As written by Matty this morning, news broke today that Tottenham Hotspur and QPR were working on a deal that would send young Korean winger Yang Min-hyeok from Spurs to Rangers on loan to the end of the season. Just a bit ago, Tottenham confirmed the move on social media.
I know Spurs are deeply wounded and currently have 12 players out injured, but this really does feel like the right move for Yang at this time. Consider: he’s only been here a couple of months after moving from Korea, and to be honest the level of the K-League is probably on the whole close to League One in England. Expecting him to come as a promising talent in Korea and make an impact at the Premier League level is extremely optimistic. Yang has made the bench for a few matches recently, but Ange has seemingly shown no inclination to give him his club debut, and there’s probably a good reason for that.
QPR are a mid-table Championship club — not in relegation danger but also well down the table despite being four points out of a playoff spot. It feels like sending Yang to West London to get used to English first team football is a good intermediate step, prior to possibly working him into a reserve spot on the team either next season or the season after. And either way, a Championship loan for an 18-year old player is a strong indicator of Yang’s promise of future development.
Postecoglou seems to agree. In Wednesday’s press conference ahead of the Europa League group stage match against Elfsborg, Big Ange said that the club are viewing Yang as a “long term investment”.
“Just to give him a chance to settle in to a new culture, a new environment, new league, new country. He’s very young and we feel he needs to be allowed to settle. And with our current situation, the last thing I want to do is throw in another young player. We’ve got enough that we’re exposing, they’re doing awfully well. He’s obviously a long-term investment for the football club and we’ve got to do the right thing by him.”
So I’m okay with this. The club appears to be taking the long view on player development for someone like Yang, and that’s the smart choice rather than denting his confidence by allowing him to make possibly high profile mistakes in critical games for Spurs this season.