Tigana quits as Shanghai Shenhua coach

SHANGHAI - Jean Tigana, the French coach of Shanghai Shenhua Football club, has handed in his resignation and a replacement should be announced by Tuesday, local media Shanghai Daily reported.

Jean Tigana, file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

The news of Tigana's resignation came one day after the team's Australian striker Joel Griffiths told AFP that he believed Tigana had been sacked by the club following a confusing 48 hours in China.

Frenchman Jean Florent, Shenhua's newly-appointed assistant coach, will take charge during the interim, the club's chief investor Zhu Jun was quoted as saying by the local media. And the new head coach would be made public by tomorrow in the earliest time, according to Zhu.

Tigana's position at Shenhua has been in doubt all week, with three French assistants whom he brought to China sacked in midweek following player discontent.

The club's star striker Nicolas Anelka was named as a player-assistant coach on Thursday, before he claimed on Twitter that he'd become the team's manager.

"It's official. I just become the new player-manager of Shanghai Shenhua," Anelka wrote which created confusion on Tigana's situation, and this only intensified after the French coach missed Friday's 1-0 loss to Tianjin Teda.

Shenhua haven't clarified the situation on Tigana's future, with it understood a severance package for the Frenchman remains in dispute but Australian Griffiths told AFP after Friday's game he said it was "obvious" he'd been dismissed.

"It's obvious I think at the moment. What you see is the reality of football. He's not here so we have to deal with the new coaches coming in," said Griffiths.

Griffiths continued that he'd already wished the former Fulham and Bordeaux boss all the best in his future endeavours.

"We have a new coach, new staff, so hopefully on Sunday we can meet them and go on from there. I saw [Tigana] today. I wished him all the best in whatever he does. That was it. This is football," he said.

Shenhua are currently at the near bottom in China's Super League, ranking 14th with just one win from their opening six games.