Koreans on the Move: Transfer Rumors Kickaround

January 25, 2013

Now that several key transfers have safely delivered some Korean footballers, we turn our attention in the waning days of the transfer window for the rest of the players who may yet make the move to play in Europe this spring.

I can’t keep up with what’s happening with the QPR/Yun Suk-Young transfer. Yesterday it was a done deal and Yun flew to London to complete the medical and sign the contract on Friday. The next thing we know, rumors are flying about that Fulham, taking advantage of the fact that the Chunam Dragons leftback hasn’t inked the contract yet, put in a new compelling offer to Yun. He is reportedly weighing this new outreach from Fulham. Yesterday, John Duerden wrote an article for Korean media outlet Nate Sports that expressed regret that Yun didn’t choose Fulham – as they were, in his opinion, to be a more ‘stable club’ than QPR. This Fulham last minute counter-offer isn’t confirmed, but if true, it adds a whole new quirky twist to this whole proceeding. Please, let this not turn into a new reality TV show on ‘Yun’s Choice.’  Not sure how this’ll play out, but I’m giving it a 55% chance Yun will still go with QPR; it’s the Park Ji-Sung factor that may make the difference. Hmmm…then again, relegation doesn’t sound that enticing…

UPDATE: Jan 25 at 2 am EST, Ian Taylor, head of media & communications at QPR twittered highlights of Harry Rednapp’s press conference:

Redknapp – ‘We’re looking at Yun Suk Young but we need to go for a work permit application’ #QPR

— IanJTaylor (@IJTaylor81) January 25, 2013

UPDATE: Jan 25 at 3pm EST, this announcement came out actually a few hours ago from Choson.com; after some deliberations, Yun Suk-Young is undergoing a medical at QPR, giving more credence to the idea that he is going ahead with the QPR deal.  

>>>>>>Late update: I’m pretty sure everyone knows by now: Yun Suk-Young finally accepted a deal with QPR. There will be a new post shortly as Saturday’s FA Cup match with QPR embarrassing loss to MK Dons revealed more importantly a huge setback for Park Ji-Sung (and quite possibly a set up by Harry Rednapp). Could this be an ominous sign for the young Korean left back -will he rue his decision to go with QPR?

From yesterday’s ESPN FC’s transfer blog: “IBTimes.co.uk are reporting that Tottenham are considering making a bid for Hamburg star Heung-Min Son, according to local reports. This comes after much speculation about Spurs’ interest in the player over the last couple of weeks.”   >The Tavern will add that Hamburg is in some financial difficulty, in the red by about €6 million thus giving some credibility to this link. However, Hamburg’s manager may not want to part with a player who’s provided over a third of the goal production for the team. Speculation is that Son himself would rather stay at Hamburg where he’s a star, a solid core starting XI playing alongside Rafael Van der Vaart, and getting significant playing time.

From HereisTheCity.com: “Bolton Wanderers are facing a fight to hang onto key winger Chung-yong Lee. It has been reported that several Premier League clubs are scouting the player with one expected to make an official bid before the end of the January transfer window.”  >The Tavern agrees with the assessment and will go one assertion further, that Dougie Freedman is deliberately throwing obstacles to stymie any deal for the Blue Dragon. He ‘leaked out’ to the Bolton News sensitive information on why he hasn’t started Lee in every game, this despite his improved form and 5 goals for the Wanderers: “Chungy still feels his leg from time to time and I think he’s still got a few screws in there…He can’t really keep going game after game after game. This is a secret I will share with the fans – and I hope this goes out there – that’s the reason he doesn’t play every week.”  The Tavern has decoded what Dougie is actually saying to those Premier League clubs: ‘Bugger off. You don’t want him, he’s all hobbled up with frankenstein screws in his legs and will be no good to ya.’   That hasn’t stopped Liverpool and Stoke City from continuing to negotiate behind the scenes. Of the two clubs, it’s widely anticipated that Liverpool will be the one to put out an official bid for him next week. UPDATE Jan 25 3:47 pm Sky Sports also confirmed yesterday that Liverpool is expected to put a bid for the South Korean winger.

As far as Yoon Bit-Garam is concerned, since the Naver.com report about the president of Braga coming to wheel and deal personally for him, there’s been a bit of a news blackout on the deal. It’s quite possible that we didn’t get the translation down right. Has Braga’s president made the flight already or perhaps he hasn’t gotten to flying out yet?  The transfer window hasn’t closed, but we are on a holding pattern for some kind of deal or news on this to materialize.

The last rumor hanging out there concerned ‘the Wookie,’ Kim Shin-Wook, the giant forward for Ulsan Hyundai. The Daily Mail reported several weeks ago that Everton was interested in Kim, but since then, complete information blackout. The Tavern suspects there wasn’t much to the Daily Mail’s assertion about Everton’s interest, but who knows -we still have 6 more days to see if there’s any credibility to that claim.