Unsurprisingly, Ju Young Park is considering leaving Arsenal in the summer.
Snatched from under the noses of Lille, who had him sequestered in a local hotel as they were about to sign him, he moved to Arsenal as the transfer deadline approached.
Although not prolific during his time at Monaco, he had showed enough to suggest that Arsenal were getting a back-up striker who might have been able to contribute when called upon.
Fast forward to February 2012 and Park has made just five appearances for the club. Three in the Carling Cup, one in the Champions League and a grand total of 8 minutes in the Premier League.
His one goal, against Bolton in the Carling Cup, was ver nicely taken, but for whatever reason, Arsene Wenger has little faith in him and not giving him a run out when Arsenal were 6-1 up against Blackburn with over half an hour to go spoke volumes as to where he stands in the manager’s pecking order.
With just a couple of years to go until he has return to South Korea to do mandatory military service, it’s little wonder he’s unhappy – and Park’s agent revealed they’d be open to a move come the end of the season.
“If the current state continues, we will have to look at the transfer market in the summer,” he said.
He also played down reports that Arsenal had turned down an offer from Fulham to take the player on loan.
“In the English media, it was reported that Arsenal had rejected a loan offer for Park. However, this was in contrast to what we heard from Arsenal. There was no loan offer during the transfer window.”
Wenger’s reasons for not using Park remain open to speculation, with no journalist seemingly willing to ask a direct question at a press conference.
The suggestion that he was signed to sell shirts in his native country seems rather at odds with the reality that any profit from shirt sales would fall far, far below his annual salary, and even if that was the case we’d need to play him now and again for people to want to buy his shirt in the first place.
At the moment his signing is one of life’s great mysteries, like the Bermuda Triangle, the construction of the pyramids and why nobody has kicked Robbie Savage’s balls out through his mouth.
Genuinely feel sorry for the bloke! Was convinced that he was going to play some part on Saturday, but Wenger clearly had other ideas. I think its safe to say he knows where he stands now lol.
Actually thinking about it, the curse of the Number 9 shirt has clearly struck again…
Number 18 is a curse aswell!
No, Cygan was 18 too.
I feel a little bit ashamed, as an Arsenal fan, over him. We shouldn’t treat players in this way.
That’s how I feel about it. All a bit embarrassing really. Why sign a player if your not going to utilise him?
And what kind of message does this send out about Arsenal?
i dont feel sorry for a man earning thousands per week t
Why feel “ASHAMED”? If he was a good player he would have played and forced his way into the first team. He is still paid good money, He should be embarrassed for not forcing his way into our worst team in 15 years.
Arsene gave everyone his chance in the CC Cup and FA Cup, The Ox, Le Coq and Rosicky took it. Benny not so much, after the game at the Swan Arsene lost faith in him and me too. Arshavine was the best of the worst option but now he is going down the picking order the same as Bennys, Squiallicis, Almunias and Parks way.
Bringing on Chamakh instead of Park is one thing; bringing on Henry instead of Park when you’re 5-1 up is inexplicable. Seriously, what is the deal here? He’s not injured. He looked halfway decent against Bolton. He’s not some spotty child fresh from the academy, so what the fuck?
I have to guess there some kind of hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm moment on his first day where he insulted Wenger’s mum or slept with the Chairman’s daughter and never called her…
Correct me if I’m wrong but methinks Henry has scored more goals in 5 appearance than Chamakh managed in 5 months.
Park will definately be angry playing second fiddle to Chamakh, not Henry.
You forgot how crap he was against City!!!! he was embarrassing, he was like the kid at school that you wish his team would pass him the ball so you can take the ball of him.
PARK IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ARSENAL.
The why the hell did we sign him? Did we fail to scout the guy? Were we more desperate just to bring in a body to appease the fans?
If he’s not good enough, then someone has some serious questions to answer for wasting so much money especially when we penny-pinch on other deals to the point that they fall through.
