Chinese club football has bloomed tremendously in recent times, their achievement has attracted big players from Europe. Just last month, Chelsea midfielder Oscar signed a new deal worth £60 million with Shanghai SIPG and Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel joined manager Fabio Cannavaro at Tianjin Quanjian. with this, it comes as no surprise that a Manchester United player is linked with a move to Chinese Super League.
There have been rumours of Ashley Young leaving United since the last transfer window and Chinese Club Shandong Luneng have been trying to lure him to their side and we might see it happen before the end of the Chinese transfer window.
Young only appeared this season as a backup player and has total appearance of just 13 matches across all competition this season. His few appearances were magnificent and with United still in game for three game competitions outside of the League, Jose Mourinho might not release young yet.
But there is a hindrance to his supposed move to the Chinese club.
The Chinese Super League has a written rule against having more than five foreign players in a club with a spot reserved for players within the Asian Football Confederation and only three foreign players allowed on the pitch at once. Shandong Luneng already has four foreign players and German Felix Magath as the manager leaving no room for young. If Shandong Luneng is keen on signing Young, they would have to sell either Greziano Pelle, Papiss Cisse, Diego Tardelli or defender Gill.
And that would be a difficult task, considering the transfer window of most club that can make an offer for them are closed. A proposal can still be made to Russian as their transfer window is still open till Friday at midnight, and only three Chinese clubs have room left for a foreign player, Beijing Guoan, Jiangsu Suning, and Tianjin Quanjian, but they might also be targeting players from overseas.
Young’s move to Shandong Luneng is improbable taking into account that Mourinho has to be willing to release a rare talent and the Chinese club would need to provide a spot for him all by Tuesday.