Yang Hyun-jun’s World Cup nightmare highlights why Celtic should be targeting South Korean talent now — their domestic game’s value has never been lower.
The World Cup was hoped to be this Korean generation’s breakout moment on the global stage. Instead, it has turned into a flop that presents Celtic with an opportunity we should not ignore.
The winger admitted this week that the atmosphere within the South Korea camp is toxic after their early exit from the tournament. What started with promise—a 2-1 win over Czechia—ended in disappointment with back-to-back 1-0 defeats to Mexico and South Africa. Now head coach Hong Myung-bo has walked, the squad needs police protection for their return home, and the President himself has ordered a government investigation into the whole mess.
For you and me, this might seem like distant news. But for Celtic’s recruitment strategy, it matters.
South Korean football is at a low ebb. The “Korean Wave” in football has hit the rocks. And that is exactly why we should be doubling down on our efforts to sign Korean talent.
You remember when Japanese players were viewed with suspicion in the UK (2021). Then breakthrough proved they could cut it at the highest level, and suddenly scouts were flooding the J-League. Celtic were ahead of that curve with Kyogo, Hatate and Maeda, and we have reaped the rewards.
South Korea should be next. The perceived value of the domestic game there has plummeted. We should be positioning ourselves as the landing spot for the next generation of Asian talent.
We have the template. We have the track record with Kyogo, Hatate, Maeda, and Yang. And crucially, we can offer the chance of Champions League football—something that matters enormously to Asian players who grew up watching European nights on television.
Yang will be feeling the weight of this failure. But he is also proof of concept. If he can develop here—if he can turn this World Cup disappointment into motivation—then he becomes a beacon for the next wave.
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Auldheid @ 9:18 am,
We seem to have a consistent misunderstanding, that I do not take as anti-Chairbhoy…
We disagree on a much more fundemental issue than the reinvestment strategy of the Board.
Hopefully I’ll explain it better than I have done thus far…
You are looking at Celtic’s corporate structure and understanding the Board’s decision making from that perspective and the Executive implementing the Board’s plans.
I totally get that, it is of course a very reasonable position.
However, this is where I have a fundemental problem.
Celtic is not a PLC it is first and last a football club.
Obviously we had the great clumpany debate when Rangers went bust – I’m not going there.
What I’m saying is Celtic are a football club and the Chairman and Board are custodians of that club period.
So please try to understand that when I comment it is from that perspective and only in that context.
Fergus McCann said he chose the PLC vehicle and floated on the stock exchange to ensure a fan ownership model – that we would not have “owners” again.
The Board while obviously duty bound to keep fiscal practice and the fidicuary duties of a PLC – where to run the football club in the best Celtic FC traditions.
We now know the PLC vehicle was not the appropriate for a fan ownership model – that is the issue the CSL, STAT26, the CSC, CST and uncle John Cobly et al are dealing with.
So let’s get away from the fundemental issue and ask, if the Celtic PLC do have a legal right to do as they wish with the company under corporate law – do they have the moral right to run the football club?
Let’s take the re-investment debate…
When Martin O’Neill left the first time and Peter Lawwell became CEO the argumment, while not readily accepted by the support was cut and dry.
