Mariners front up to the emerging monsters of Asia Watchful eye: Evergrande coach Marcello Lippi. The motto of Guangzhou Evergrande simply sums up the Chinese club's extraordinary ambition: "Be the best forever." In their efforts to reach such heights, the club's owners, Evergrande Real Estate Group, have outlaid a jaw-dropping sum since taking over in February 2010 - an estimated $40 million per season on players alone. That's about four times more than the annual player spend at Australia's richest sporting club, Collingwood. Wednesday night's opponents in the Asian Champions League, the Central Coast Mariners, spend about $2.5 million. If you give away any cheap ball, they'll kill you. Evergrande boast Paraguay's Lucas Barrios and Brazilians Muriqui and Elkeson on their books but made global headlines for making Argentinian Dario Conca the third-highest-paid player in world football (he earns $12.5 million per season) in 2011. That's six times what Alessandro Del Piero, the highest-paid footballer of any code in Australia, earns with Sydney FC. Their coach, 2006 World Cup winner Marcello Lippi, was reluctant to join - until he saw the numbers. A club insider said Lippi told him: "It was an offer I couldn't refuse." Another revealed the club built a full-size Italian restaurant inside the training ground for the use of Lippi and the seven staff he picked from Italy to join him. After winning promotion in 2010, Evergrande have won back-to-back league titles and have taken 22 out of a possible 24 points this season. In eight games, they've scored 25 and conceded just four goals. The Godfather-like figure in all this is the parent company's chairman, Xu Jiayin. The company - one of the 10 largest in the Chinese real estate market - made a profit of $US11.78 billion last financial year. Mariners coach Graham Arnold has made a living slaying Goliath, but it is all about context. Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC are relative minnows compared with this emerging monster of world football. Nonetheless, he insisted on Tuesday that "we don't fear anyone" and that he keenly embraces "such an enormous challenge." You can't compare the A-League with the Asian Champions League. This game is probably the biggest game ever played on the [Central] Coast and hopefully there's a big crowd to support us," he said. But, as I said to the players, I'm really interested and excited to see our best performance, because we have to play better than what we do in the A-League. Our concentration and discipline has to be on for 95 minutes. Our ball retention has to be the best it's ever been, because if you give away any cheap ball, they'll kill you. The A-League season has long finished, but Arnold had no worries about match fitness. "It's been two weeks since our last game against [Kashiwa] Reysol and I think the brains were only switched on for 60 minutes," he said, reflecting on conceding three second-half goals. We've had a couple of good weeks of training since and it's a wonderful challenge for us to come up against one of the richest clubs in the world and one of the favourites for this competition. We're fit and confident of a good result tomorrow night. Asked what a "good result" meant, he replied: "A clean sheet." Lippi said Del Piero - who he coached for almost a decade at Juventus - had warned him the Mariners would be "very physical and organised." We've come here to Australia and it's very civilised and very beautiful. The staff and players will probably go to the beach," he offered, knowing their luxury Terrigal hotel backs on to the water. But we are not here for a holiday. We are here for the win. Yet in spite of the staggering wage he's earning, Lippi hinted he might be open to coaching in the A-League. Who knows? If I had the opportunity, I would think about it," he said. It's a beautiful country.