Ibini, 20, sealed his switch to Shanghai SIPG earlier this month and will be able to make his debut for his new team from July 7 before facing Griffiths' Guangzhou R&F in August.

By that time both clubs will hope to have shrugged off indifferent starts to the season which has them flirting with the bottom of the table.

Griffiths, whose $1.3 million CSL move last year set an A-League benchmark, said his only advice to the pacey striker was to hang tough in the early days.

“I’m not sure if he’s going to be coming here by himself or whatnot but in the initial stages it’s difficult,” he said.

“You can’t communicate with people so easily, especially in a team environment which is obviously what the Mariners is built on.

“Maybe there are a couple of people who can speak English with him but what he’s got to bear in mind is that initial first month is going to be tough.

“Once he gets through that I think he’ll be pretty sweet.”

Griffiths has experienced some upheaval of his own. The Blues have slipped to 9th, one place above Shanghai SIPG on the table but equal on points.

Last month the club’s Brazilian coach Sergio Farias was sacked and former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has taken over after Mariners coach Graham Arnold was reportedly wanted for the gig.

The Aussie defensive mid believes his club has the squad to be pushing the top three. He’s also confident Shanghai SIPG, formed in only 2007, can climb the rankings under former national coach and retired striker, Gao Hongbo.

Ibini, he said, could possess the qualities the CSL newcomers have been lacking.

The Nigerian-born attacker was still at the airport after the Mariners 3-0 away loss to Guangzhou Evergrande in the Asian Champions League when the suitors started ringing and Griffiths said there’ll be big expectations placed on the player’s shoulders.

“Being a foreigner coming to China in the first place is quite tough because I think there’s more of an expectation on you even more so than in Australia,” he said.

“He’s going straight from the top of the league with the Mariners to an unfancied club in China but ultimately I don’t think that team will finish at the bottom.

“They’re not a bad side they just need a bit of organisation and they’ve got a good coach there. I’ve heard that the owner of the club is quite ambitious – he’s out there trying to do much better in the league.

“And I think really all they’ve been lacking is a bit of attacking flair so that’s obviously why they’ve signed Bernie.”

The young striker, who Griffiths remembers tearing up the Youth League before making a successful switch to the first team, has continued to build on his potential.

And apart from his initial surprise that the Lille-linked Ibini was headed for the CSL, Griffiths said he could see a bright future for his former teammate in the rapidly growing league.

He’d also like to see him played centrally rather than out wide.

“I don’t think it’s a bad move for him at all,” he said. “The A-League’s finished now anyway so if he stayed in Australia he’d do nothing for the next few months until the season started.

“He’ll get paid a lot of money for a year and obviously for Bernie financially it’s going to be a lot more rewarding I imagine than it is at the moment.

“It is definitely going to be different to Europe and whatnot but on the flip side of that it’s probably one of the closest countries in terms of returning home to Australia.

“It’s not too far away, the time zone is pretty much the same as Australia – so in that sense it’s quite easy – and he’s going to the most westernised city in China.

"It’s a pretty good place to start if you’re going to come over here.: 

He added “I think there’s so much potential for him to stay here on a longer term basis if he does well because the Chinese league is just going to keep on growing.

“He’s a good striker, he’s got pace and he can finish so I think he’ll do well in China, I think he’ll do really well because he’s got a good work ethic as well.