‘The whole thing is crazy’: An English coach in China explains what football should expect during coronavirus pandemic

It began like any normal pre-season. Nantong Zhiyun’s players had returned return for action, buoyed by a miraculous escape from relegation from China’s League One after sealing their safety on the final day of the 2019 season. Their salvation came courtesy of a win over Yaya Toure’s Qingdao Huanghai and sparked huge celebrations in a city of over seven million people. Yet, as the devastating coronavirus outbreak brought the country to a halt, football’s significance has long since paled into the periphery.

Life since Nantong’s most recent pre-season friendly – over 50 days ago – has been very strange indeed, not just for Gary White but for all his players and backroom staff. And although the situation in China has dramatically improved, almost in line with Europe’s descent into chaos, White and his players still find themselves very much in limbo.

“I just want to get back out there again,” he tells The Independent from his home in Shanghai. “It looks as though the schools are staying shut until May but people are gradually going back to work and life is returning to something approaching normality. But there’s a lot of nervousness, a lot of people wondering if this is all going to come back again.

“The cases here are falling dramatically but I think they will wait until they get to zero and then give it another 14 days. Once that happens then we can return to training and try and get the boys up for the season.

“To watch what is happening in the rest of the world after what we’ve been through here has all been a bit surreal to be honest. I haven’t had the virus, and hopefully I won’t get it but I never thought of leaving China. My wife is Chinese and we have a young son – where would I have gone anyway? Seems to me that being in China at the moment is a lot safer than being in a lot of other places.”

Given what is unravelling here at the current time, he’s probably right. And given his achievements last season, it’s no surprise that he has been prepared to stay put.

White was greeted with flowers from grateful fans at Nantong airport after piloting the club’s dramatic escape back in November. Now, instead of preparing an assault on promotion to the country’s Super League, he has had to sit back and watch the country go into hibernation for almost two months. He admits it will take some time for normality to return.

“You think of everything people have been through,” he says. “Will players be ready to charge into tackles and come into close contact with others on the pitch? Or fans asking for autographs or selfies?

“I can’t see life getting back to what it was for a very long time. The Chinese government appear to have done a pretty incredible job to contain this virus and it looks as though the danger now is from people returning to the country from overseas.

“We have players from Europe, some of my coaching staff are from Europe too. Getting them back to China could be very difficult and could take a long time. They will probably have to undergo a period of quarantine when they get here and a lot of them won’t have played football for over two months.

“There are fitness plans in place but it’s not the same as being match-ready. It will be the same over there (in England). You need regular matches to maintain those levels of fitness and performance.

“The Premier League has said it’s closed until early April but given my experience here, I’m really not sure that this (English) season can finish before the next one is supposed to start.

“It’s the kind of situation that no-one thought they would ever be in and no one really has the answers to a problem like this. It’s not something the Chinese Super League or the Premier League ever thought they would have to plan for. The whole thing is crazy. I was worried about my family in China and now I’m concerned for people in England.”

White is better travelled than most, having left England to forge career overseas at the age of 21. He lists the British Virgin Isles, Bahamas and Guam on as an eclectic CV as you will find anywhere in the football world.

Nothing, though, prepared him for this. If the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp need some advice on what to do in a nation in lockdown, perhaps they should consider giving him a call.