Park Chu Young, Arsenal's Biggest Flop?

 By Matthew

25 December 2020 • 1.08GMT

What if the Lille officials got to the hotel room just before the phone call? Or what if the second part of the medicals weren't needed to finalise the transfer deal? Probably, the nadir of his career wouldn't have started at that time.    

Relegated Monaco had to sell some of their fine players in order to cope with the financial implications the club would face. It turned out to be that Park Chu Young was one of their finest players. Lille were interested in signing him and having agreed a fee of £2.7 million euros with Monaco, they were pretty sure Park was a new player of theirs. Everything went smoothly and Park had completed the first part of his medicals - medicals are a essential part of transfers, if a player fails his medicals, the transfer would breakdown.

He was waiting in his hotel room, Lille officials were on their way, they had a second part of the medicals to finish. Then Park's phone rang while he was waiting, who was on the line? Well, it wasn't his girlfriend wanting to congratulate him on his potential move to Lille, it was Arsene Wenger, yes Wenger, the manager of Arsenal as at that time. Why would Wenger give him a call? He wanted Park to sign for Arsenal. I can imagine Park wondering if he was in a dream or something. He walked out of his hotel room and headed to the Eurostar Terminal. Of course, he was going to the Emirates, London. Lille officials got to his hotel room, but Park was gone. Somehow they tracked him down and found him at the terminal where Park told them he was going to London to sign for Arsenal.

As a 26 year old South Korean, Park had to return to his country for millitary service before the end of 2013 - every able-bodied Korean man must undergo two years in the country's armed services before the age of 28. So Park had to deliver for Arsenal as quickly as he could.

When Park finally arrived at the North London club just before the close of the transfer window in 2011, he was given the legendary No 9 shirt. In a league cup game against Bolton Wanderers, Park scored the winner for Arsenal. But later on, Park would reveal himself as one of Arsenal's biggest ever flops. November 2011, a Champions League match against Marseille was Park's Champions League debut in which he was replaced after 60 minutes due to him being very terrible, his pace was nothing close to a manageable one, it was terribly bad." He did very well last week. Tonight you could see that he lacked the pace of the game a little bit because he has not played enough games" - words of Arsene Wenger on Park after the match. Due to his poor form, he played only six times in the 2011/12 season, one of those were in the Premier League and that single Premier League appearance would go on to be the only English League appearance in his career.

In January 2012, Arsenal re-signed Theirry Henry - a club legend. Phenomenal winger, Robin Van Persie was converted to a striker - Park's original position - and Lukas Podolski was already on his way to Arsenal. Podolski arrived in the summer of that year and the No 9 shirt that Park wore was given to Podolski. Park's new shirt number was 30. With all these, there was no way Park would play since his position was already occupied by better players - based on statistics. What next for Park? He was loaned out to Celta Vigo where he scored four times in 26 outings.

The loan spell at Celta ended and Park was back at Arsenal for the 2013/14 season. October 2013, Arsenal faced Chelsea in the League Cup and of course, Park didn't make the starting XI but luckily he made it to the bench. 81 minutes gone already, Park was subbed on in the game they went on to lose 2-0 and those few minutes he played were the only first team action he was part of for the whole season. His Arsenal career was over and he never played for the Reds again. 

Arsenal released him at the end of the season and he signed up as a free agent for Al-Shabab, a Saudi Arabian club. Presently, he is 35 and plays for FC Seoul in South Korea, his country.

I wonder what part of all these he regrets the most, the part that he signed for Arsenal or the part that he delayed his millitary service for 10 years by obtaining a 10 year Monaco residency visa just to play for a club that he wouldn't make anything out of, well except for the fact that he got richer even though he didn't play, I mean he was on more than £40,000 euros a week. Park's Arsenal career wasn't just a walk in the park afterall.