Cho Gue-Sung opens up on Celtic transfer collapse

Ange Postecoglou seemed ready to sign Cho for most of the transfer window but the deal fell through after a transfer fee couldn’t be agreed with his club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

The Hoops turned their attention to Oh instead, splashing £2.5m to Suwon Bluewings to win him and the 21-year-old has already scored three goals for his new club.

Both played for South Korea in their midweek internationals against Colombia and Uruguay, with Oh even replacing Cho as a substitute in the first game.
And Cho admits he was impressed by the Celtic youngster.

He said, “I’ve known for a long time that Oh Hyeon-gyu would be a good player, and you can see he’s really showing it now.

“He did really well when he came on and was unlucky to have a goal ruled out.

“There’s a lot of competition for a place in the national team. It’s up to me to show the coach that I deserve to play.”

“To be honest, when my move to Celtic didn’t go through, I was upset.

“But I don’t regret not going to Europe straight away. I still think I have a lot to learn as a striker.

“I am convinced that one day I will get another chance.

“Last year I had ambitions to go to Europe, but now that has changed. I have to focus on training and work hard.

“I wonder if I don’t go to a club in Europe, will I regret it for the rest of my career? And the answer is no.”

Meanwhile, Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has challenged his side to find their best form as the season winds down – despite having just won their last 14 games in a row.

Celtic go into the last nine games of the Cinch Premiership season with a healthy lead and expect a Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at the end of April.

The champions have saved their best form for the end of Postecoglou’s first season in charge and the former Australian head coach has once again developed his approach to ensure they can once again perform at their best when the time is right.

Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Dingwall vs Ross County, Postecoglou said: “We’re looking at it from an annual planning perspective.

“It’s all being decided at this point in the year so we wanted to be in a really strong position at that point. We have achieved that.

“But the second part of it was that we want to end the season strong like last year, with our best form and where we are strongest this season. That was the plan all along.

“If you look at the first phase of the games and then after the World Cup, we were stronger in that middle section than in the first section and the plan is to be stronger in the last section. This is all theory, we still have to deal with the practical implementation.

“The players are ready to go and they understand what needs to be done by the end of the year – starting on Sunday – to put on a strong performance and finish the season the way we want it to be.”