Postecoglou predicts big things for Korean wunderkind Yang Min-hyuk

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PAIK JI-HWAN

Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou said Wednesday that he hopes new signee Yang Min-hyuk will “grow with the team and break through,” adding that the young player is likely to see his opportunities in the ongoing 2024-25 season.

Speaking at a press conference at Hotspur Way in London on Wednesday, Postecoglou spoke about the team’s two 18-year-old players, Archie Gray and Yang.

“What you want is hopefully those 18-year-olds, not all of them but you want the majority of them to start growing with the team and breaking through, so there is a longer term view which has to be taken from a team and squad perspective,” Postecoglou said. “We have gone heavy on the younger ages but that is a deliberate process because we're at the start of a cycle. If you're closer to where you want to be and two or three years into it, you're less likely to because then you are denying them opportunities. What we're hoping is, we're bringing them in but they'll still get opportunities at this point of where we're at.

“Again, the flip side of that is with Yang, 18-year-old coming from a totally different part of the world, different league and it's a massive step then say Archie doing it from Championship to Premier League, so we have to be mindful of what impact we expect from someone like that.”

Yang signed with Spurs in July, becoming the youngest Korean player to join a Premier League team at 18 years and 103 days old.

He is yet to start training with the club, Postecoglou said, but is expected to join soon.

"No, he hasn't arrived yet, Postecoglou said. "He'll have some time off. Their league finishes and I haven't spoken to the guys lately but I know he is keen to get over here and we'll get him over here. I remember with Celtic, we signed a couple of lads from Japan and Korea and middle to late December they joined us and it was good leading into January for those guys."

Postecoglou signed Korean midfielder Oh Hyeon-gyu to Celtic in January 2023. Postecoglou left the Scottish club the following summer, while Oh moved to Genk earlier this year.

Yang — whose name is often also spelt Min-hyeok, the same word in Korean but with different romanization — joins Spurs on the back of an impressive run with Gangwon in the 2024 season during which he racked up 12 goals and six assists in 38 league fixtures.

The 2024 season was his first season as a pro player, as Gangwon had him signed to a semi-pro contract at the start of the season, but signed him a professional deal in June.

Yang has never played overseas before, but still faced Tottenham as an opponent during a Coupang Play Series — an exhibition game series by Korean e-commerce company Coupang — between Team K League and Spurs in July, as he made it onto Team K League, the squad consisting of K League players picked by fans and coaches.

The 18-year-old winger will be joining countryman Son Heung-min at Spurs, who sit in eighth place on the 20-team Premier League table as of Thursday.

Before leaving Korea, Yang was supposed to cap off his Gangwon career with a farewell ceremony in Chuncheon — coincidentally Son's hometown — in Gangwon on Thursday. The event and a street parade for the team were both canceled after President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly placed Korea under martial law earlier in the week.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]