HAGL and 20 Years of Persistence: When the 'Mountain City' Stands at the Edge of Relegation

Pleiku Stadium that afternoon had no noise of the seasons when Cong Phuong still wore the red shirt. The concrete bench still bore the imprint of my seat after nearly two decades following this team, but the squad stepping out of the tunnel was strikingly youthful. They lined up to greet the fans, and I suddenly realized I was witnessing a different generation of HAGL — younger, quieter, and carrying a pressure that the 2026 seniors never had to bear: the pressure of a team labeled as a relegation candidate. When Bau Duc began pouring money into the Gia Lai youth academy in the late 2000s, he wasn't just building a football club. He was building a promise — that Vietnamese football could produce its own talents instead of buying them from abroad. Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong, Van Toan, Van Thanh — these names not only built the 'Mountain City' brand but also changed how the entire league viewed young players. They were living proof of a philosophy that no other Vietnamese club has pursued to its end. But the 2026/27 LPBank V-League season is asking the opposite question: does that promise still hold value when the team stands below both newcomers Dong Nai and Bac Ninh in the standings? Is persistence still a virtue when it becomes the reason a club faces relegation with two direct drop spots? Numbers don't lie. HAGL has the youngest squad in the league with an average age of 22.8 — Gia Bao, Chi Dung, Chi Huong are all under 20. But youth doesn't automatically translate into victories. In the last three seasons, the team narrowly escaped relegation, and this season, experts and fans alike have placed them among the relegation favorites. What's more concerning is the talent flow to the national team has dried up. While the 2026–2026 period saw numerous HAGL players don the Vietnam national team jersey, their presence at the ASEAN Cup is now just an ellipsis. Vietnam's U17 missed the World Cup, and names from the Gia Lai academy are no longer pillars in midfield or attack. I've lived with this team to understand why they lose. Not because of a lack of desire, nor a lack of investment. The problem lies in the fact that the youth development philosophy is no longer accompanied by an operational plan suited to modern football. Gegenpressing has been decoded; mid-table teams use physicality to turn matches into athletics races — and a squad of young players, though technically skilled, still loses out on match experience and endurance. The pitch doesn't lie — but people do. Bau Duc still insists he will continue investing in the youth academy, regardless of results. There are two ways to read this: one is the stubbornness of an owner who refuses to admit failure; the other is genuine belief in a model he thinks will succeed in the long run. But data from the past 20 years leans toward the first reading. What outside media often misunderstand is that they think HAGL is 'rebuilding from scratch.' In reality, this team isn't rebuilding anything — they're still operating on the same formula that produced Cong Phuong and Tuan Anh, but forgetting that the formula needs updating. Vietnamese football has changed, the league has become more competitive, and maintaining the same philosophy for two decades is no longer persistence but stagnation. In the team hotel after the latest defeat, I heard a young player tell his teammate: 'We have to save ourselves.' That sentence echoed in the silent room like an official statement. They know the owner's protection cannot replace three points on the pitch. Relegation is a misplaced comma — not a full stop. But if HAGL drops, it will be the first time in the club's history they face a survival question in the First Division. Will Bau Duc still hold faith in the youth academy when his team plays in a lower league? Will the young players in red stay when the chance to play in the V-League drifts further away? I remember the 2026 season, when I first followed this team, coach Roger Schmidt once said that modern football requires tactical flexibility, not loyalty to a single style. HAGL has proven the opposite for 20 years — but the pitch is now signaling that this loyalty has reached its limit. The empty season, but the bench still bears the imprint. The question is not whether HAGL will survive relegation, but whether Vietnamese football is witnessing the end of an era — the era of an owner who dared to invest long-term in youth development, despite results not matching expectations. And if that era ends, who will dare to step forward? Data keeps the rhythm — emotions are the ones who sing. And at Pleiku this afternoon, that song is at its lowest note.