Dubbed the most exciting Asian player since the likes of Keisuke Honda and Yuto Nagatomo, Heung-min Son was supposed to excel when he arrived at White Hart Lane last year.
He brought a great CV with him when he left Bayer Leverkusen to link up with Mauricio Pochettino’s side, boasting a record of 87 games played and 29 goals scored for the Germans. Whether he played on the flank or as a striker, the South Korean seemed to have that ability to both create and score, paving the way for a lucrative move to England.
But it hasn’t quite worked out for Son.
Whilst he’s appeared in excess of 40 times for Spurs this season, he’s completed 90 minutes in the league only once and his season was summed up when he was substituted at half-time as his side were drubbed 5-1 by Newcastle United. In a campaign of inconsistency, to be substituted when given the chance must have hurt the forward, and it showed that Pochettino will pull no punches when it comes to making big calls.
But why has he struggled so much? You can put much of it down to the form of some of his other team-mates. Until the last few games of the season, Spurs were well in the title race and when you had the likes of Erik Lamela, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen playing so well, it’s easy to see why Son may have struggled to get in the side.
Due to Spurs’ involvement in the Europa League, Son was widely used as a squad player throughout the campaign, and it showed. He appeared quite a bit in the cup tournaments and the Europa League, but when Spurs were chasing the title and he failed to make the starting XI week after week, it was clear to see he was out of favour.
And now, after a turbulent first season in England, Son is being linked with a move away from Spurs despite the club paying £22million for him just a season ago – albeit he’s played down speculation. Whether they could recoup that money is yet to be seen, but it seems the way forward for this winger is to get a strong pre-season and impress the coaches from the get go.
However, even his pre-season could be blighted after Son suggested he would be keen to link up with South Korea’s Olympic Football squad, so he would therefore miss a chunk of the off-season to attend the tournament in Brazil. It seems if he wants to make the best impression possible, the stronger the pre-season the better.
But after Spurs’ dash for the title this year, it will be clear that the club’s hierarchy will want to improve the squad further and push on in the hope they can improve on their third placed finish this time around. So where does that leave Son?
He’s had a tough first year and we’ve seen plenty of stories from those who struggle first time round. There’s still time for the South Korean star, but he needs to up his game quickly.
[ad_pod id=’euro-2016′ align=’center’]
