Transfer Talk : Seoul E-Land FC

This time last season Seoul E-Land didn't have any players so it's been quite a feat to put the squad together and to get them winning in the league. Will Martin Rennie be shuffling his pack in the upcoming window? Let's see...

Which player(s) signed in the 2014/2015 windows has performed best for your team this season?

Well considering the whole squad was signed in that window it's hard just to pick one players as the best performer. We picked up guys with both national team and top league experience in Kim Young-kwang, Cho Won-hee and Kim Jae-sung and they've mostly been the driving force behind the successful form as they've given a strong backbone to the side. Of course you would have expected these guys to perform well in the second division. The biggest positives then have maybe been a couple of guys that were relatively unknown before this season. Kim Young-keun has come over from J2 and looked like a really sharp player - he has two good feet, can whip in a nice cross, has a cracking long shot on him and is pretty effective from set-pieces. The other one is of course, the star man of the season so far - Joo Min-kyu. Whatever Rennie has put in his porridge has worked wonders and he's managed a dozen goals in the first third of the season. An absolute gem of a signing by Martin Rennie that one.

Though it's traditionally a quiet window, if your team were to pick someone up this window who would you like it to be?

Hard to say. The squad has been stretched a fair bit recently which suggests we could really do with a few more bodies but there's no glaring weak-link in the side that needs urgent action. The trickier part might be finding someone to bring in who can do a job as good or better as the guy currently in possession of the jersey. I don't expect any of the foreign players to move out in this window so anyone that comes in would have to be Korean. Probably the most likely spot to strengthen would be at full-back as Kim Jae-Sung has been filling in there in the last month or so and it takes something away from the midfield when he drops back. I wouldn't mind seeing us pick up a really good, experienced defender (maybe someone on loan from a Classic side?) but there's no obvious realistic names that jump out at me.  

Elsewhere we maybe could do with an attacking midfielder or a winger to add some guile to the attack but again no obvious targets jump out at me. 

One area to look at might be to see if any overseas Koreans are looking to return home from the Middle East, China or Japan. At the very ambitious end of the scale someone like Lee Keun-ho might be a excellent signing. Another name that I think is still without a club is Yoo Byung-soo. Whether either of them would want to drop in to the K-League Challenge remains to be seen.

Is there someone on the team you'd like to see loaned out or sold?

Almost everyone in the squad has managed to get some game time in the first part of the season and there aren't an awful lot of spare bodies at the moment to consider moving anyone out. As a said, even though they haven't really set the heather alight so far I think the foreign players will stick around at least until the end of this season. It would be a pretty brave decision if Rennie decided that Bobby or Johnson would be moved on and I could only see that happening if we have someone special lined up to come in. 

The only possible candidate to loan or sell at this moment in time would be Lee Jae-an but only if we were bringing in another forward to replace him. Lee hasn't really done much of note so far, except getting sent off for time-wasting against Daegu, and it's difficult to see where he fits in the team at present except as relief for Bobby. He's a very Korean style of striker in that he will run all day but hasn't too much end product. If we could find another Joo-mes hidden in the rough then I wouldn't mind swapping Jae-an out.

Talking of Joo-mes the question might be whether a bigger team comes calling for him or some of our other players in the window. It would be an interesting to test to see if we could hold on to them if a Classic team or even a Chinese side made an offer.

Who would be a great signing for the league? 

Just from a personal point of view I'd love to see some Scottish players make their way over to Korea and I'm sure there's one or two available that could do a job. One name that would surely provide some entertainment would be James McFadden who has just been released and would be available on a free. Kris Boyd would also be an interesting option for someone in need of goals (which is pretty much all of the league). Another guy who isn't Scottish but has been playing in the SPFL is Alexei Eremenko. A classy midfielder with all the talent in the world, a few fitness issues, a fondness for a drink and a slightly questionable temperament. What's not to like?

Which team needs a transfer the most?

In the Challenge? I think they all do. The one thing that just about every team, with the probable exception of the Army and E-Land, is a striker who will score goals for them. Two teams in particular - Anyang and Gyeongnam - could really use this as they have been the biggest under-performers relative to where they were expected to be. Gangwon too probably feel as if they need some freshening up. Neither the Police nor the Army will be able to add to their squad and, in fact, will lose players in the second half of the season. It'll be interesting to see if Suwon, Daegu or Goyang decide to invest in a player that might be enough to secure a play-off spot for them or whether they are happy with what they have.