Ramires’ move to Jiangsu Suning was a then Chinese record. It was broken twice in the space of ten days with the latter bringing in Alex Teixeira. The two were tipped to carry Jiangsu from a mid-table team to Champions League places. And the first season they did not disappoint.
Ramires enjoyed an eventful debut for Jiangsu Suning. He had an impressive debut but was sent off in extra time against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the AFC Champions League. He scored in his league debut just three minutes into the match and Teixeira’s brace gave Jiangsu an impressive start. He put in impressive, dominant performances in midfield and it seemed like a Chinese club finally had the answer to Paulinho at Guangzhou. He scored four times and assisted twice as the club looked to push the five-time Champions Guangzhou to the end. But it was not to be as Guangzhou secured the title eventually with relative ease.
But it finally seemed that a club had an answer to Guangzhou’s ruthlessness. But the 2017 season, they did not add to the squad well enough to put in another title push. They retained Teixeira and Ramires but with other teams like Shanghai SIPG adding the likes of Oscar and Shenhua adding Tevez, they did not make eye-popping decisions on the transfer market.
Despite this many things were expected of Jiangsu Suning. But they have disappointed in the league. A solitary win in ten matches has seen Ramires and Co. rooted to the bottom of the table. But individually, Ramires has not done wrong. He has already scored thrice and is just one short of his 2016 tally. He has three assists to his name which is one more than his tally at the end of the 2016 season. His defensive contributions has remained as good as it ever was but his supporting cast of Alex Teixeira and Co. have misfired. But for all of Jiangsu’s struggles in the league, they have had pretty much plain sailing in the AFC Champions League until this week’s 2-1 reverse away at Shanghai SIPG in the Round of 16. They won their opening four games convincingly and had already secured top spot in their group at the end of match day 4. Ramires did very well scoring four goals and briefly lead the goal scoring charts. He is locked in defensively. Jiangsu has dominated matches in which Ramires has bossed the midfield.
But unless there is a dramatic change in league prospects, Jiangsu and Ramires will sure get relegated. But it is highly unexpected despite their league position at the end of matchweek 10. But should Jiangsu go down, not many expect Ramires to stay with them. He may jump ship to a club with better prospects possibly linking up with Manuel Pellegrini and Ezequiel Lavezzi at Heibei China, with Eran Zahawi at Guangzhou R&F or Burak Yilmaz at Beijing or some other club looking for the X-factor required to turn themselves into genuine Championship contenders alongside Guangzhou Evergrande.
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