• Celtic FC could not afford to run a first team squad of players at the level of outgoings that got us to Seville
• Celtic FC could not afford the signings at the level they had being doing in the first three years of the millennium not without EPL participation
• Celtic, downsized, went into the slow lane, take your pick, out of nessesity, a share issue was undertaken to provide funds for Lennoxtown, pay down some debt and less commonly understood give principal shareholder a strong hold on the company
• Celtic under Gordon Strachan managed to stay competitive under these more austere conditions
• Strachan, Mowbray and Lenny subsequntly struggled, domestically with a finanically doped Rangers and more effective European peers and the emergence of the super club
• Celtic kept to their programme of austerity and the mantra from the Board that we could not overspend continued, we could not risk investing in the squad for UCL qualification then fail – our exit at the hands of the Arsenal reinforced that point – no longer could we compete with England and Europes’ elite
• Celtic found themselves in a fortunate position from 2012, the prudent leadership of the club had paid down the debt and made the club profitable, Rangers died meaning they had no meaningful domestic opposition, UEFA introduced the champions path in the UCL – as we were all but guaranteed to be Scottish Champions and we would no longer be facing the top European teams the path to UCL nirvana was so much easier
• Celtic PLC however, despite no debt, a great chance of UCL participation and all but guranteed Scottish Championship (a generation of domination anyone?) Were still of the view investment in the first team playing squad was too risky – the stark reality of Rangers demise was used as a warning to the Celtic support
• Celtic made some modernising changes to the football set up and introduced a moneyball, player transfer strategy – Lenny, the then manager, didn’t like this direction of travel and left
• Celtic carried on with their strategy through various managers and even though the UCL qualification was easier still, we were seeded in the champions path qualifiers, the Board would still not invest in the first team playing squad to up the level in Europe, domestic domination continued
• Celtic’s policy of selling high value players “HVPs” was uncovered when the minutes of a recruitment meeting were made public – the amateur nature of the meeting agenda also raised eyebrows
• Celtic PLC accelerated the rate at which they were hoarding money, continued to tell the Celtic support they could not risk investing in the first team squad for UCL glory as it was still too risky – the reasoned arguments of the last ten years seemed to have no bearing on where Celtic were as a club then, yet still the HVPs were sold
• Celtic PLC were now saying the money they were hoarding was for club sustainability and a rainy day fund, not as convincing as previous reasoning – in fact few were buying it
• Celtic Board’s arguments were no longer viable, their exposed transgressions mount up, then Celtic social media becomes awash with the placemen, the Board’s narrative expounded ubiquitiously through the various platforms; their complicity in the R2ngers formation whitewashed, the hoarded money was needed as the boys club scandal could bankrupt the club, anti-manager and Scottish executives that were persona no grata with the PLC faction, Stuart Regan etc are examples of the duplitious campaign, all pr and b.s.
• Covid-19 hits, Celtic are relatively speaking the worst performing organisation in the SPL, no business continuity planning, no hiring of expertise to navigate through the pandemic, only the begging bowl to season ticket holdets and our manager hung out to dry
• Celtic PLC’s reasoning, that turned into excuses now turns into nonsense as they try to blame FSR for hoarding the money, try to blame a successful manager for their incompetence, try to misdirect their failings to the rank and file anti-estblishment support
• After that the games a bogey, the support see the Board for what they are, feral capitalists who are on the make; power, money is their only goal – DD now presents himself as the principal shareholder (defacto owner) as his position is so unassailable he, his Board, his Executive, heck even his kid can tell us whats going down
• Celtic Board believe they have us by the crown jewels and our hearts and minds will havd to follow
• Celtic hierarchy, because they have surronded themselves with sycophants knew little about the real Celtic support – they are now learning the hard way.
So Auldheid – “I think we have to deal with The Board on their level of understanding, not ours in order for true dialogue to take place”
No we ruddy well don’t
Hail Hail
Almore.
6 days until we see the Celtic again. Have you alerted the publicans of Phibsborough/Drumcondra yet?😁
Celtic were ahead of that curve with Kyogo, Hatate and Maeda, and we have reaped the rewards.
In all honesty Ange was ahead of the curve, I doubt any of those players mentioned would have arrived at Celtic without him and his Japanese football knowledge and contacts.
You’ve got to feel for the Korean players, the pressure on very average players – even peak Yang was too much.
As far as I can see, Son has been their best player by a country mile and is way past his best.
Let’s leave Korea to the Koreans and give Yang some TLC and we’ll see peak Yang in August…
Hail Hail
Korean players yes, why not. What has happened to our own Scottish/Asian players where are they? And , I’ve asked this before where are our Scottish/African players. Something is missing here, big time, por cierto.
Not sure I agree with Pauls leader.
Basically look for a country that flopped at the World Cup, in this case S Korea, and buy from there?
Scotland also flopped should we look there as well?
Not sure Korean kids would have been watching the Champions League.
Not live, anyway, as they would kick off at 4 am local time over there.
Not the best way to start a school day.
Brendan!
What an utterly bizarre article.
Toxic national team
Home league at a low ebb.
That’s where we would should be shopping.
What an utterly bizarre strategy we have
We have signed 3 South Koreans.
Oh couldn’t get in ahead of kyogo at the time.
Kwon who our multi trophy winning manager didn’t rate isn’t even playing top flight football 3 years on. But it was his fault of course.
And Yang perfectly sums up how far our standards dropped last season going from a peripheral player to a first pick.
🎶His taxi was booked he was ready to go but Brendan stepped in and he said no 🎶
‘the squad needs police protection for their return home, and the President himself has ordered a government investigation into the whole mess.’
Did someone sign Joel Mvuka?
Good afternoon all from the Brazen Head. Brian M has arrived to celebrate the Celtic and his marvellous charity fund raising.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
“We have the track record with Kyogo, Hatate, Maeda, and Yang”.