Look I am not a big Arsene fan as you might see from my posts and I think he lost it. But, to be fair when you sign 7/8 players in a such short time you ought to have one or two flops, which is not a bad thing or a big lose considering the others are more than good.
I really feel sorry for him, I play him on FIFA though so hopefully that’ll be some consolation.
He’s a fucking PES legend, if that makes him feel any better.
At least he’s in the squad ahead of Almunia, if that helps
Feel sorry for him too. Especially giving the circumstances surrounding his arrival. He’s probably watching Lille and thinking he’d have exponentially more game time there.
One of the oddest signings I’ve ever seen done by Arsenal.
Indeed one of life’s great mysteries… lol..
Whilst I do feel for the guy, he should have thought harder about where he might get to play more football before opting for the glamor move.
That’s a fair point, in my opinion
Maybe i’m being naive, but according to everyone here we’ve just picked him off the shelf without Mr. Young having any say in the matter what so ever.
The guy will have known full well his chances would be limited, having to get past Robin and Chamakh, so if time is of the essence, why not move somewhere he would have more chance of playing regularly?
It’s not like he publicly cried out “Why aren’t I playing??”
He probably did move here with the worst in mind, while also hoping that all turns out for the best. It’s not everyday you can play for Arsenal when you’re a South Korean who was never that prolific in any of Europe’s top leagues.
Leave it out! Would YOU turn down the chance to play for the greatest club in the world?
Wenger: ‘Park, i’d like to offer you the glorious chance of playing at Arsenal for the next 3yrs”
Park: “Really, Arsene? Sounds great, except that Lille want to sign me so bad, plus you already have one of Europe’s best strikers in RvP. Where would signing for you leave me?”
Wenger: “Fair point, that. Whilst I can’t guarantee you your place in the team, I’ll certainly give you your chance to stake your claim. Then it’ll be up to you to grab it and own it. You know that nothing can be guaranteed in this game, right?”
Park: “Right. Seems a fair offer to me. Let’s do it!”
6months later still n ochance to stake his claim given to Park. Quite uncool, methinks
What really happened:
Wenger: ‘My side has just been thrashed 8-2 by an average Man United team! I’ve totally fucked up, I should have bought some players this summer! I could get sacked now! My arse is twitching like mad!’
Park’s agent ‘Then sign my man! His record is average but he’ll get you out the shit!’
Wenger: ‘Are you sure?’
Agent: ‘No – but you’re desperate!’
Wenger: ‘That’s true! I’ll take him!’
I feel the same jake, i also feel so sad for the guy. He was probably settled in Francein terms of the language etc and we snatched him away. When we were screaming out for a striker we bought this poor lad because he was cheap and have treated him in exactly that manner.
He was in fine form for South Korea at the beginning of the season too. Very strange.
All very strange. He looked all set to have a decent Korea at Arsenal.
Oh well, he is still Young, so should find another club Park himself at.
/gets coat.
A good effort mate! lol
I think it’s probably not *that* big a mystery; chances are that, for whatever reason, he’s not shown enough in training for him to be relied on in the first team. Happens in every team (Mame Diouf at United is an obvious recent example). Hopefully Park will get a chance – and take it – later in the season.
Perhaps the fact that it was Henry’s last chance to play at the emirates had something to do with the decision
*ding ding ding* Winner!
I can’t find any explanation either. The only half-logical explanation would be if he was bought against the will of Arsene and he just doesn’t WANT to play him, but that’s clearly just a theory
Buddy nobody can be bought against the will of Arsene! Not at arsenal or manu! Much as I feel sorry for the poor lad I feel he has not shown enough in training
Whatever it’s all about, one tangible outcome is that it pissed off Lille mightily. Which doesn’t bode well for any future enquiry we might make for players like Hazard or Mavuba. Or Cole!
You’re not actually trying to suggest Arsene would be interested in Joe Cole…
I’m sure he means Andy Cole
apparently we was interested in Joe Cole at one point. He’s a very good player but things went pete tong for him at Anfield.
