Simply put, Ki Sung Yueng is easily the best passer of a ball at Celtic Football Club today, nay, in Scotland. He's also one of the best strikers of a ball from distance in the Scottish game. But that wasn't always the case...
It was on a dreary Australian August morning in 2009 that I awoke to the news that Celtic had signed another player whom I'd known nothing about but had the dubious title of "The Korean Gerrard".
Due to FC Seoul's Asian Champions League campaign that year, the transfer was delayed for a full six months. And so, on the very first day of the transfer window 2010, Celtic heralded Ki Sung Yueng the current Asian Young Player of the Year at the time as a January transfer despite having paid 2.1 million pounds for him six months earlier. Some cynics, me included, saw this as nothing more than a shirt selling exercise perpetrated by a CEO with an eye more on Marketing and the balance sheet rather than the Footballing exploits of Celtic.
Ki came in to the Celtic side and looked to have a good first touch, looked capable of spraying some nice passes around but the general consensus was that he hadn't quite cut the mustard under Tony Mowbray, whose tenure as manager during the 2010 season was slowly but surely becoming a calamitous disaster. Due to Mogga's bumbling selection choices and inane tactical changes during games (six strikers on the field at once?), Ki found himself restricted to a meagre 10 appearances in his debut season and sure enough the grumbling about this prodigious talent began to eke from the stands like the stench of a bad fart.
The main gripe I read about Davey Ki at the time was that he was too lightweight, despite showing flashes of some true class, the usual "Whit's he gonnae be like oan a cauld Wednesday night in Kilmarnock?" banter had been flying around among the less erudite of our support.
Some felt that the honest, hardworking yet ultimately limited Barry Robson was a more preferable option in midfield than the elegant young midfielder. Those same supporters seemed to forget that this was a young man, 20 years old at the time, arriving in a new country, adapting to a new culture. Sure, he had previously lived in Australia when he had studied at John Paul College in Brisbane, the place from which his nickname "Davey" sprang. Nevertheless, as any five year old will tell you, Glasgow is not the sunny Land of Oz. In many ways Ki's arrival and subsequent struggle to affirm his place in the first 11 was reminiscent of Stiliyan Petrov's first season under John Barnes. Petrov's first season saw him played out of position, learning a new language and adapting to the rigours of playing for a club as famous and demanding as Glasgow Celtic.
Like Petrov, Ki was a stranger in a strange land; but also like Petrov, Ki's career and form were about to sky-rocket.
A solid showing at the World Cup for the Korean National side (including a very impressive game against highly seeded Argentina) led to Ki being included in the Team of the Tournament and receiving a 68/80 points rating from Sky Sports. Ki tallied two assists, one in each game against Greece and Nigeria.
A new club season blossomed; a new manager took charge and turned the team's fortunes around in such dramatic fashion as to burn itself on our collective consciousness forever. Not only did he galvanise the support but the players too. Almost every player left over from quite a dramatic cull re-emerged fired up, motivated, hungry. None more so than Ki Sung Yueng.
Almost in retort to his critics Ki has added a very strong physical element to his play, which helped bolster his already prodigious vision, passing and long range shooting, aptly displayed when he rattled home the opener in the Scottish Cup final a few weeks ago. Crunching tackles on opposition players have dispelled the myth that he was far too lightweight to play in the SPL, as Steven Davis and Kyle Lafferty amongst others will attest to given the...ahem...robust challenges Ki put in on both of them this season.
A small dip in form dogged Davey this season, after another solid showing at international level (where Ki found himself at the centre of a political and footballing "Racist" storm after he allegedly made a monkey face when celebrating a goal scored against Korea's oldest enemy Japan), he returned to find the Celtic team a very different place from the one he left behind.
The industrious Beram Kayal had made a long awaited return from injury and had stamped his authority over every single pitch in Scotland. Kayal's growing partnership with the subtle yet sublime Joe Ledley and the rise in form of previous fan whipping boy Scott Brown led to Ki being relegated to the substitute's bench. However Ki took it in his stride, (surely a mark of his growing maturity) and fought his way back into contention for a midfield berth eventually going on to make 24 appearances for the first team and scoring 4 goals in the league to boot.
Having the luxury of playing alongside arguably the most talented midfielders the club has had in quite some time, Ki has flourished. Motivated in no small part by a strong and enthusiastic coaching staff, by the stiff competition for midfield spots and by the great form shown by his peers, Ki has improved immeasurably. Protected by the almost ever present Kayal, Ki has had the space and time to pick a pass. He has developed the knack of shifting the entire flow of a game from one side of the pitch to the other. Ki likes to drop deep, take the ball from the defence and bring it out, quite often threading a pass through the gaps in midfield or spraying a long precision pass out wide.
