Since arriving at Arsenal on 30th August 2011 under unusual circumstances, not completing his medical with LOSC Lille after hearing of Arsenal’s interest, Ju-Young (Chu-Young) Park has seen his first team opportunities well and truly limited. Not least by the form of an infamous Dutch player.
1 goal in a whole season, with 8 appearances, is hardly a record to be proud of.
After a disappointing loan spell in Spain with Celta Vigo, reports from Spanish publication Vavel suggest he may be on his marching orders from the Emirates very soon. Loosely translated from Spanish, the Vavel article reads; “Arsenal has broken his contract at the club, so that the future of this rundown scorer will be a mystery this summer,”
Arsenal aren’t the only ones giving him marching orders though; he’s currently on an army boot camp in his home country.
Celta Vigo
His season at Celta Vigo has not gone to plan. Park scored three goals and added one assist in 22 matches, having started eight games. The former Asian young footballer of the year has been fined for not turning up to the final league game of the year against Espanyol, and local publication Faro de Vigo pointed out that Park gets paid 3 million euros, of which Celta Vigo pays 600,000 euros. Park played a total of 572 minutes, which translates into over 1,000 euros per minute.
Coupled with 3 goals in 22 appearances, you can imagine that the former Asian young footballer of the year is not too popular among Vigo fans.
Arsenal Future?
In all honesty, it’s very unlikely we’ll be seeing Park next year, even in a cameo capacity in Capital One matches. We have young strikers like Benik Afobe and the newly acquired Yaya Sanogo in our ranks, all needing first team experience, making Park’s chances even more limited.
Unless Vavel know something we don’t, I doubt Arsene will want to spend any more money on him than he has to, so paying off his contract, plus compensation, might be a bit much.
Unless a freak striker illness epidemic hits before the season starts, I expect we’ll see Park off for another loan deal, or perhaps he could play sporadically in our rather depleted U21 ranks due to the mass exodus this summer.
This does beg the question though; why did we buy him in the first place? A declining striker failing to fulfill his potential was definitely not the earth shattering, confidence building transfer that we needed to plug the void filled by Cesc’s departure.
Perhaps Park was just ‘one of those signings’ that never quite work out. Like Pascal Cygan. Remember him? If not, watch this. Cygan is quite possibly the worst defender ever to pull on an Arsenal shirt.
Latest:
