QPR's bid for Chung Yong Lee of Bolton

[Joon]

This is the first news article I've seen about it, and the source cited in the article is left anonymous, so I have some doubt about its accuracy, but according to Daily Sports ("Ilgan Sports", a major Korean sports newspaper), two clubs have made an offer to Bolton for their winger Chung Yong Lee: QPR and Stoke City, with Stoke City's current high bid at 8M GBP.

Here is the article at Yahoo Korea:
http://kr.sports.yahoo.com/news/%EB%...002342737.html

Lee has been out pretty much all of last season recovering from his broken leg (got tackled badly during a friendly match), but has recovered and appears to be back in good form. Some of you may remember Bolton's great run a couple of years ago, when Bolton named Lee their MVP for the year. Of course, with Lee and some other key players out all of last season due to injuries (including Muamba), Bolton eventually went down in flames, but Lee was part of the reason why Bolton did so well in the preceding seasons.

In the past, Bolton has been quite adamant about Lee not being available for sale, but the offers they received at the time were not quite this high, so assuming that the article is relatively accurate and that QPR is willing to outbid Stoke City, we may have a good winger joining our team in January.

[Yousef]

Don't think so. Harry knows we need a RB, CB and a striker

[bonheurjh]

I agree with Yousef, we certainly do need a decent&young enough striker and a fine CB/RB.

That aside though, Lee is miles above SWP, Hoilett.

[Joon]

Well, at first glance it may seem like another winger is unnecessary, but if Taarabt is played behind Cisse/Mackie, there may be room for another winger in the team who can score goals and assist consistently. I think that our wingers (other than Taarabt) have been largely ineffective up front for most of the season, and Taarabt himself has not been consistent until recently.

While Taarabt is not really a striker, he may be able to put more goals on the board if that is how he is played and given good support from both left and right wings. Cisse and Mackie may also benefit with improved service.

I wouldn't write off our other wingers, but I think we have a lot of room for improvement up front.

[bonheurjh]

Well, at first glance it may seem like another winger is unnecessary, but if Taarabt is played behind Cisse/Mackie, there may be room for another winger in the team who can score goals and assist consistently. I think that our wingers (other than Taarabt) have been largely ineffective up front for most of the season, and Taarabt himself has not been consistent until recently.

While Taarabt is not really a striker, he may be able to put more goals on the board if that is how he is played and given good support from both left and right wings. Cisse and Mackie may also benefit with improved service.

I wouldn't write off our other wingers, but I think we have a lot of room for improvement up front.

agreed, if taarabt is playing behind a striker then there are only SWP, Hoilett, Park we can play as left, right wingers.

Park is injured out, SWP not doing gr8, Hoilett on the bench.

[QPR Richard]

Just wondered why people think we need a RB when Ned, Bos, Dyer, Fabio can and do all play there. We have just one natural LB, Traore. I admit, the four RB options I mentioned aren't exactly world beaters right now, but surely a bigger priority is LB?

[hoopsididitagain]

Lee was very impressive two years ago but since then he has been injured and 8M seems a ridiculous price.

[Yousef]

Just wondered why people think we need a RB when Ned, Bos, Dyer, Fabio can and do all play there. We have just one natural LB, Traore. I admit, the four RB options I mentioned aren't exactly world beaters right now, but surely a bigger priority is LB?

imo because we need a RB who can both defend and attack. All of them cannot while Traore is effective when he pushes forward on the left.

[Yousef]

Well, at first glance it may seem like another winger is unnecessary, but if Taarabt is played behind Cisse/Mackie, there may be room for another winger in the team who can score goals and assist consistently. I think that our wingers (other than Taarabt) have been largely ineffective up front for most of the season, and Taarabt himself has not been consistent until recently.
.

Because clueless Hughes used to give him defensive roles in addition to his attacking role while Harry has now given him free role. Notice v Fulham that Faurlin and Mbia were effective in their tackles so Taarabt did not need to go back to take the ball much like when we had Granero and Diakite.

[rockandroll]

Because clueless Hughes used to give him defensive roles in addition to his attacking role while Harry has now given him free role. Notice v Fulham that Faurlin and Mbia were effective in their tackles so Taarabt did not need to go back to take the ball much like when we had Granero and Diakite.

thats true, and in my opinion we need 2 young strong CBs and one striker. nelson and hill due to their age and slowness cannot be in same opponents wavelength in the coming fixtures, they just cant play all next games and they might get injured as well.

[Joon]

Because clueless Hughes used to give him defensive roles in addition to his attacking role while Harry has now given him free role. Notice v Fulham that Faurlin and Mbia were effective in their tackles so Taarabt did not need to go back to take the ball much like when we had Granero and Diakite.

I agree with you that strengthening our back allows our attacking midfield (including Taarabt) to be more effective going forward. Clearly, we do need to buy, the question is how many and for which positions exactly.

I think the question of whether we need another RB at this point is similar to whether we need another winger on the right. We have several players who can play the position, but are either not good enough, injured or inconsistent.

For example, Park should ideally be starting on right wing, but he is injured, and his form has not been too good. Like Taarabt, Park has often been played out of his natural position (right wing) during this season, and instead needed to play in central midfield and do a lot of defense as well. Like it did with Taarabt, a strengthened defense may benefit Park's offensive game when he returns, but we really don't know if Park will recover quickly enough and when he will regain his form. So, we are left with SWP and Hoilett, but do we really want to rely on them game in game out? Same with our current RBs.

Taarabt reminds me a bit of Cristiano Ronaldo during his early years at Manchester United. Ronaldo also played left wing, and scored a good number of goals from that position as he became a more consistent team player. Ronaldo obviously had a ton of raw talent which appeared at the time to be squandered by his temperament, selfishness and inconsistency. Although at this point it would be quite a stretch to compare Taarabt's talent with that of Ronaldo's, I think that Taarabt does have a similar type of talent and temperament, and also has the potential to evolve into an excellent striker.

Bringing in a proven winger like Lee (who would contribute goals and assists of his own) would not only help cover the right wing opposite Taarabt, but it would also give HR some options in utilizing Taarabt (rather than just left wing each game). Even if Park does become regain fitness and form soon, he does not have that many good years left in him, and we would need to eventually replace him in the long run. Lee would be perfect as a substitute/partner/replacement for Park, as well as a substitute/partner for Taarabt, I think.

[Marshy]

Lee is a good player, I remember him putting in some excellent performances for Bolton. I think his career has gone downhill lately, and he needs a new club, and I'd be happy to have him here.

[QprSinceBirth]

I was very impresse with him last year .

[Shania]

Good player. I like him a lot.

[qpr]

I'm not too keen on Asian footballers it's got to be said, but I do rate this player quite a lot to be honest