GREGORIO MANZANO is parting company with Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, the club said Wednesday, despite taking it to a fourth-place finish in this year’s Chinese Super League.

    The CSL has a reputation for a quick turnaround of managers. Manzano is the second coach in just a week to take his leave of a Shanghai team, hot on the heels of former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson’s departure from Shanghai SIPG last Friday. The Swede was replaced by former Tottenham and Chelsea boss Andre-Villas Boas of Portugal.

    The decision was made “due to considerations about the team’s future strategic development and in order to achieve its objectives for the new season, while also taking into account the differences in soccer principles between East and West,” Shenhua said. It expressed its “heartfelt thanks” for how the coach had raised the team’s technical and strategic skill levels, stating: “We wish Mr. Manzano and his coaching staff every success in their future work and life.”

    Manzano, 60, headed Malaga, Atletico Madrid and Mallorca in Spain before landing his first job in China at Beijing Guo’an in 2014. He and Eriksson are not the only foreign hires on the mainland to be shown the door after a period of moderate success.

    In 2012 Guangzhou Evergrande replaced Lee Jang-soo with Marcello Lippi mid-season after the South Korean coach had taken it to promotion and the CSL title in consecutive years.

    Evergrande also moved swiftly to replace Lippi’s eventual successor, Fabio Cannavaro, with Luiz Felipe Scolari after the Italian had guided it to the top of the table last year.(SD-Agencies)