Gangwon sporting director Kim Byung-ji has come out swinging at Yang Hyun-jun and his agents for "breaking their trust" as the fallout over a proposed move to Celtic continues.
The Parkhead side had a bid rejected for the South Korean last month and he and his camp have since accused the club of breaking a promise to let him leave if a major bid arrived from Europe. After a bombshell statement from his representatives revealed the player was "extremely frustrated" by an apparent U-turn from director Kim, the player himself has since openly said he wants to join Brendan Rodgers' team and called on the club to let him go.
The standoff comes as Gangwon, embroiled in a relegation battle, want to keep hold of him until December when their season finishes but Celtic and Yang both want the move now. It's been a chess match in the court of public opinion and director Kim has made the latest move, taking aim at the player, his father and his agent for making a "big mistake" and "breaking their trust."
Insisting they are NOT blocking the move but merely postponing it, he told MyDaily: "I spoke with his father and agent during the international break. His camp has made a big mistake to us. I won’t get into details as there will be backlash, but they’ve broken our trust. This is a fact.
"When we spoke, Yang Hyun-jun’s camp thanked me for working on this deal to send him to Europe, but they went behind my back and resorted to contradicting actions. I’m disappointed. They should’ve never acted like that."
Yang claims to have been promised any offer from Europe would be accepted and it's believed Celtic's rejected bid was in the same ballpark as the £2.5m paid for Hyeongyu Oh in January. But Kim says there's no way he could have overruled the manager by accepting the offer and let him leave for the Scottish Premiership against his wishes.
He went on: “When Choi Yong-soo was here, he confirmed to me that there’s no plan to let Yang Hyun-jun leave. As a chief executive, I follow the manager’s plan. There’s a sequence to a transfer. I can’t bypass the manager and club management to sell a player.
“Since then, I’ve only spoken to Yang Hyun-jun on the phone and I told him to speak directly to the general manager. Because of the big mistake from his camp, we can only do what’s theoretically right. There are things to be sorted for me to meet them.
"We’ve already made our decision and our stance was communicated to the player’s camp. We’re not blocking his move to Celtic. We only asked him to arrange a different timing for the move as Gangwon are in a difficult situation right now.
“I saw Yang Hyun-jun’s recent interviews and his mind has seemingly left our club already. This is obviously not a good situation for the club either. I will discuss with Yoon Jung-hwan, our football operations and management to review all these issues.”
