Ki Sung-Yong has the potential to be the best Korean to ever touch a football and would solve our creative midfield problems in one fell swoop. Unbelievable passing range and vision, moves all around the pitch, and a sweet set piece taker to boot.
He's already good enough to be running the show for a team like Celtic had the manger used him properly... Figures how Mowbray has somehow managed to screw up two of Korea's best creative midfielders at two different teams by shoehorning them both into the DM position.
Obviously I'd love Lee Chung-Yong here but there's already paper talk of a 7 mil move to Liverpool, and I don't see why he'd come here over Bolton.
Park Joo-Young at Monaco has turned his career around and I'd be very interested in seeing how he'd fair in England but he's never been truly prolific and I think we're more in need of a proven goalscorer, especially considering that he wouldn't come cheap (I'm guessing 5m+). Class first touch and intelligence, with just enough strength and pace to give defenses trouble. Reminds me a lot of Gudjohnsen, who incidentally happens to be who he kept out of the team at Monaco....
Those three are the spine of the Korean NT along with Jisung Park right now... (Whom I'd love to buy and play in central midfield but he's obviously beyond our reach) Other than them I'm don't think there's a Korean player who's good enough to come into the Prem and make an instant impact. Not really the best of times to be after Korean players as most of the good ones have already been "discovered" and are playing in Europe now. We've got a good group of youngsters coming up who might be ready in 1~2 years though.
Gotta say I've been very impressed in Lee every time I've seen Bolton, as have alot of people it seems. He's not even been there a season and he already looks far and away their most talented player; pacey and a good dribbler but intelligent with the ball aswell. Just a shame like you say he looks like he's aready out of our range.
The chances are if Park Joo-Young has managed to aclimatise to French football he should be able to make the switch to England. The physicality of the French league is very similar to that of the Premier League, although Ligue 1 is probably not at the same pace as English football I'd certainly bet there'd be less transitional trouble than say signing a player from Spanish, Portuguese leagues etc.
Thing is we should have been looking at scouting these kind of players before they made the switch to Europe. I think the problem is there is alot of sceptisism towards signing Asian players due to alot of failed attempts in the past, even if alot of these signings were destined to fail from the very begginning (Lee Dong-Gook lol). Even when there's success stories like Park at Man U and to a lesser extent Lee Young-Pyo at Spurs I think English teams are feeling less inclined to take a risk.
Maybe Ki would still be worth a punt now if he's not being given a chance with Celtic.