Not sure I’d put Yang alongside the three Japanese just yet.
He’s still too inconsistent and hasn’t made the same impact.
These markets are very hit and miss, and we have had plenty of misses over the years.
There are so many opportunities for obvious hits closer to home. I mentioned Michael Olise on here in 2021 when he was still at Reading. Could have been bought for £8m – well within our limits.
Where’s the ambition?
You remember when Japanese players were viewed with suspicion in the UK (2021). Then breakthrough proved they could cut it at the highest level, and suddenly scouts were flooding the J-League. Celtic were ahead of that curve with Kyogo, Hatate and Maeda, and we have reaped the rewards.
————-
naka didnt happen then ?
When a side is relegated you can often pick up their best players and so whilst S Korea have fallen below expectations it seems fair that the same rules apply. Maybe.
The issue is you need good operational people in place. We don’t have that Paul.
Our club is a lost ship at sea. As divided as ever and with no genuine awareness at board level.
I am at the point of switching off entirely until my return from holiday mid August. By then I genuinely doubt we will have signed more than 3 players.
Emphasis on the word “chance” in the “offer a chance of Champions League football”. The last time we got there without automatic qualification was in the 2017-18 season – almost a decade ago! We’ve failed to qualify 5 times since then, with our 3 appearances being due to automatic qualification!
Ki Sung-yueng –🇰🇷
Shin Yamada back at Lennoxtown 👍
cha
Erzi Kareeean fitbaw players – 2 furra pound, 2 furra POUNDAH!
We are not organised enough to get those types of players.
NO FOOTBAL DEPT, RECRUITMENT etc.
“Korea calls”
Don’t answer
In Inquiry into how a football team is run? There’s an idea….
The SPL opposition next season will be based on Paraguay, Ghana, etc who are like Livingston before wee Davie stopped parking the bus and got relegated for letting their guard doon.
Sweden last night were like Rodgers stupid ersed approach to the CL when he tried to get his Celtic team get his team to pass their way through PSG, Barcelona, Dortmund, and hundreds of his other horror shows which dim Timdom blamed on the board.
Maybe SK are oot coz they urny that good.
We should look into the French market. Get their 17th choice forward & he’ll be better than cheap punts from faraway places.
Or just get a manager (like Ange for example) who is aware of players which we can get relatively cheaply who serve us well then pretend it was down to club strategy.
TBH, just signing players would be nice.
Chairbhoy on 1st July 2026 5:19 am
“As my dad was wont to say; you can fool some of the people some of the time, most of the people most of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
That is the current Celtic support, the people that can no longer be fooled.”
^^
So what happens on season ticket renewal day?
Foolish hypocrites x 53,000 spoiled, spoon fed, don’t know that they are living at a time were Celtic FC have had zero opposition since 2012 when Rangers were punished and killed by the untouchable David Murray and his EBT criminality that his Celtic PLC brotherhood covered up.
Yes DM lost most of his companies whilst the cameras were rolling, but when they stopped rolling he got a lot of it back, probably all of it back under different names, and Celtic FC and its supporter base went along with Celtic PLC’s cringeingly sleekit, vomitingly duplicitous cheap trick of Sevco = Rangers corruption in 2016 after Sevco’s promotion, which not even wee integrity based lol Jeanette, or Phil the shill, or the many other Timmy virtue signalers have even mentioned in the 10 years since Sevco’s promotion????
No wonder they can’t see through the boakingly woke SNP/SinnFein pair of guffster cheeks.
Virtue signaling by looking under the bed for freemasons does not cut it anymore.
Especially when these ‘pure Tim’ hypocrites give tens of millions in season ticket monies to Celtic PLC Lodge/Lobby, and probably donate a wad-££££££££ to the Vatican Lodge/Lobby????!!!!
Celtic fans with zero integrity, ethics, honesty, straight talk, uppity Tim steel balls, will solve fk all.
Celtic fans who’s eyes are painted onto their dim faces know fk all about anything.
Not now, not any time soon.
Showing allegiance to the stupid cringe Tartan Army is what lost souls do.
Its all so unnecessary, all so sad.
laters…..mibbee….
On a serious note Paul, having read your leader, I took a quick look at the 26 man South Korea squad for the 2026 World Cup.
6 of 26 play in South Korea age ranges from 26 to 33.
Plus one each in China, Japan and Arabia.
The rest in Europe or the US.
Which players are we targeting here?
The ones that didn’t make it?
Assuming their (now sacked) manager is one of those low risk types who controversially left some promising young bucks at home?