Think that was a joke..
well to be fair, having seen how little impact he has had Lille might think we have done them a favour!
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Or maybe he thought that he was buying A park. Perhaps this was a real estate deal that went wrong.
Joe Cole is a has been, a good player in his day but getting on now.
I think it’s all part of a bigger conspiracy. Upset Lille by snatching a cheap player thereby creating a ready made excuse that Lille won’t deal with us when we pretend to be serious about Hazard in the summer, saving Kronke millions and allowing us to bid for Dale Gordon.
I’ll get out my tin foil hat.
He might offer Park as a makeweight in the Hazard deal, can’t see it happening but one can dream.
That will only work if the terms of the makeweight are judged by actual weight rather than footballing ability.
If he’s not showing enough in training as you say then he must be one lazy bastard to be Behind ashavin and chamakh, who show fuck all on the pitch in respect to effort. I just can’t see it. I think it’s more a case of we needed a striker that was obvious,
we are a club that don’t like spending money so we panicked and bought cheap to appease the fans. So far it’s worked as rvp has stayed fit. It hasn’t worked in the respect that chamakh has no form as im sure arsene may thought he would come good so is now no better cover for rvp than park is.
Sorry but no way is Wenger spending millions just to appease the fans!
Poor park. I wonder if he was the boards buy or wengers buy. You gotta wonder if wenger is not playing him because of the boards greed. At least he should have been given more chances than chamakh. If wenger had faith in a player like that, why can’t he at least have a bit of faith in park?
joke signing by Wenger. Feel sorry for the guy… Wenger should have let him go on loan
This is sad news but not surprising really. The way The Arsenal have treated this lad is awful.
The Arsenal are world renowned for their history and most of all respect and traditional attitudes…..this does damage all the above.
I hope the lad can move on, in more ways than one and get his career up and running.
Err. The Cole thing was a joke. But the way we took Park could arguably be viewed as a poor long term strategic deal. And a shit short term one, too.
Blogs the biggest mystery is who and when and why did Tony Adams fall out with at Arsenal, this Park guy is a minor mystery compared to that one.
The weird thing is every time he goes to play for South Korea he ends up making the highlights reel.
I genuinely want to see him play. And don’t believe for a moment he’s not a better option than Chamakh.
Perhaps it’s the language? Maybe there’s an attitude problem? Though that has to be doubtful. So why stick him on the bench and never play him?
Maybe he’ll come on against Sunderboro/Middlesland and surprise Wenger how well he’s adapted.
This is turning out to be even curiouser than Vela or Barazite.
I think it might be similiar to Vela and Barazite. Both showed a good potential, but maybe they weren’t like by Wenger. As i remember Jamie Sanderson from Youngguns blog said, there are favorite players in Wenger’s mind.
I have some sympathy for him. It’s one of the strangest signings ever. He sometimes gets on the bench, rarely gets to play with others preferred ahead of him and we know nothing about what Wenger sees in him or expects from him. I just don’t get why we signed him??
Should of loaned him for definate. Bit sad seeing him waste a year.
I feel sorry for the lad too
He should come to my place often maybe the BFG will help plead his case to Wenger…
I Feel really sad for him
he’s clearly a make-weight for hazard in the summer!
I had thought it was for shirt sales, but if you’re correct and these would come nowhere near his wages and transfer fee, then it really is odd. I certainly dont think the board foisted him on Wenger, I don’t think they would dare and/or don’t know anything about football in order to be able to if they wanted to.
What’s stranger still is that if it really is he’s not showing it in training, why is he always taking up a space on the bench? Surely you put someone there you think you might actually use? Maybe Wenger always thinks he might bring him on but then can never bring himself to do so. Which looks very indecisive.
It’s also funny he only came on against Man U – one of the biggest games of the season where we needed a goal, and not against, say, Blackburn as already pointed out. Which seems to back up the SE Asia exposure argument. All in all, rather perplexing…
Waiting for Arsene to come out and say Park wasnt ready, he is now(after he plays a game sooner the better).
