Be careful what you eat, prepare to be kicked a lot and learn that it is better sometimes just to go with the flow.
That’s the advice to newly arrived Shanghai Greenland Shenhua recruit Tim Cahill from the club’s former goalkeeping coach Ian Walker. The ex-England international is now working for rivals, Shanghai SIPG FC under his former national boss Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Australia international Cahill made his Chinese Super League debut last Sunday as Shenhua defeated the third club from the city, Shanghai Shenxin. Substituted midway through the second half, the 35-year-old forward didn’t get on the scoresheet as Shenhua won 6-2 in their season opener.
Walker, who’s best known for a 12-year career at Tottenham Hotspur, predicted that Cahill would be a success in China after his move from New York Red Bulls, but warned him not to expect things to come easily.
“Sometimes foreign players underestimate how difficult playing in China is because the better teams are similar in standard to the English Championship,” Walker told ESPN FC. “They’re tough, hard-working players here and the tackles fly in. Tim will need to be prepared to be kicked a lot.”
Walker arrived at Shanghai Shenhua in 2012, the same year that Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka joined from Chelsea. Despite massive wages, Drogba lasted for only eight months and Anelka around one year.
“It was a bit of a circus when we were all at Shenhua in 2012 and some of us were frustrated about many things including the fact that we weren’t always paid on time,” Walker said. “But luckily for Tim, the club has had a change of ownership and is run a lot better these days.”
Having managed English non-league side Bishop’s Stortford in 2011, Walker was lured to Asia by the promise of much greater financial rewards to help Shenhua’s emerging goalkeepers. But he admits that he almost quit more than half a dozen times during a difficult first year.
“It’s very hard at the beginning because if you don’t know the language you can feel isolated, especially if you’re staying in a hotel and your family isn’t with you,” he said. “The food is also a lot different and you have to be careful about the places where you eat because a lot of foreigners have got sick from local food or water.
“And then there’s the Shanghai’s pollution that Tim might not be used to. Every day you have to go and train outside in the smog.”
Because of his global profile, breaking down the barriers in the dressing room should be easier for Cahill than most other imports, according to Walker, whose SIPG FC goalkeeper Yan Junling was part of China’s 2015 Asian Cup squad.
Cahill scored both goals as eventual champions Australia defeated the Chinese 2-0 in the Asian Cup quarterfinals in Brisbane on Jan. 22 in a game watched by a television audience of more than 30 million.
“There’s an instant respect for him already because of his record at the highest level and that will help him to mix straight in,” Walker said. “We saw the excitement at the airport when he arrived last week. It’s not quite the circus of when Drogba and Anelka were here, but there’s definitely a buzz in Shanghai about Tim.”
The beginning of Cahill’s English Premier League career in 2004-05 at Everton overlapped with the end of Walker’s Leicester City tenure where he spent four seasons. Walker’s father, Mike, is also a former Everton manager.
Walker joined SIPG at the beginning of last year and Eriksson arrived for the start of this season from Guangzhou R&F.
Shenhua are managed by former Bordeaux head coach Francis Gillot.
The two city rivals will face off on May 9 in a keenly anticipated local derby. Last season, Walker’s SIPG, in fifth, finished above ninth placed Shenhua in the standings. Which is where the signing of Cahill comes in at a reported US$6 million per year.
“They’re desperate to move up the table so I think the signing of Cahill is a really good buy because he will score a lot of goals,” Walker said. “There’s one thing knowing how dangerous he is with his head and what he’s about to do. It’s another matter actually being able to stop it.”
Cahill will get the experience of his first CSL away match on Friday when Shenhua travel to Guangzhou R&F, who finished third last season while Eriksson and Walker’s men face strugglers Shanghai Shenxin.
Walker says he is now at peace with China life and could stay for several more years.
“Shanghai is a great city. I’m happy now because the work is good and everything’s running a lot smoother than when I first arrived. But things are done differently to Europe or America, so it’s better to just accept it and go with the flow rather than fight it. That’s something that Tim, like everyone else here, has to learn.”
Jason Dasey is Senior Editor of ESPN FC, Borneo’s most popular football website which has now launched a Southeast Asia edition. Twitter: @JasonDasey