qingdao Jonoon in China League Two, Li didn’t manage anybody after 2011.

Ma Lin’s record does leave a lot to be desired, but so does Schuster’s, and with almost half a decade away from the touchline, what can he be expected to bring to Dalian Yifang that Ma could not develop in time? The board room is no doubt hoping for a “new manager bounce” to get out of relegation, but this type of short term thinking will likely only lead to more short term results, and that is the last thing a developing team, as part of a developing league, need.