Harzard, Hazard, Hazard. Great player with huge potential but he shouldn’t be our nr 1 target. We have The Ox, Gervinho and Walcott on the flanks. We need something more in the middle.
And when it comes to Park I’m sure AW has his reasons.
Hazard can play behind the striker as well. He would be a real quality boost.
Song – Arteta
Hazard – Wilshere – Ox
RVP
would be a dream team
Good point, but what about Theo and Ramsey? I know people get tired of them both from time to time, but they are still very young.
It’s true, probably made for PR rsoeans (look! We try to get top players! We offer good money too!) and 95% not gonna happen as neither the player, his manager nor Dortmund want him to leave before Euro 2012 0 0
I don’t see the problem here. We have RVP? Why should Park play if RVP is fit?
And when RVP needs a rest Henry comes on. Nothing wrong with that. At all. its Henry after all. That name means something? Personally I don’t care about Park’s situation. He is clearly not good enough and believe me if he was he would have gotten more chances.
The sad and unbelievable thing is how we could waste money on this guy? Even worse is that we knew before hand that he was leaving for some kind of military duty thing and that should be enough to know that it was money thrown away.
You’re on the right track, if being a bit harsh about it, mate. I think Park was bought as an insurance policy – Wenger knew Chamakh was probably going to the ANC and didn’t know we’d have King Henry back on loan, so if RVP were injured (a very real possibility, as we all know), we’d have no recognized center-forwards and either have to play Theo or Arshavin there, rely on a youngster like Afobe, or try to recall Bendtner or Vela from their loans (which I’m sure would have gone over very well with you lot).
So Park’s lack of playing time really comes down to a few rather lucky developments from our perspective – the continued health of Robin and timely surprise loan signing of Thierry, both of whom will obviously be chosen ahead of him. The only thing that Park has really had in his control is apparently not moving ahead of Chamakh in the pecking order in the fall, but even that wouldn’t have made much difference, as Chamakh has barely played this season either (only four starts since October and subbed off early in two of them, along with three late desperation subs on).
My real question is – if we know he’s so far down the pecking order, why hasn’t he had more run-outs with the reserve squad, particularly last fall while still “adapting?” I don’t think he would have taken it as too much of an insult then, but probably would now after dragging him around as a first-team benchwarmer for a while.
He has been run out with the reserves a few times. Didn’t show much.
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You mean Wenger who wouldn’t have scouted him personally as he has to manage the current team? Who has a team of scouts that travel the globe looking at players for the first team and so would trust their judgement? You mean that Wenger or one you seem to have created in your head just to try and make a point?
And to all those that still think the summer buys we’re planned and that it was done out of sheer panic look no further than this poor bloke.
Did we scout him? Did we fuck and don’t worry about pissing Lille off as we would never land a player like hazard. The summer proves we have no real plan.
Were Torres, Caroll, Downing etc panick buys?
Football is not 1+1=2 mate.
I can’t help but feel cynical towards Wenger with all this. It’s all well and good saying about the shirt sales thing compared to his annual salary but is it any coincidence that Wenger threw him on in the United game? You know, the game where we probably get the biggest global audience for the whole domestic season?
I can’t believe Wenger left RvP on for 90 minutes either.
That said, maybe it’s Park who doesn’t want to play. For all we know he could’ve knocked on Wenger’s door before christmas and asked to not play. Bottled it. Maybe.
Weird. This isn’t like us.
“I can’t believe Wenger left RvP on for 90 minutes either” – I meant for the Blackburn game, not united.
Agreed, Arsene isn’t doing himself any favours at the moment. We desperately need RVP to stay fit, at 6-1 and a hatrick under his belt I can’t fathom why you wouldn’t take him off and bubble wrap him till Sunderland. If he’d picked up a knock Arsene would have been vilified. It’s almost as if he is challenging fans to support or defy him.
