Seoul E-Land with the highest performance since its foundation finally escaped, a high-cost, low-efficiency trap
Jan 02, 2025
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E-Land, which celebrated its 10th anniversary, predicted coach Kim Do-kyun, who opened the era of success at Suwon FC, as the right person to ease the resentment of promotion. He has been persuading coach Kim for more than a year. It was Samgocho. Coach Kim chose to challenge E-Land's sincere proposal after much consideration. This was the first time E-Land brought a head coach with experience in promotion.
Coach Kim met E-Land's expectations. Armed with Kim Do-kyun's attacking football, E-Land ranked third, the highest since its foundation. It opened the door to 'Autumn Soccer' for the first time in 10 years since its foundation. He also recorded the most wins and most points since his foundation. In the K League 2 playoff, he beat the Jeonnam Dragons and achieved his first promotion to the PO. He fought valiantly against Jeonbuk Hyundai in the 'K League 1' but unfortunately failed to cross the last threshold. In the second game, he even scored the first goal, but he was not enough to cross the wall of Jeonbuk.
Unfortunately, the promotion was unsuccessful, but E-Land's 2024 season was definitely a success. Most meaningful of all is that he escaped from the trap of 'high cost and low efficiency' that had been tightening the club.
E-Land has provided bold support since its foundation. Investment has increased since the recruitment of Chung Jung-yong, who wrote the myth of the runner-up at the U-20 World Cup, and the winning move. The total annual salary, which was KRW 3,645.358 million in 2020, jumped sharply to KRW 5,395 million in 2021. E-Land paid the second to third place in the K League every year, including 5,765.41 million won in 2022 and 5,483.93 million won in 2023.
However, the report card was not proportional to this. E-Land, which unfortunately failed to enter the PO in fifth place in 2020, remained in ninth place in 2021 and seventh place in 2022. In 2023, it has fallen to 11th place. Of course, money does not guarantee performance, but it was certainly a concern for the corporate team to have a structure of 'high cost and low efficiency'.
The 2024 season was different. Other teams, including Osmar, Kim Oh-kyu, Park Min-seo and Bruno Silva, created a nervous squad, but the cost was 561.6 million won, almost the same as last season. It was no exaggeration to say that 'Kim Do-kyun effect', which built a rich network and a wide scouting system. The results are as described earlier. Eland spent the third most money in K League 2, rising to third place. Finally, it produced as much performance as the investment.
The budget for the 2025 season is similar. It started later than other teams due to the PO schedule, but it is still filling the weaknesses one by one. Fortunately, the growth of young resources such as Seo Jae-min, Byun Kyung-joon, and Baek Ji-woong is a great help. In order to face Suwon Samsung, Jeonnam Dragons, Busan I'Park, and relegated Incheon United, which continue to make active investments, E-Land needs to further increase the efficiency of its investment.
Of course, there is a need to be bold at the moment of importance. There is no promotion that just takes place.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
