A recent report in Spanish rumor-rag Fichajes suggested that Tottenham Hotspur’s 19-year-old on-loan winger Yang Min-Hyeok was a potential January transfer target for Real Madrid. That’s almost certainly full of crap and not what this article is about. However, there is another transfer rumor about Min-Heyok over the past couple of days that did pique my interest, and that’s what I’ll focus on here. According to Korea-centric football blog Football-Asian, the possibility exists that Min-Hyeok could be recalled from his loan at Championship side Portsmouth in January and loaned out again for the spring at a different club, either a higher-caliber Championship team, or possibly another club in Germany or France.
Min-Hyeok’s loan career has been a bit of a slow burner. It took a while for him to get established at Portsmouth, currently 21st out of 24 teams in the Championship table, and there were concerns earlier in the season that he wasn’t getting enough minutes. (concerns that may have been due to a minor injury he had been carrying at the time). But from what I’ve seen, Min-Hyeok has turned into something of a fan favorite at Pompey.
His stats don’t pop off the page — 2G+1A in 639 minutes in all competitions — but that likely has as much to do with the way Portsmouth play ball. They promoted up from League 1 last season and while manager John Mousinho is apparently trying to convert them to a possession side it’s not clicking yet and indications are Portsmouth are gearing up for a defensive just-survive-relegation campaign that doesn’t especially suit Min-Hyeok’s skillset.
Football-Asian posits Spurs could trigger an early termination clause in Yang’s contract and then find another loan club for him that more suits what they hope to develop in his game, emphasizing his direct nature, speed, and ability on the ball. There are probably several potential options in the Championship (though the report doesn’t name them), and there’s also supposed interest from clubs in Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga; Football-Asian also talks about a “contingency option” where Min-Hyeok could stick around Spurs in the event of injuries.
The Real Madrid links are almost certainly garbage, but there’s something to be said about a young Korean teenage attacker getting linked to the big clubs in Spain, even in the rags, that suggests there’s something there to be excited about. He’s not going to Madrid, but the mere fact that he’s being mentioned in that context suggests there’s something to be excited about.
Football-Asian doesn’t get everything right, but they were frequently close to news stories about Son Heung-Min when he was at Tottenham, so this is probably something to keep an eye on. If it’s accurate I suspect we’ll get some corroboration before too long in a couple of the English newspapers. Frankly, I’d be interested to see if there’s a club in Germany willing to take him on loan for half a season. It’s certainly done wonders for Luka Vuskovic, and playing top flight football would be a good step up for him. Before we hitch our wagons to the Yang Min-Hyeok hype train, let’s see what happens here in the second half of the season.