It’s like when you are younger and dont really want to go out with a girl anymore but don’t want to man up and finish it so you act like a dick so she takes the initiative and dumps you. Is Arsene trying to get dumped? Are we his girlfriend he no longer loves? Should I have watched ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ last night meaning I spend the next day looking at situations from a womans viewpoint?
He s clearly not good enough , arsene took a gamble and it hasn t paid off whatever happens this season park has to be shipped out along with quite a few others, look at the ox- he proves you don t need to spend £30 m to get class but much more importantly he has workrate
if he’s not good enough wenger should have sent him on a loan, save some money and not waste the last 2 years of a players footballing career
Hold on I haven t finished!
Down with spurs and up the arsenal!
How i wish we went in for Robbie Keane over the winter……….
it is rather odd, hey. but, still.
more importantly, anyone know why ryo wasn’t in the bolton squad this weekend?
Was he registered in time? That would be the most likely reason, although it could just be because Bolton were on a little run and Coyle needed to assess Ryo further to make sure he go the balance right.
Heres my theory,.
Wenger bought park as cover/back up for sham, who he knew would be away, but then the Henry deal presented itself, and the fact that there was so much fan unrest around at that time, made Wenger think, “hmm perhaps I could offset some of the anger by bringing back henry for a spell” an so he did, and who knows maybe boost the team got from that combined with the sales of Henry jerseys also had some part to play in all of this??
I’m not excusing the way park has been treated, just trying to make sense of a very strange situation. who knows, when Thierry leaves park might get more game time?
I believe he Will.
It’s a very strange situation and I really do feel bad for Park. As close as he was to signing with Lille and the way we came in and took him out from under their noses only to have him ride the bench is just crazy. Whatever the reasons for buying him were I don’t like seeing us buy a player only to have him sit. We’ve got plenty of young gunners who could fill that spot as a “last resort because everyone else is injured striker”. Why waste the wages and damage a relationship with a club who has a player we’d obviously like to buy in the future (Hazard) on him? It really doesn’t balance out in the end.
I wonder if it was just a pruchase by the Board with the hopes of selling more jersey’s. I know that theory has been bounced around but it honestly seems the only plausible one. Unless we bought him and he just doesn’t want to work at all in training, which I doubt very highly.
exactly what i wanted to say
” I don’t like seeing us buy a player only to have him sit.”
if he’s had enough chances and wasted them, i would’nt mind, but this guy never really had any chances
Please can I be the one to kick robbie savages balls?!
Part exchange for Hazard in the summer?
Lille are/were also in the ECL, so it was probably a glamour/financial move rather than a footballing one. His cunting cousin might have also decided he hasn’t tormented me enough with his shitty goals, and said……YEEEEEEAH, sign for Arsenal XD.
I don’t think Wenger saw him as the heir to the throne. He was just a decent striker, at a very decent price with international pedigree, who might sell shirts and may very well score more goals than Bendtner or Vela.
We also have to consider, what impact any language barrier, footballing education, intelligence, cultural or religious differences might have on his adaptation to the best league in world football. For his part, he has been proffessional so far.
He is probably better than 50% of all strikers out there. Unfortunately, that is not good enough for us.
Let me just say that in my opinion, who ever thinks that Park is a makeweight for Hazard come summer is just fooling himself/herself. We might just have permanently damaged our relationship with Lille considering the way we stole him. Why would they sell to us when Madrid might bid higher for Hazard anyways.
Also, why we are expecting the club to even bid for him is the question when we heard it from Ivan himself last week. I hope we do but there’s almost NO way we’ll get Hazard.
We might never know the circumstances of JYP’s purchase, but we do know that he is not good enough by far. If he was, Arsene would have played him, as a punt as a last resort or whatever in a situation where we needed goals. Can’ t help but feel for him as Arsene might have killed his career. Embarrassing really.
How can you conclude that he is not good enough? We’ve rarely seen him play and when we did, it was with the reserves (except in the CL).
