We’ve all said – well a majority have said at least, that there is something unusual in the summer signing of South Korean forward Chu Young-Park, was it a marketing ploy just to sell shirts in the Far East , and why fails to actually get any games for us, well for a player who was signed for unsual reasons it seems we have got the raw end of the deal as it appears that after originally paying £3.5 million for an unused forward, we now are having to pay an extra £3 million on top as his military service in his native South Korea has been postponed by 10 years which would make him 37 when he goes for it, this is where the deal gets even stranger as it has emerged that his military service postponement came on August 29th just two days before signing with us.
The South Korean daily, The Choson Iibo reports that Park received the extension on this due to being granted a three year residence permit in Monaco due to having been at the French club for three years previous to signing with us, and he has now been accused by critics in Korea of dodging the mandatory national service because of his age when he finally gets to doing it which will mean that he only be taking part in public services rather than his full active service there.
Park’s lawyer Lee Sung-Hee, has thrown more confusion to the wind by stating:
“Additional negotiations about his transfer fee between Arsenal and AS Monaco only concluded recently, and AS Monaco asked us to make it public after the negotiations came to an end.”
So if that is true it would mean that despite joining in August – well at the end of August, he has only just concluded the the deal with signing for us seven months after joining us, which doesn’t make sense although it may explain that whilst poaching him from under Lille’s nose why arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been very reluctant to play him so far.
None of this makes sense at the moment, maybe one day the truth of why we signed him in a panic rush and then not playing him, something that already has hindered his international career as his captaincy of the national team ha been removed, and you have to wonder why negotiations have taken seven months to conclude?.
One thing is for sure there is certainly something very odd about this deal and has been from the start.
