Arsenal signed Park Chu-Young from Monaco, but have refused to give him a chance.
Over the next week or so we will be running a series of articles on the best and worst buys of the season.
One player who cannot qualify for either, because he has not been given a chance is Park Chu-Young.
Many would say he’d qualify for being one of the worst buys of the season, but that’s hardly fair given his lack of opportunities.
Why has he not been given a chance and will he remain at the club next season?
Part of the reason he has not been given the opportunities he would like is due to the outstanding form of Dutchman Robin van Persie.
The league’s top scorer has been not only prolific, but incredibly consistent, and manager Arsene Wenger has dared not rotate him or bench him, possibly out of fear of losing him in the summer, and partly because Arsenal started the season slowly and could not afford to lose any more ground on their rivals.
Now with Arsenal locked into a serious end of season battle for supremacy with rivals Tottenham, it is very unlikely Park will be given any more chances to impress.
He is behind Marouane Chamakh in the pecking order, and Wenger would also probably rather play Theo Walcott or Gervinho up top rather than the South Korean.
So why sign him?
The transfer was really a bit of a panic signing, Park was snapped up in Wenger’s deadline day splurge following their 8-2 defeat to Manchester United.
£1.2 million may be a lot of money to your or I, but in football terms, it represent very little risk for an international striker, especially if it did not work out, which it hasn’t.
Park’s only appearances in 2012 have come as a substitute, against Manchester United and AC Milan, when he was thrown on out of pure desperation.
He has scored one goal in his limited appearances, in a 2-1 Carling Cup win over Bolton last Autumn. He will no doubt be off at the end of the season, as there is huge pressure in his native South Korea for him to get playing again.
Chelsea paid £18 million for Romelu Lukaku, only not to play him either, but at 18 he is eight years younger than Park and is one for the future.
With Lukas Podolski set to arrive at Arsenal in the summer, the smart money would be on Park’s time at the Emirates being up before he has even got started, which is a shame all round. It’s not that he’s been rubbish, simply that he hasn’t been given a proper opportunity.
Fans may say, ‘if he had shown enough in training he’d be in the side’, which is true, but his appearances have been so limited it feels like he has not had a fair chance, and his signing seems like it is the most pointless of the whole Premier League season.
Will Park be at Arsenal next season? Can you name a more pointless transfer this season?
image: © wonker
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