Fine.
If they were #27 & #28 on the list?
Let’s go get them.
PS – given the number of Koreans playing in Europe?
… I think it is reasonable to assume that market was already subject to significant research.
I doubt the folders at every European club got tossed in the bin just because their national team was honkin’ this time around.
BRRB:
Almore.
6 days until we see the Celtic again. Have you alerted the publicans of Phibsborough/Drumcondra yet?😁
🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃
Of course I did. Breweries have been working overtime in anticipation of your visit. 🍀🍀
Now you must raise our child with Cha Du Ri 🎶
Misheard Lyrics CSC
CHAIRBHOY on 1ST JULY 2026 12:07 PM
You dont know how The Bunnet would see ownership of Celtic now, none of us does. Theres a lot of dewy eyed nostalgia about Fergus but the truth is he never had fans controlling the business as part of his plan. He bought the club, put a heavy weight board in place, which included DD but none of the people who helped him take control, and, as you’ll probably remember, pretty much ignored what the fans wanted when it came to making big decisions.
He handed over the club with a very established board in place – no fan on the board, no “fan” involved in other decision making processes. And DD one it already
DD already had de facto control of Celtic before the 2005 share issue. He appointed Martin, was considered to be behind the moves to get us into the EPL, needed convincing of the need to move to a more sustainable model after Seville.
As Brian Quinn told the world, Celtic needed to rebuild the balance sheet after running up the debt that he frequently referenced. Unless he was in on the blag or was duped there was a genuine need for the share issue that DD underwrote. We definitely wouldnt have raised the money we needed without him.
Koki Mizuno 🇯🇵
He lived the dream 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
Japan was a good marlet for us when we bought international / borderline international players like Daizen and Kyogo.
When we reached deeper, Inamura and Kobiyashi it was less successful.
As for Korea, Yang is a good club standard player as is Oh, albeit Oh’s 11 goals in 18 months at CP did little to convince.
Kwon is now on his 4th European club in 3 years.
Personally I would rather we invested in our own youth and other Scottish talent.
To do that we need to re-imagine our wage structure.
If we had offerred Gannon Doak, Borland or Hickey the same money we spent ( inc fees) on Kobiyashi, Oh, Bernabei etc., I am sure at least one would still be at CP.
Johnny Kenny will be like a new signing 🇮🇪
Celtic40me @ 1:28 pm,
In the ten years between 1996 and 2006 we changed the ownership model, built a huge stadium, won several domestic trophies and got to a European final and were building Lennoxtown.
Non too sloppy, Fergus also played the blues and won…
This was Brian Quinn’s take on the share issue…
“Responding to the preliminary financial results, Quinn said: “It was, on the whole, a good year for Celtic plc and for Celtic Football Club.
“Although our early departure from European competition and the Tennent’s Scottish Cup were disappointing, with substantial adverse effects on income, we fought back in a manner that is typical of this club and finished the year on a strongly positive note.
“We also strengthened our financial position and began the process of creating a modern purpose-built training facility at Lennoxtown.
“The football team is being rebuilt, as it has to if the successes of recent seasons are to be maintained.
“In the week-to-week excitement and uncertainty that characterise football, I believe it is crucial to have a clear idea of longer-term objectives and a sense of direction that goes beyond the febrile environment of the modern game.
“The successful £15m share issue in December 2005 rebuilt the balance sheet, reducing bank debt at year end from £19.3m to £9.1m and almost doubling net assets.
“We also increased investment in the acquisition of players from £2.3m to £8.8m.”
There was a CQN lead article at the time of the share issue – Paul67 wrote that the Celtic support must back and subscibe to the share issue, as DD was underwriting it and unless the issue was fully subscribed DD would increase his shareholding.
The issue was in fact oversubscribed by the Celtic support but DD still managed to increase his percentage shareholding.
Hail Hail
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/4798315.stm
Head scratcher of a Leader / Header…
Why don’t we just sign players that can play…
Who are 1st team ready and can walk into the team and “hopefully” make an impact…
Rather than “take a punt” and hopefully….maybe one of the many “development/punts” can be sold off as soon as…so the balance sheet looks tip top…
Lay off Hong Myung-bo!
At the 1994 world cup I had £10m to “spend” on players to form a team in one of these competitions – points for goalscorers, points for defenders who kept a clean sheet etc.
I had £300k left to fill my last position. I picked him for that price and he was my highest points earner of all.
I followed his career on and off after that right through to the 2002 World Cup where he was named in the 3 best players of the tournament.