Pompey are closing in on the signing of Tottenham Hotspur winger Yang Min-hyeok.
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Former QPR boss Marti Cifuentes has given a glowing reference over winger Yang Min-hyeok as he closes in on a move to Pompey.
The Blues are closing in on a move for the talented 19-year-old from Tottenham Hotspur, as first reported by The News on Tuesday.
The South Korean is on John Mousinho’s radar, who is looking to bolster his options out wide following the arrival of Florian Bianchini last week.
Reports elsewhere have claimed a move for Min-hyeok are progressing, with Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke suggesting a Fratton Park medical has been booked.
That’s ahead of a loan move from north London, with Thomas Frank giving the green light for a number of Spurs youngsters to depart on a temporary basis this summer.
The young forward spent the second half of last season with QPR, where he netted two goals and provided one assist in 14 outings.
Indeed, it proved a hugely successful loan at Loftus Road, with Min-hyeok becoming hugely popular with fans and boss Cifuentes.
The head coach, who departed the Hoops in April, highlighted the winger’s appearance from the bench against the Blues in a 2-1 defeat as a standout performance as he continued to adjust to life in the Championship.
Speaking to Toby Bryant from our sister paper, London World, in March, Cifuentes said: ‘He’s progressing, doing well. The last two games at home especially, he did well. The impact from the bench against Portsmouth was very positive.
‘He’s growing, learning our way of playing and the pace of the game. He’s doing good things and is still a young lad that needs to keep learning and improving some areas.
‘His attitude is top. He is dangerous and has the pace to go forward, get in behind and go one vs one.’
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Yang-min-hyeok’s career to date
After coming through the ranks with K-League outfit Gangwon, Min-hyeok registered his first-team debut aged 17.
He went on to net 12 goals and register six assists in 38 appearances in the South Korean top flight during the 2024 campaign before sealing a move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on January 1.
The one-cap South Korea international was shipped straight out to QPR during the transfer window, where he amassed 14 outings as the Hoops finished 17th in the Championship.
Pompey have already added five new faces to the squad ahead of the upcoming campaign, which gets underway on Saturday with a trip to Oxford United.
John Mousinho on new Pompey loans
With Mim-hyeok expected to become the Blues’ second loan arrival of the summer, Mousinho has revealed his side have been working on further additions who will come in on temporary deals.
He told The News: ‘I don’t know if we will fill all five slots (in terms of loans), we’ll probably keep a little bit back for January.
‘But over the past week we’ve seen clubs come back off tours and Monday night Liverpool played a double header at Anfield, so clearly they kept their players back for that. That’s just an example, but they kept their best young players back to play in those two games.
‘Arsenal have done that for when they have two games in two days coming up and Premier League sides quite rightly keep hold of their players until later on.
‘We are looking to the loans market and there’s a couple now potentially available to us we’ve been working on this week.
‘Most of the clubs just let you know pretty quickly when they are ready to release the players. They let the agents know and put the circulars out and people start to move.
‘Spurs are one club who this week let Jamie Donley go to Stoke, (Will) Lankshear to Oxford and George Abbott to Wycombe. So that’s what tends to happen, when last week there was none available.’