How good were arshavin and chamakh that wenger kept using them?
what’s puzzling me is that if wenger thinks jyp is not good enough, should have sent him to fulham, better for us saving money and better for the player who only has 1 and a half year left in his footballing career
I think he was bought to sell those DVDs in Asia.Hope i m wrong what else would be the reason of buying someone and not playing unless you are Rafa Benitez.
Well at least we can say that Park was just a £3million mistake not a £30-50million mistake.
I’d rather have Park sitting idlly off the pitch than have Torres or Carroll fumbling about on it.
Sorry mate, that picture makes me feel sick every time I see it. I can’t even look at your comments because I don’t want to see the picture for too long!
Not having a go, keep it if you must, just thought I’d say.
changed it especially for you sir
haha!
If the worst came to the worst and we got so many injuries that we had to play Park, the very fact that he’s had bugger all in the way of chances, he’ll not be match fit and hugely out of form.
Agreed
Wenger or the fans can’t expect hiim to come off the bench and start scoring goals
2 on 2 playing one touch football to the goal….
….and its Park to make it 7?!!!!!
Arsenal 6 Blackburn 1 FT
Hasn’t he got some sort of appearances clause in his contract? I think I read that somewhere.
Maybe there’s a bit of a reluctance to let him play too many games so we don’t have to pay more for him due to the number of appearances he’s made.
Maybe he’s not that good. God knows. I know I, for one, would really have liked to see more of this fella, especially in games when we’re already comfortably ahead. Though his goal was a winning goal in a cup tie, so he can score a goal when it matters.
I thought he’s looked like he’s got a bit more about him than Chamakh, and to be captain of South Korea, who are probably the second best footballing country in Asia, and have performed pretty well in the last few World Cups, you can’t be shit. Right?
I just don’t know what to think here.
I think the young bloke will get his chance considering we still in the FA Cup, The Champs League as well as the chase for the 4th spot. Look @ The Ox, spent most part of e season on e bench bt nw getting his time. I believe its part of Wenger’s development programme to make u sit on e bench
Whatever, it’s just his agent talking. Any transfer of his client nets him another 15%. Tom c @ FEBRUARY 6, 2012 AT 11:31 AM has it right on the money.
In stead of pure speculation regarding a past transfer, how about some forward-looking speculation not involving one E. Hazard?
Steven Jovetic, anyone? 12 goals in 17 Serie A matches this season. Aged just 22, he’s already suffered a cruciate ligament injury and missed a season. If that wasn’t Gooner enough for you, he’s also 6′ tall and not that adept in the air–bonus! Making a move for him unlikely is the fact that he signed a new contract with Fiorentina back in October.
He always seems to score for his country. South Korea are a good team. So surely he’s more than capable of getting a few games in the Premier League
The last Korea NT captain was Park Ji Sung and look how he’s done in the PL.
I want to hear what Wenger thinks of Park!
Just say he’s shit or something else! Aaaaaaargggh
I always feel that Park is good player. But need to play 3 – 4 matches in a row
Well, in fairness to Wenger, who in the world could have guessed that Van Persie would stay fit for longer than three months? Had RVP succumbed to his annual October season-ending injury, and Wenger not bought a striker (any striker) in the summer, we’d be livid. Based on RVP’s injury record, wisdom would suggest that you a buy a back-up (Park) for your second-string striker (Chamakh) because realistically, your first-choice striker (RVP) is a luxury rather than a consistent presence, historically speaking. I can just about understand Park’s signing.
I think when you consider the club’s future striker situation a bit, his signing makes sense.
Right now, we have 2 highly promising strikers in Joel Campbell and Benik Afobe, who will take around a couple of years to find their way in the first team. We also have one infuriatingly inconsistent striker in Carlos Vela. All 3 are very young.
So, if Park was brought on the instructions of Arsene, I think the reason would be to provide cover for Afobe, Campbell (and Vela maybe) until they mature and play regularly, for the couple of years of adaptation time. Then he would be off, and we would be blooding in new strikers.