Why does SLNA only sign short-term contracts with foreign players?

In the past, Song Lam Nghe An was one of the teams that had luck in selecting foreign players, a golden land for foreign strikers.

Since the early years of V.League becoming professional, Enock Kyembe, Iddi Batambuze or Lulenti Kyeyune had made waves in the Nghe An team in the period 2001-2002. Then these players moved to play for teams with more money and wealth. Further, strikers like Valdinei, Toledo and Vidovic in the late years of the last decade were also players who left many impressions in the hearts of fans.

Since V.League 2011, SLNA has owned a quartet of high-class players: Ansah, Kavin, Derron, Fagan. Among them, Edmund Ansah, who was the captain of the Ghana national team in 2010, also left SLNA to play for Hai Phong in V.League 2012. Up to this point, Diego Fagan is still the top choice, the most dangerous assassin of the port city team on the attack line.

Then came other foreign players who left their mark such as Hector, Abass Dieng, Gustave Bebbe and Nwakaeme Dickson in 2012. All of them only joined SLNA for 1 year and left the Nghe An team because they demanded much higher salary than the first year. Striker Dickson's destination after the Malaysian National Championship was Angers SCO in Ligue 1 (France). Another case that made fans regretful was striker Abass Dieng also leaving SLNA after the end of V.League 2012.

Coach Nguyen Duc Thang is having a headache with the problem of foreign players. Photo: Document

Later, a series of foreign players that SLNA recruited mostly did not meet professional requirements such as Willis Plaza, Adbul Haruna, Baba Salia, Koen Bosma and Aboubakar Mahadi and most recently the case of Danko Kovacevic.

The Montenegro striker arrived at V.League with a resume of playing in Europe but only scored 1 goal for SLNA in V.League 2017.

Having found quality foreign players, SLNA still had to part with them on free transfers without earning any profit. The reason for these departures was not simply due to their increasing demands but because of the Nghe An team's "one year at a time" policy.

SLNA's policy of signing short-term contracts with foreign players (from 6 months to 1 year) is said to stem from two reasons.

Firstly, the budget for foreign players of SLNA is increasingly being cut because of not being able to find more funding sources to reduce the burden on Bac A Bank.

Second, the season's spending plan is submitted and approved annually, according to each plan, not at the beginning of the year receiving 30 billion or 50 billion from the main sponsor and "going shopping"... That is also a difficult problem in the pricing stage for quality foreign strikers.

Olaha Michael is a quality foreign player that SLNA recruited. Photo courtesy

Furthermore, the team's funding source is not yet guaranteed, not allowing SLNA Club to spend on foreign players with a 2-year plan.

However, it must also be said that the selection of foreign players in V.League is quite dependent on luck. In V.League 2016, Odah Mashal played quite well with 10 goals in the whole season, but he could not continue to renew his contract due to heart disease. His partner Baba Salia only scored 4 goals and this player was forced to leave.

At the end of phase 1 of V.League 2017, SLNA said goodbye to Shackiel Henry because they only signed him for half a season and did not renew his contract.

Many times answering the press, Coach Nguyen Duc Thang confided: "The selection of foreign players at SLNA is very methodical, but the difficulty is that it depends on many factors, for example, the requirements of foreign players are too high, or the foreign players themselves have a history of many illnesses, or have not yet adapted to the Vietnamese football environment."

V.League 2018 is the 9th year that the main sponsor has accompanied Song Lam Nghe An Club and is also the time when the contract is about to expire. Many assumptions are made that if next year, North Asia Bank does not commit to accompany and SLNA does not have a new sponsor, it is understandable that they only dare to sign foreign players on a yearly or half-yearly basis.

As a coach, everyone wants to have abundant financial resources to recruit quality players, aiming for the pinnacle of glory. However, when the issue of "bread and butter" still becomes their obsession, the disappointment from foreign players continues to be a vicious cycle with no way out. In the coming time, Nghe An fans will continue to witness Olaha carrying the entire SLNA attack and in the second phase, the coaching staff will be tired of looking for good, cheap foreign players/.

SLNA no longer has foreign players to compete in XSKT Can Tho?

(Baonghean.vn) - SLNA's attack is heavily dependent on the performance of striker Olaha Michael in both the V.League and AFC Cup arenas. However, in the away match against XSKT Can Tho, the Nghe An team will likely have to play with 100% domestic players.