Do we need a player from the far east?

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Just read on BBC about the exposure the signing of ki has bought Swansea, and with qpr having park, maybe we should get involved? We could go for that guy at Bolton, or park chu young like previously linked or even get someone in from the j or k leagues as a gamble?

[djc 0]

We should sign players who will strengthen the team/squad, and not just to raise interest from the far east by having a bit-part bench warmer (my opinion based only on previous players in premier league, ie Park when at Man Utd, the bloke at Arsenal...)

[mre2 1]

No, for me if its not for footballing reasons. It may get some foreign fans, but once the player leaves they will likely loose interest and go back to following Man Utd or whoever. I doubt it would have a big financial benefit.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,568]

Oh this is just my topic - I''m currently putting together some research about whether having a player from ''the far east'' does generated any revenue for clubs.Basically it seems it doesn''t - it will increase the profile of a club, but turning that into cash is pretty much impossible. Firstly you need to get the idea of ''the far east'' out of your head - signing a Korean player will raise the profile in Korea, no where else - Korean fans care not about about Japanese players and vice versa. So if for example Norwich signed a Japanese player, it would depend of the player if this has any affect in Japan (there are Japanese players playing for clubs in Croatia and Hungry but no one in Japan really knows or cares about this). The fact Norwich are in the Premier League would obviously make a difference - Southampton for example have 2 Japanese players and their game against Man U was on Japanese TV (although a couple of days after it was actually played). Southampton is a good example to look at, they have two Japanese lads currently in Tadanari Lee and Maya Yoshida - but there really isn''t that much interest in the club in Japan because everyone either supports their local J-League team or one of the big clubs like Man U, Arsenal, Barca or Real Madrid. Bolton had Japan captain and legend Hidetoshi Nakata (the Beckham of Japan) but you will never find a Bolton fan in Japan, Celtic had Shunsuke Nakamura for a couple of years, but I have never seen a Celtic kit for sale in Japan. Fans in the ''far east'' aren''t stupid, they won''t just mindlessly support a club just because they have a player from their country - there are enough Korean or Japanese players now playing around to world to have worn this novelty off and countries such as China haven''t really gained that much interest in football to be able to cash in (as even Man U found when they signed Dong). A smaller team like Norwich will never be able to compete with the appeal and marketing power of the big clubs I mentioned earlier - and they are the only ones who really profit from the ''far east''. QPR tried with a tour in the summer and the signing of Park Ji-Sung but I imagine if you asked your average Korean, or even a Korean fan of football who QPR were, they would struggle to answer.

[Mahogany 0]

While I don''t think signing a player from Asia just for the sake of getting a few international fans is a good idea, Park was far more than a bench warmer for Man Utd. He was pretty great for a number of years. There''s plenty of talent in Korea, Japan etc, just look at how well they did in the World Cup.

Keisuke Honda for example would be a great signing for any Premiership team, unfortunately he''s well out of our price range.

[Zak Van Burger 0]

[quote user="djc"]We should sign players who will strengthen the team/squad, and not just to raise interest from the far east by having a bit-part bench warmer [/quote]This.I hope our club never signs a player for any other criteria than ability, the cynical exploitation by the marketing men of signing a player solely due to their ethnicity  is no less racist (IMO obviously) than failing to sign a player due to their ethnicity it''s just presented differently for convenience and ££££''s.If someone could explain to me the difference between us fielding a wheelchair bound paraplegic (to garner support of the millions of disabled people worldwide) and the big clubs signing a token malaysian or Chinese player primarily to sell shirts etc. in their home country I''d be grateful because absurd as the former seems the two become the same exercise in exploitation if the foreign player is not up to the standard of the other team members and is therefore seen and often commentated upon as having been purchased primarily for attempting to invoke interest from a new demographic.

[lake district canary 0]

 "Do we need a player from the far east?"

No, nothing good ever good came from Great  Yarmouth.................[:S]

[lake district canary 0]

 "Do we need a player from the far east?"

No, nothing good ever came from Great  Yarmouth.................

[Number 9 0]

LDC beat me to it ( Lowestoft)

How about Kendo Nagasaki in defence, he would keep most out.

[Steady On... 0]

cant we just buy good players? Is that too much to ask?

 

Who the hell would want to be anything like QPR or Swansea?

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Buy good players by all means, there are plenty to pick from in south koreas squad or japans squad that would do a job. Kagawa hasn''t been bad for Man U.

[mre2 1]

[quote user="lake district canary"] No, nothing good ever good came from Great  Yarmouth.................[:S]

[/quote]What about Disco Dale Gordon?

[Renskay 36]

I think we should definitely atleast scout the J-League because they''re are some real finds to be had that can be purchased at a snippet some examples are Shinji Kagawa ( bought by Dortmund for 500k ), Hulk, Keisuke Honda, Yuto Nagomoto , Atsuto Uchida and even Ryo Miyaichi looks like an excellent prosect

[Hog 0]

Forget Far East, if we are looking to increase fan base and possible income we should sign a player from Saudi....and believe it or not they do actually have a couple of good players

[nutty nigel 7,565]

I think we should sign an Eskimo. The Norwich Eskimo would launch our club at the North Pole. Just keep him away from Banham Zoo.....

