Former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson has been sacked by Chinese side Shenzhen after just six months in the job.
Eriksson’s departure from the club was announced via poem on the club’s website. Let that sink in for a second, yes, a poem.
The club composed this powerful poem to welcome back their former coach former Chinese player Wang Baoshan as manager.
Eleven years ago, you led Shenzhen football and never let us down.
Nine years ago, you took over responsibilities and saved Shenzhen football.
Memories of fighting together have never gone away, and now we recall the legend.
For Shenzhen, we are reunited, starting a new trip together.
Coach Wang, welcome home.
The more bizarre aspect of it all was that the club hadn’t even announced the sacking of the 69-year-old Swede prior to the release of the poem.
A statement soon followed announcing that Eriksson had left the club. It’s important to get the poem out first.
“The negotiations between the two sides were very smooth, leaving only some details to be completed by lawyers,” it said.
Eriksson, who also managed Manchester City and Lazio, was tasked with securing promotion to the Chinese Super League when he took the reigns from the former Dutch international Clarence Seedorf last year.
However, he failed to inspire a promotion charge and mustered only five wins from 13 league games. The Guangdong-based side are currently sitting in fourth position in League One.
