Ki Sung-Yueng

Arsenal have been scouting Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng.

The South Korean international has been watched by Arsenal for the past two seasons and has received rave reviews from senior scouts, as well as Head Scout, Steve Rowley, who have watched the 23-year-old closely during the Olympic games.

Ki, who scored the winning penalty in the Quarter-Final shootout against Great Britain, is also wanted by QPR and Fulham.

The 2011 South Korea player of the year has been a big success at Celtic, impressing suitors with his range of passing and calmness in central midfield areas.

The 6ft 2in midfielder also has an eye for goal, scoring 9 goals during his two seasons in the SPL and 5 international goals in 45 appearances.

Arsenal scouts will be running the rule over Ki once more as South Korea take on Brazil in the semi-final of the Olympics at Old Trafford this evening.

http://wearethenorthbank.com/arsenal-se ... ki-signing

He's looked impressive in the Olympics so far. Could he be a backup in case Sahin doesn't work out? Anyone seen much of him in the SPL?

Alternative to Sahin maybe?
its surprising we are still going after a midfielder*

Is he going to come here after the Chu Young Park disaster? I doubt his compatriot is going to give a glowing reference...

Great squad player on FM and brings in a lot of revenue from merchandise sales when you buy him.

In the one Celtic game I watched last season, he missed two open goals, headed the ball into the post on both occasions, for that reason, I'm out.

In the one Celtic game I watched last season, he missed two open goals, headed the ball into the post on both occasions, for that reason, I'm out.

Can Sung-Yueng now sway the other Dragons? Drama!

Ahem...so is he a DLP like Sahin? Wiki reckons he's the 'Korean Steven Gerrard.'

Who?

Steven Gerrard, plays for Liverpool FC, a minor northern club.

a goal per 9 games against mostly asian teams, and 9 goals in scotland.

now thats what i call an "eye for goal"

no way we are interested, we're packed in midfield if we get sahin, and if we dont theres no way we should set our sights that much lower

No more mediocre squad players please, we have enough of those allready.

I think he is good player maybe backup plan if sahin deal not happen.

I'll pass

"The Korean Scholes" Dunno about that...

Meh.

If we did get him I think it'd be for merchandising.

This guy is all over the news right now linked with us.

I really hope this is not our back up plan to Sahin. Its light and day to be honest the difference in quality.

I would rather we spent the money on van der wiel.

I doubt we're in for him. With the kind of players we have at CM in the first team and the reserves, he would have to be an extra level of talent ala Sahin to get in at that position. It just makes me wonder though if it confirms that we're scouting a Celtic player, i.e Wanyama.

45 international games by 23, impressive no matter where you're from. But never seen or heard of him so no idea if we could use him here. Midfield is probably our strongest position right now so maybe go for a fullback instead?

Is the Sahin loan deal not happening? Meh.

since Chu Young is supposed to be better than this guy (logically, didn't see sung yueng playing), I don't think we should do anything.

Sounds like we have been watching someone up in Scotland though. Traditionally I think Arsenal have always had good links with Celtic as well, but not sure if that is still the case.

Have only seen Ki play once and was quite impressed. Wanyama sounds like a decent prospect as well.

Hmmm not interested, what's the point of buying another player who will not improve our cup chances?

We have plenty of those already.

Might have been watching Wanyama and they linked us with Ki.

Said it awhile back, Ki is the best Korean footballer in the world currently. He has been brilliant in the olympics thus far. Knew he would do well when Celtic bought him seeing how good Lee CY was with Bolton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJzGHieVeR4

Brilliant player but we need Wanyama more than Ki.

He played in the Emirates Cup a couple of years back. Scored past us, too.

This is from his Wiki:

On 25 January 2011, during the 2011 AFC Asian Cup semi-final match between Japan and South Korea, Ki scored the opening goal through a penalty kick.

Ki created controversy with his goal celebration by pulling a monkey face and scratching his cheek in front of a pitch-side camera in an allegedly racist slur at Japanese people.

Ki initially defended his goal celebration through a Twitter post claiming that he was annoyed at having seen a Rising Sun Flag in the stadium. Ki then claimed that the celebration was a reference to alleged racist abuse he had received during Scottish Premier League games from opposition fans, but the chief executive of Show Racism the Red Card expressed scepticism about this.

Hmm...

Might have been watching Wanyama and they linked us with Ki.

Said it awhile back, Ki is the best Korean footballer in the world currently. He has been brilliant in the olympics thus far. Knew he would do well when Celtic bought him seeing how good Lee CY was with Bolton.

I was quite surprised that we didn't play Park at all. All the Koreans I've seen in the Premiership have impressed me no end. Park Ji-Sung was a very valuable player for United for seven or eight years, Lee was/is class at Bolton and Lee Young-Pyo wasn't bad at Spurs.

Has anyone here actually watched him play at Celtic?

Has anyone here actually watched him play at Celtic?

My family are all huge Celtic fans and coming from Belfast I watch Celtic matches more often than not. There are four or five players currently playing for Celtic who could easily make the switch to a top 6 Premier League team and not look out of place.

Ki (23 CM)is your typical deep playmaker. He takes the easy and difficult balls he will make forward passes be they 5 yard or 40 yards more often than not into feet or into space for an attacker to run onto. He is comfortable passing and shooting with both feet and can be physical though this side of his game receives most criticism especially in Scotland where the ref's arent as whistle happy as they are in England. He has been known to be bullied off the ball at times but it is an area of his game that he has improved on and at 23 has plenty of time to work on it. At present he would offer more to our midfield than Ramsey (due to more experience)and at 7m would be a steel.

Wanyama (21 DM/CB/CM), who I have often discussed on here, is more the type of player we need. Not as good on the ball as Ki but he is a fantastic reader of the game can take balls and keep possession. This guy will make it massive somewhere. Again for 7-8m if we can get him we should because this fella will make it.

The added bonus with signing Ki is the media hype from Asia and the obvious sponsorship opportunities. For a club of our size that invest millions into young players Ki could make us our money back very quickly in that market. But that is not the only reason to sign him as the guy has quality but again I think if we are going to sign one of Celtics players it has to be Wanyama simply because of the role and way he plays.

Might have been watching Wanyama and they linked us with Ki.

Said it awhile back, Ki is the best Korean footballer in the world currently. He has been brilliant in the olympics thus far. Knew he would do well when Celtic bought him seeing how good Lee CY was with Bolton.

I was quite surprised that we didn't play Park at all. All the Koreans I've seen in the Premiership have impressed me no end. Park Ji-Sung was a very valuable player for United for seven or eight years, Lee was/is class at Bolton and Lee Young-Pyo wasn't bad at Spurs.

Yep. Park is clearly better than Chamakh, for some reason Wenger doesn't play him. His one and only full start for us in the carling cup, he did superbly and scored a wonderful goal. God knows what happened to him at Arsenal.

You make a great point about Koreans in PL. Even Ji Dong Won did well at Sunderland in his limited starts.

Great squad player on FM and brings in a lot of revenue from merchandise sales when you buy him.

Cool, I'm sold

I would be very wary of buying Koreans for the sake of merchandise........... I bet many Koreans already wish cancer upon Wenger for the way he treated Park. I find it hard to believe this Ki Sung-Yueng guy will get much playing time with us.