“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone/prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.” So begins W. H. Auden’s “Funeral Blues,” later immortalized in the funeral scene from ‘90s Brit flick classic “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Auden is of course mourning a dead lover as he goes on to say “I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.”
Jeju United are of course only in mourning for a love affair that has just ended, a love affair with their best player, Koo Ja Cheol. Nor did we believe that this tryst was eternal, we knew it would be over soon. It was just how, when, who and for how much that needed to be decided. These things we now know. Koo joined VFL Wolfsburg on Jan. 31, the last day of the European transfer window, for a fee of around 2 million euros.
Yes, he was always going to leave. Koo is at this moment arguably the best young footballer in Asia, having just finished the Asian Cup as top scorer with 5 goals playing “in the hole” just behind the main striker. Considering this achievement, 2 million euros seems a relatively small fee to pay for a young player with (hopefully) all of his best years ahead of him. If Koo were from a big European or South American nation the fee would surely have been higher.
The rumors were that several clubs, including another Bundesliga side Stuggart and Premier League side Liverpool, were in pursuit of Jeju’s prize asset. There’s a tendency in Korea to see the English Premier League as the Holy Grail and assume by extension that Liverpool would have been the preferred move.
This however may be a little shortsighted. Wolfsburg, who won the Championship 2 years ago, currently sit in 12th place in the league and have lost several of the players from the championship winning team, notably striker Edwin Dzeko, who left for Manchester City in the January transfer window of the English Premier League.
Wolfsburg are therefore currently in a state of transition which, coupled with manager Steve McClaren’s track record of trusting young players (both at the Dutch team FC Twente and Middlesborough), means that Koo should have lots of first team opportunities which he may not have had at a more established club like Liverpool.
Koo is taking a similar route into European football as compatriot Park Ji Sung did 8 years ago when he moved to PSV Eindhoven. Again, this was a team where he was afforded a lot of playing time. Perhaps Koo can emulate Park and move up to the European big time in two to three years once he has established himself at a more mid-level club.
Auden ends his famous eulogy with the words “nothing can now come to any good.” Jeju fans need not feel this amount of despair. Koo Ja Cheol was the brightest star in Jeju’s best ever team, the majority of whom remain, and hopefully both can prosper even though this short, passionate, beautiful love affair has now run its course. <Jeju Weekly>
<Matt Harris contributor@jejuweekly.com ⓒ Jeju Weekly All rights reserved>
