Football fans are funny. A player almost becomes "rated" because he hasn't played and both our managers don't think he's good enough and there isn't a long queue of clubs trying to sign him. Another player, who both our managers were/are happy to select, who has played often for the club and who other teams would be interested in buying... is mostly labelled as "useless" Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you, Tadanari Lee & Danny Fox.
Good post. Delivered in your cynical style but very true. Always sad to see a player touted as promising leave without ever getting going but best for all concerned. And wasn't one of the things mentioned when we signed him that he was on very high wages?
Things just didn't work out...he probably tried his best and did make some contribution. Like others, he would have had more opportunities if we hadn't got promoted. Good luck, Chung.
I wouldn't say "very high," necessarily. I think he was on something like 25k a week. I guess we signed him on a free so the wages were going to be higher. And he was signed to be a striker on (at the time) what was supposed to be a lower level Premier League club so that price wasn't exactly scandalous. Obviously if he's not playing it becomes a waste. But his wages were probably a major reason we couldn't move him. He only has six months left to go so we most likely just paid him what he was owed over the remainder of the contract and let him go. Even if he agreed to eat some of it (which there's really no reason why he would) we wouldn't be saving much at this point anyway. But obviously too high for a guy who never plays.
Just looked up the Cup game from last year against Stevenage. 4-1 Saints-- Lee, Sharp, Puncheon, Reeves.
Think it was one of those speculative signings that could have payed off, looked a half decent player in the Championship? It can't be easy coming from the Far East to start a new life, plus the injuries didn't help. Hope he does well at his new club.
But......but.....but.....Cortese is evil and will hold people here against their will, never letting them leave until he gets double their real value......determined to let them rot and ruining their careers.....or something. Again. Can we stop that one now too?
Guessing he'll follow the footsteps of De Ridder and find a new club almost immediately. Not a bad player, but we outgrew him.
Has the attaract asian fans with an asian footballer premise ever worked for anyone? Hidetoshi Nakata maybe for the shirt sales.
Indeed. Of course he was good at football. People can be very cruel, and I am continually surprised by how dismissive some posters are on here. At no point did Lee do anything wrong apart from become injured, which wasn't his fault, or be increasingly surrounded by players who were preferred over him. It doesn't make him a bad footballer. I have a few good memories of Lee being effective for Saints in the Championship. Time to move on now though and to let him get on with his career.
It does work. But only if the footballer plays and is good. And Asians won't simply watch a footballer because he's Asian anymore than a French person would watch a German footballer because he's European. So it is a rather poor premise overall. But I also feel like it's more a premise put forth by stupid supporters than something most clubs actually act upon. I think we signed Lee because we thought he'd be a useful player.
wasn't suggesting anyone thought a japanese footballer would attract chinese fans etc, just meaning to include all nations within the continent as similar opportunities. apparently Park made megabux for united and was more popular than the korean president (ok i don't know if politicians there are as popular as over here) it was nice to see tadanari's goal celebration at least once anyway.
Funny, he's getting a better review than Ramirez. Makes me want to give up, really it does. Spot on post by CBK.