 

 

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,568]

[quote user="Rob"]I think we should definitely atleast scout the J-League because they''re are some real finds to be had that can be purchased at a snippet some examples are Shinji Kagawa ( bought by Dortmund for 500k ), Hulk, Keisuke Honda, Yuto Nagomoto , Atsuto Uchida and even Ryo Miyaichi looks like an excellent prosect[/quote]It really isn''t worth scouting the J-League - none of those players you mentioned would have got a work permit at the time they left the J-League (not that Miyaichi ever played in the J-League of course).It would be a very expensive way of watching good young players going to Germany/Holland. The best young Japanese players are leaving Japan younger and younger - Kiyotake, Usami and Otsu are all prime examples of this.

[BroadstairsR 2,195]

Ramjam Singh from Mumbai F.C. would be a good buy and he would bring in support. He has 70, 000+ followers on his Twitter account alone.

 

The only drawback is that he wears a turban and is unable to head the ball. This being a major set-back for a central defender.

[Herman 9,817]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

Ramjam Singh from Mumbai F.C. would be a good buy and he would bring in support. He has 70, 000+ followers on his Twitter account alone.

 

The only drawback is that he wears a turban and is unable to head the ball. This being a major set-back for a central defender.

[/quote]

[:D]

On a serious note,how big is football in India.Is it simply cricket out there or is there a growing fanbase.

[BroadstairsR 2,195]

"On a serious note,how big is football in India.Is it simply cricket out there or is there a growing fanbase."

 

 

I Googled it, out of interst: 

Football in India

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Football in India
The Salt Lake Stadium
Governing body	All India Football Federation
National team	India
Nickname(s)	Blue Tigers
First played	1800s
National competitions
I-League I-League 2nd Division
International competitions
List[show] FIFA World Cup: Qualified in 1950 but withdrew Asian Cup: Runner up in 1964 SAFF Cup: Champions 6 times AFC Challenge Cup: Champions once Nehru Cup: Champions twice
v t e

Association football is one of India''s most popular sports, next to cricket. Traditionally it has enjoyed popularity in the states West Bengal, Goa, Kerala and the entire North-East India, especially Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.

Having been Asian champions twice, the standard of Indian football has degraded due to a lack of investment and proper planning. While standards of other Asian nations in which football is the most popular sport improved, Indian football was largely neglected in preference to cricket in which the national team is among the top two countries in the world.^[1] In September 2006, India and Brazil signed an agreement formalising a scheme to train Indian footballers and coaches.^[2]

Today India''s top domestic league, the I-League, is one of the most popular sports league in the India, and is home to some of India''s most famous football clubs.

 

The support is there, but not the standard.

 

Are the players allowed to de-turban for a game?[:)]

 

[andyc24_uk 63]

Interesting discussion... I lived in Korea for the past 4 years (now in the middle east), and I tend to agree with most of what Bethnal said about there being little long-term financial benefit. However what it WOULD do is increase the exposure and ''global awareness'' of the club - Virtually every Bolton match since they signed Lee Chung-Yong has been shown live on prime-time sports channels there. I can tell you for a fact that virtually nobody in Korea could have identified Swansea if show a photo of the kit 6 months ago; now I bet most of them would get it straight away. In that respect, signing a Korean player would definitely boost Norwich''s profile.Shirt sales seem more restricted to Man United shirts with ''PARK JS'' on the back, although there were a handful of Bolton and Celtic shirts around. It''s a culture where some fans tend to support particular players and will follow their careers whatever club they go to, so for example those who were wearing Celtic shirts last year because of Ki Seung-Yong are likely buying Swansea shirts now, and QPR shirts are likely a lot more popular...

However, as others have noted there is some genuine talent in the K and J leagues, and it''s surely somewhere we should be looking for a quality player on the cheap. Personally I''d love to see us sign a guy called Choi Chul-Soon, who plays for Jeonbuk (Korean champions and my old ''local'' team out there). Really quick attacking rightback who''s not afraid to get into a tackle, works his socks off for 90 minutes and would be a great addition to Norwich IMHO... unfortunately he''s now off to do his military service for two seasons (pro players have to go on a 2-year loan to the Army-run club to fulfil their military obligations) so I doubt we''ll ever see him over here.

[6088m canary 0]

I''m currently living in Korea and have been on and off since late 2003.  Baseball is much more popular over here but people who are interested in football really get into it.  Have seen Wolves shirts, Bolton shirts, masses of Celtic shirts and of course those ubiquitous Manc shirts too.  However, even if the best Korean of all time played for us we wouldn''t generate that much cash from the population.  China on the other hand ;pHaven''t watched a great deal of K-league but just saw Seoul v Suwon (top of the table) and the standard was League One, possibly lower Championship.  Not saying that the very best couldn''t make the step up of course, just i wouldn''t bother scouting out here when we should have a net cast over Scandinavia and the Balkans first.