One of the more intriguing signings in Tottenham Hotspur’s summer 2024 transfer window was the (future) acquisition of Yang Min-Hyeok, an 18 year old South Korean forward from Gangwon FC, widely considered to be one of the breakout stars in the next generation of Korean football. Spurs agreed to sign him for a Korean league record £3.3m in the upcoming January transfer window after he completed the K-League season, which will wrap up just after the international break
Gangwon finished third in the K-League this season, with Yang netting 12 goals and five assists in 37 appearances.
Now it appears that he’ll be reporting for duty in North London a bit earlier. Multiple outlets, including Football.London, are reporting that Tottenham want to bring Yang in to begin training with his future teammates next month in December ahead of his formal registration in January.
Yang reporting early unfortunately does not mean he can play for Spurs during the holiday fixture period. As stated before, he’s not registered and won’t be until the January transfer window opens. Instead, this is viewed as an opportunity for Yang to get his feet wet in English football and start to acclimate to life in London. Football.London claims that, whatever else was reported earlier, this was always the plan with Yang, and that he will be slowly brought into the first team as he gets used to a dramatic change of lifestyle and culture.
Fans, meanwhile, should take this as a sign that it’s unlikely Yang will make an immediate splash in the Premier League this spring. There’s always the CHANCE he could, but it’s much more likely that he’ll need time to get used to everything that’s going on around him. Heck, to me it seems likely that we won’t even see him on the bench for a while, and despite a ton of promise he’s still only 18, younger than Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall. He’s probably not going to be a panacea for Tottenham’s problems this season (though wouldn’t it be great if he was?).
Still, it’s pretty exciting. Tottenham have swung for the fences this summer by targeting and acquiring a lot of young talent, and Yang is expected to be part of the next generation of Tottenham stars. But even with Tottenham and Korea captain Son Heung-Min there to mentor him through the transition, it might be a while before that star starts to rise, if it ever does.