‘You are bound to end up in a clumsy situation’ Manager warns Ho Yeon over Celtic move

There is continuing speculation that Jung Ho Yeon is about to join Celtic from South Korean side Gwangyu.

The 23-year-old doesn’t appear to be close to the first team ready criteria that Brendan Rodgers has been setting out for January arrivals but that hasn’t put off discussions about the midfielder joining Celtic.

During the course of 2023 Celtic have signed Oh Hyeon-gyu, Yang Hyun-jun and Kwon Hyeok Kyu from South Korean clubs with none of them establishing themselves in a Celtic side struggling for form. Kwon has yet to play a minute of first team football.

In midfield Callum McGregor and Matt O’Riley are fixtures in the team with Reo Hatate likely to join them in that bracket when he recovers from injury.

During 2023 Tomoki Iwata, Odin Thiago Holm and Kwon were signed for that third place, concerned by those options Paulo Bernardo was signed on loan from Benfica in the final week of the transfer window.

Despite the failure of any Korean’s to make the required impact is seems that Celtic are preparing another ‘raid’ with Glasgow World reporting:

And the Parkhead side are claimed to have been keeping tabs on Ho-Yeon after Gwangju boss Jung-Hyo was quizzed about their interest, having previously stated he wasn’t good enough to play for Celtic.

Speaking to local outlet Donga, he said: “Jung Ho-Yeon is currently in talks to advance to Europe from Gwangju, but still have a long way to go. If you go to Europe now, you are bound to end up in a clumsy situation. It is wise to prepare well like Cho Gue-Sung (signed for FC Midtjylland last summer) and choose the team and league well.”

The player insists he is edging towards a move and even namechecked Celtic as he detailed the number of teams scouting him in his homeland. He told Chosun: “A move into Europe is slowly getting closer. During the last season, scouts from some European clubs, including Celtic, came to see me play in person.”

He continued: “If I could choose a league, I want to play in the Spanish LaLiga. From an early age, I loved FC Barcelona’s style of football.”

Cho was strongly linked with Celtic after the 2022 World Cup Finals in Qatar but decided that it was wiser to stay on in Korea until the summer when he moved to Midtjylland, a club to give him a base before earning a move to one of the top European leagues.

With seven summer signings in the project category Rodgers has been calling out for quality, at the end of October he told The Scotsman:

I’ve done business in January before that has been really, really good. It is just the availability really. There is a market out there to bring in good players but it’s just getting the right ones. Listen, we have enough – what I would say – development players. I think it is clear. And I love that, what I have done all my life is work with those. But you certainly need ones that can come in of genuine quality and we hope we can bring them in across the coming windows.

It is quite a stretch to see how Jung Ho Yeon matches that criteria.