The curious case of Park Chu Young

Abhinav

Park Chu Young

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When Arsene Wenger ‘stole’ the signature of Park Chu Young for an approximate, initial fee of £2,651,000 right under Lille’s noses just as the Korean was undergoing the second part of his medical for the French champions before he got the call, everyone thought the Arsenal manager had pulled off a shrewd piece of business in the summer transfer window. Park was 26, close to his prime and captain of South Korea at the time. He had World Cup experience, was versatile and a free-kick specialist. He had scored 12 goals in 35 games in the previous season for Monaco in Ligue 1. Arsenal fans were excited with the fact that the team now had a striker who would replace the unhappy Nicklas Bendtner and provide some experienced backup to the Arsenal attack. However, come May 2012, and the seemingly unhappy and out of place Korean has only played a meager 6 games for the North London club with 1 goal to his name – 302 minutes in total and still hasn’t made his first start in the Premier League.

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“He [Park] will add true quality to our attacking forces and will be a valuable addition to the squad.”- Arsene Wenger.
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Park has been anything but a valuable addition, given how Wenger has used him. The Korean has featured more times on the bench (16) than Mario Balotelli‘s league goal tally, but has only been used as a substitute twice. Instead, Marouane Chamakh, who has only scored 1 goal this season is preferred to him while star striker, Robin van Persie has barely been given a break and is currently on course to complete his 48th appearance of the season against West Brom. A chance to get playing time due to Chamakh’s departure for the African Cup of Nations was also gone with the loan arrival of Thierry Henry during the period of January to February. In some games, where Arsenal had a more than a comfortable lead (for example, the 3-0 win against Wolves), Park wasn’t given a chance to come off the bench either. While Wenger has sparingly used the Korean, Park has been scoring goals for fun both for the Arsenal reserves as well as the South Korean national team.

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To make things even more mysterious, Park came to Arsenal with both himself and Wenger knowing that he had impending military service to attend to in 2013. So just why hasn’t Wenger used Park?

Benched.

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Panic buy?

This is a theory supported by many Arsenal fans – was Park just a panic buy given Arsenal’s dreadful start to the season? Bendtner wanted a move away while Joel Campbell wasn’t able to secure a work permit, so Park may have been a stop gap signing. But does that excuse his lack of playing time? It’s not like he’s been given many chances and failed – he has only played 6 games. 2 of those games were off the bench, so we can’t judge him purely on those performances. This is a regular South Korean international with a brilliant scoring record throughout his career after all, and Wenger has been letting him rot on the bench since September. But then again, Wenger does see the players in training every week and if Park isn’t good enough to be above an inefficient Chamakh in the pecking order, surely he wasn’t up to Wenger’s expectations?

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Adaptation Period?

This is a logical explanation for his lack of game time. Park is South Korean, playing in France since 2008 and a new country, league and style of play in the Premier League will obviously take some time to adapt to. But having said that, even adapting players get chances to play and it surely wouldn’t take Park 9 months to adjust to a new environment.

“It has been difficult because I have not given him the chance to play and the intensity of the challenges – some players take short, others take long. But it takes you time. The adaptation period for him is over now so he has to come in and show he has the quality to play for us.” – Arsene Wenger.
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Wenger addressed the media regarding Park’s adaptation period being over in late December leading many to believe the Korean would finally get a few chances and minutes under his belt. But what does Wenger do? He goes on to sign former Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry on a 2 month loan deal. While the loan deal was a success, it only further portrayed Wenger’s lack of faith in the Korean, who was sidelined to the bench even more. When you feel the need to bring a 34 year old striker (who ironically scored more goals in less games than both Park and Chamakh in his loan spell) in Thierry Henry on loan when you have a 26 year old striker at your disposal, there is a clear problem.

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Marketing ploy?

This is an extreme view. Many fans maintain that Park was bought for marketing reasons, to reach out to the Asian market and improve shirt sales. It may sound crazy but one should think about it: Park has only played 6 games, 3 of which were Carling Cup games and one being a Champions League group stage game against Marseille. As for the other two, he came on as a sub, against Man United and AC Milan – two games which were telecasted worldwide to a global audience. Fishy?

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Park.

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Consequences?

Arsenal’s treatment of Park has led to many consequences.

1) With military service looming in 2013 and Park’s lack of game time in the 2011/2012 season, the Korean has now postponed service until 2022 due to his 10-year residency visa from former club, Monaco.

“He [Park] has at least some positive thoughts, as he is with a world-class team like Arsenal. But he is not playing in games and I felt that Park is not on Wenger’s mind.” – South Korea coach, Choi Kang-Hee.
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2) With only 302 minutes of game time for Arsenal since September 2011, as a result, Park lost his captaincy of South Korea to defender, Kwak Tae-Hwi in February 2012.

3) The Guardian had reported that Arsenal were to stop in Seoul, South Korea along with China and Hong Kong for their 2012 summer tour. However, with the treatment of Park, the tour to South Korea is now cancelled and replaced with a stop to Malaysia – all but signalling hostility towards Arsenal from the South Korean media.

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“I had to choose between Lille and Arsenal. I wanted to choose without regret.” – Park Chu Young
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One can imagine that Park is full of regrets as we speak – this is certainly not the way he wished to end his career in Europe. With the arrival of Podolski at the Emirates Stadium, Park’s brittle chances of getting game time are made even smaller as a departure from North London seems imminent. However, with his postponed military duty, Park still has time to find a club which will guarantee him first team football and help consolidate his place in the South Korean team. Who knows? Maybe Wenger may use him more next season as well. But one thing’s for sure: Park will be turning his phone off at all future medicals.

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Edited by Staff Editor
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