If Ki Sung Yueng can keep up his development I really feel we will have a world class midfielder on our books. The opportunity to play on the European scene next season will surely allow Ki to stretch his footballing ability even further; the European game should suit him much better. Just as Ki looks comfortable and relaxed at National level, the European stage should afford the kind of footballing environment that promotes gifted passers of the ball like Davey Ki.
I rate Ki very highly, and was quite suprised when i heard grumblings this season about him not being good enough as he is a master passer and technically one of the best at the club
I thought I was among the 5 of our support who liked Ki. It seems that I was wrong and there are actually more than 5 of us.
For what it is worth IMO our best middle would consist of a 3 for me. Kayal, Ki & Ledley. With 2 full backs pushing on to give width. This would allow for an attacking 3 going forward, though a bit cavalier, but for 80% of SPL games we could get away with that. We could then employ Commons in a free role?? Hooper and a new striker for me.
No Scott Brown? Well, last year of his contract is it not? Let's look to see if we can redistribute his wages on a top class striker to compliment Gary Hooper.
Agree that technically he is one of our better players, but for me , he is just like Donati. He will have the odd great game , but away from home on tight parks he will be a passenger.Right now if you were to ask me - sell Ki and sign Eremenko ?? I would say .....go for it. Eremenko has a lot more craft and guile to his game.
I will be the first to admit KI was easily MOTM in the Cup Final, but I think that had a lot to do with the space of the park. If we are struggling on a tight pitch away from home next season, I cannot see him making much difference if he came on.
Good, technically gifted footballer, but doesn't have the drive or guile to be in the first team. I would be willing to see how he develops as he is still young, but as I said before if we could get Eremenko in on the provision that Ki was sold, I would do it.
I think Ki has potential to be a really important player for us, and I think he had some terrific performances this season. I would like to see him add a little dynamism to his game though, to burst forward and to move the ball forward quicker on occasion. As you say, he's a superb passer, but I can remember few times where he attepted a defence splitting pass, and we have the strikers for it.
He was superb in most games that he played against Rangers this season, but in the 2-2 Scottish Cup game at Ibrox, he was nothing short of immense. It was as much of a masterclass in possession football as you'll ever see in the Scottish game, with Brown, Kayal, but mainly yer man Davey making the Rangers players look invisible. The games where teams aren't breathing down our necks, ie. against Rangers, where they sit off and defend, suit Ki, because he doesn't give the ball away, he is composed, he draws players towards him and finds a man in space. He can only improve, he's in his early 20s. I think we've got a really exciting young player here.
Comments
For what it is worth IMO our best middle would consist of a 3 for me. Kayal, Ki & Ledley. With 2 full backs pushing on to give width. This would allow for an attacking 3 going forward, though a bit cavalier, but for 80% of SPL games we could get away with that.
We could then employ Commons in a free role?? Hooper and a new striker for me.
No Scott Brown? Well, last year of his contract is it not? Let's look to see if we can redistribute his wages on a top class striker to compliment Gary Hooper.
I will be the first to admit KI was easily MOTM in the Cup Final, but I think that had a lot to do with the space of the park. If we are struggling on a tight pitch away from home next season, I cannot see him making much difference if he came on.
Good, technically gifted footballer, but doesn't have the drive or guile to be in the first team. I would be willing to see how he develops as he is still young, but as I said before if we could get Eremenko in on the provision that Ki was sold, I would do it.
I think Ki has potential to be a really important player for us, and I think he had some terrific performances this season. I would like to see him add a little dynamism to his game though, to burst forward and to move the ball forward quicker on occasion. As you say, he's a superb passer, but I can remember few times where he attepted a defence splitting pass, and we have the strikers for it.
He was superb in most games that he played against Rangers this season, but in the 2-2 Scottish Cup game at Ibrox, he was nothing short of immense. It was as much of a masterclass in possession football as you'll ever see in the Scottish game, with Brown, Kayal, but mainly yer man Davey making the Rangers players look invisible. The games where teams aren't breathing down our necks, ie. against Rangers, where they sit off and defend, suit Ki, because he doesn't give the ball away, he is composed, he draws players towards him and finds a man in space. He can only improve, he's in his early 20s. I think we've got a really exciting young player here.
Hail Hail!
RSS feed for comments to this post.