Quote Originally Posted by GazFish35 View Post
The gunners did the same "business strategy" by signing Inamoto. Helped shirt sales in Japan, pre-empted future tours to Asia, Asian tourism advertising started popping up at Arsenal games.

Man Utd did it to, thry had a Korean player, we had a Japanese player - both got named on the bench - neither made the pitch, but at the time I think the game was the highest tv audience of the time.

Football is business now, and we are owned by a business.


We'll be a laughing stock if he's shit, like Arsenal were with Inamoto, but we could very well laugh all the way to the bank.

And... We are already a laughing stock, what's to lose? Our dignity??? We wear gold and colours based on the local rugby league side FFS.
That's the big picture Gaz that likes of Dunster, hawk and others can't seem to grasp at this stage.
This is all about making connections and relationships; Chinese players and coaches will be coming here, young players here in the Hunter before too long will have the opportunity to go to Portugal to train with clubs over there and earn valuable experience.
This is just the beginning.
The same most probably would have happened if Stephen Thompson from Dundee had taken over. Daresay he would have demanded a Dundee United player come here to experience the A-League and to start some sort of player program between the two clubs. I believe this sort of relationship had already been discussed in preliminary discussions.
Bottom line is, Martin Lee is pumping money into this club and if he wants a Chinese player to play here, he will get a Chinese player here whether we like it or not. As this point in time, this issue is way down on what I think are "priorities" for this club.