Yang Hyun-jun’s South Korean U23 manager, Hwang Seon-hong, has claimed that Celtic are one of a number of clubs who reneged on their promise to release their players for international duty recently. The Korea Republic winger was wanted by his international boss for the Olympic games squad which they have no exited early.
Hwang has berated the decision of the club not to release the player for these games, however, the fixtures are not a recognised part of the FIFA calendar and Celtic were under no obligation to release the winger for these matches. Brendan Rodgers was clear that the Hoops needed their team intact for the last push of this year’s Scottish Premiership title race and Yang was indeed retained.
The U23s interim head coach is clearly perturbed his team could not overome Indonesia in the Asian Cup quarter-finals and is retrospectively apportoining blame to those who played no part in his team’s demise. He said of the issue: “Firstly, I am the coach and I take full responsibility. However, there were circumstances beyond our control such as the failure of some European clubs to release players.
“I personally visited Celtic, Brentford and Stoke City and I was promised the participation of Yang Hyun-jun, Kim Ji-soo and Bae Jun-ho,” via Daily Record. “But when the tournament came, the clubs all refused to release their players because all were at a crucial stage at the end of their season. What could I do? I visited all of them. But yes, there was a lack of preparation for Plan B and Plan C in case the European players failed to join up.”
Paul Gillespie
