2024 Season Review: Ansan Greeners - A Wolf Dressed in Cheap Clothing | OneFootball

Another season of off-field turmoil left the Greeners once again battling at the foot of the K2, Three different managers combined to keep the lowest funded club in the top 2 divisions from the foot of the K2.

When the season review comes closer to the following season than the last it should be indicative of just how much turmoil there is at the Wa Stadium. A recently week-long vigil in freezing temperatures at the main staff entrance to the stadium was the culmination of fan frustration and a well-trodden exit door, and was strong enough to be picked up on national television courtesy of JTBC. Bequeathed with funeral wreaths, it was symbolic that the player entrance was closed, as at the time of the protest, there were not many who needed to use it.

Almost as soon as player of the season awards had been given out, and everyone was headed for a well-earned holiday, the majority of the squad was released, leaving the club just over 6 weeks out from the new season without enough senior playing staff to be able to even start a match. While some players inevitably moved on to pastures new in the K1, in particular Verdor group and also Ansan Foreign Supporters player of the season Choi Han-sol will get to continue his rise in the leagues with Gangwon next season, while Kim Beomsu returns to the top tier with Pohang, the departure of the majority of the squad including captain Kim Yeong-nam leaves the club in turmoil and once again starting afresh… or ‘green’ if you will.

At the very least the roster has been filled up, albeit it had anyone interested plying the internet to find out who these names were, and veterans Lee Seung-bin and Kang Soo-il were eventually recontracted, one of the main action calls of the protest. However, this is not necessarily on the backdrop of a bad season… okay it was, but Ansan have proven to have topped at least one chart in 2024.

Fans line-up outside the Wa Stadium entrance in late December, with wreaths placed outisde.

The Most Cost-efficient team in the K2

Ansan were once again bottom of the league in terms of spending in 2024, and are one of the only teams in the top 4 divisions to have zero foreign players. This makes their 11th placed finish no real surprise, but they did top one league: the cost-efficiency table. The Greeners were the most cost-efficient team per point in the K2, earning 1 point per 4,718,000 spent on salaries. Contrast this with the worst team Seongnam who spent 23,600,000 per point and came rock bottom, noting that their base budget was almost 4x that of the Greeners. Of course, Asan might call toward their own success having spent double what Ansan did, but so very nearly getting promoted had it not been for their failure to see out the first leg of their play-off. This points at least to money not necessarily being the way out of the K2, and opens up the possibility that another surprise package can emerge again, particularly as the Bluewings found life in the K2 very difficult and finished 6th despite having the highest budget by far in the league.

There were also some bright performances. The Greeners bagged some notable victories, beating Seoul E-land 3-0 in Mokdong, and winning an epic Line 4 Derby against Anyang 3-2  in the summer. Kim Beom-su’s opener in Suwon also stands out as a season high, along with a strong performance over Seongnam in the first away trip of the season, a game in which Noh Gyeong-ho caught the eye and would later be snapped up by Suwon FC mid-season. Captain Kim Yeong-nam topped the charts in the division for interceptions per game, and was also one of the most efficeint passers, altough his rotation between midfield and defence exposed his lack of pace. Lee Taek-geun was also notable for his take-ons and dribbling during the season but was curiously not always used, even when the team needed a defensive spark. The top contributors to the team in terms of goals were Kim Do-yoon and Park Jun-bae who contibuted 6 goals each, through with just 5 of those being goals from Do-yoon as number 9, the team's socring problems were laid bare. One fun stat was goalkeeper Lee jun-hee managing to register on the xG charts with his late header from a corner down in Busan going just wide of the post. He also made some questionable but fun decisions durng the first half of the season, in particular a diving headed clearance, and ending his season being sent off while on the bench for questioning a VAR call in Yongin.

Choi Han-sol won many plaudits for his consistent performances across a variety of positions in midfield and defence.

Manager Mixer (pic of manager)

Behind the scenes chaos was present again at the Wa however, and the club would once again change manager mid-season, and again for little upturn in terms of results.As the table below shows, there is little to distingish between the 3 managers who took charge during the season. Lee Kwan-sik officially departed on July 11th, and after Song Kyeong-seop's somewhat exciting month in charge as interim (including beating the evenutal champions 3-2), Lee Kwan-woo took over on August 11th instilling more attacking verve than Kwan-sik at the cost of leaking more at the back.

With the internal politics being pointed to regarding the mass release at the end of the season, the manager changes appear just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the problems at the club preventing long-term stability. With the lack of budget, Lee Kwan-woo will require huge reserves of energy and patience to conitnue to work in such conditions in 2025.

Not Quite the Bottom Line

All things considered, Ansan finished 11th out of 13 teams. It was not a season to write home about (just on this site), and pointing to low budgets and avoiding finishing bottom is not an accolade that the club needs to continue striving toward each season, not if it wishes to build a long-term fanbase… or even continue to exist. Being a citizen team is also not an excuse to fall back on, the same can be said of the 3 closest teams to the Greeners. however: Siheung won the K3, Anyang won the K2, and Suwon finished in the top half of the K1. The fans, and the players are paying the price of the Greeners’ continued off-field instability and something will have to change before the next season review becomes yet another Ansan professional football obituary.