The most feared thing after the relegation is the departure of the main players. K-League 2 (Part 2) Seongnam FC, which has already gone through the ‘relegation exodus’, is trying to re-promote for the second time in the club’s history this season, but there are many barriers to overcome.
Seongnam stayed at the bottom with 7 wins, 9 draws, 22 losses and 30 points in last season’s K-League 1 (Part 1), and boarded a direct train for relegation. In the middle of the season, former manager Kim Nam-il resigned, and except for the discovery of defender Kim Ji-su (19), who signed a semi-professional contract, and the struggle of the oldest goalkeeper Kim Young-gwang (40), the team failed to achieve any significant results throughout the season. In the meantime, despite numerous relegation crises, they succeeded in remaining thanks to the great success of the hidden card transfused in the middle of each season, but there was not even this last season.
More bitter than relegation is the transfer of key resources. Including Kim Min-hyeok (Ulsan Hyundai), Lee Si-young, Park Soo-il, Kwon Wan-kyu (FC Seoul), Choi Ji-mook (Busan I-Park), Yeon Je-woon (Jeju United), and Mulich (Suwon Samsung), many others left. Many of the recruited resources to fill the vacancy are newcomers or players who have passed the entrance test, so there is great concern. 안전놀이터
In the past 10 years, when the promotion and relegation system was implemented in the K-League, 19 teams were relegated, and 6 of them were re-promoted the year after relegation. Looking at the statistical ratio alone, it is 31.6%, but 4 out of 6 cases were managing director Kim Cheon. Due to the nature of the military team, there was no opponent in the second division, so it was a special case that it repeatedly promoted to the first division and was relegated to the second division. Excluding Gimcheon, the probability of re-promotion to the first division immediately after the second division was actually 10.5%.
Among the past relegation teams, there were many cases where it took a long time to be re-promoted or failed to return to the first division. In particular, this year, new clubs such as Chungbuk Cheongju FC and Cheonan City FC have emerged, and Seongnam has to overcome more fierce competition.
However, after being relegated to 11th place in K-League 1 in the 2016 season, Seongnam has experienced returning to K-League 1 in the 2019 season by climbing to second place in K-League 2 in the 2018 season. Among the transferred students, such as Lee Sang-min (24), Yoo Joo-an, and Park Sang-hyeok (25), we expect that resources with a lot of professional experience will quickly melt into the team.