I wish SLNA had sponsors like Mr. Hien and Mr. Duc!

V.League 2018 has not ended yet, but on mass media and social networking sites, there is news that central defender Que Ngoc Hai will leave the Nghe An team with a "blockbuster" contract worth nearly 10 billion VND to join Ho Chi Minh City Club.

Currently, both SLNA and Ho Chi Minh City Club have not confirmed this information. Que Ngoc Hai even said: "Currently, I am focusing on playing football and dedicating myself to SLNA with the goal of defending the National Cup championship and being in the top 3 in V.League. I am still a member of SLNA. Whether I stay or leave will be decided after the end of the season. I do not think much about this issue."

Que Ngoc Hai is a player sought after by many teams as his contract with SLNA Club will end at the end of the 2018 season. Photo: Duc Dung

However, the reality is that by the end of 2018, Que Ngoc Hai and some other key players of SLNA will have their contracts expired. To keep these players, the Nghe An team will have to spend a large amount of money, and the problem of "first - where is the money" is always the most difficult problem to solve for the SLNA club's leadership every time they want to keep the "stars" at Vinh Stadium.

Reality over the years has proven that the chance for SLNA to keep its pillars is almost zero! In the past 5 years, SLNA had to say goodbye to many stars such as Trong Hoang, Van Binh, Van Hoan, Dinh Dong, Hoang Thinh... and before entering the 2018 season, player Phi Son.

Remember, when senior stars like Duong Hong Son, Cong Vinh... left the Nghe An team with contracts worth tens of billions, SLNA had a plan to build Trong Hoang into the leader of Vinh stadium, but in the end, when the contract expired, Trong Hoang left SLNA to join B.Binh Duong. And since then, almost every star player of SLNA whose contract was about to expire was sought after by financially strong teams with generous signing bonuses, causing the SLNA coaching staff to just stand by and watch as their key players left one by one.

At the end of the 2017 season, Phi Son left SLNA Club to join Ho Chi Minh City Club. Photo: Duc Dung

Nghe An football never lacks talent, many people still jokingly say "whatever your child goes to, the more he grows up" and the life of a player when in high form is too short, they cannot stick with their hometown team because of love, always in the situation of "cutting their coat according to their cloth", without ambition and potential to compete for the championship.

The sad thing is that every time the SLNA squad is stable, it is "broken up" just because of limited financial resources. At the beginning of each season, SLNA has to "renew" and assemble the main squad by promoting young players to replace the seniors who have left. And to have a stable squad, SLNA has to go through a series of bad matches, losing "back and stomach" at home, making the audience extremely frustrated.

Like in the 2018 season, when Phi Son left, SLNA lost the "conductor" who was in charge of the matches. For a long time, SLNA faced the prospect of relegation because they were always at the bottom of the rankings. It was not until the second leg that coach Duc Thang and his team regained their form. Now, there are rumors that leader Que Ngoc Hai is about to leave Vinh Stadium.

Seeing the key players leaving one by one, Nghe An fans wish that Vinh Stadium team would have strong sponsors who are passionate about football like Mr. Duc (HAGL), Mr. Hien (Hanoi)... so that SLNA would have enough financial resources to keep the key players they trained, then SLNA would be "invincible" and Vinh Stadium would always be filled with waves of people in the stands, not in a "suspended" and bland state like the past few seasons.