You can understand why Wolverhampton Wanderers fans weren't that excited when a South Korean by the name of Seol Ki-Hyeon took his first steps in English football back in September.

Seol was to prove the last of Dave Jones' many golden gambles and in the wake of the previous summer's crop of inadequate signings, the murmurings were understandable.

Of all the expensive flops signed the year before, Portuguese winger Silas had been the biggest letdown.

Where Silas failed, though, Seol has succeeded and, while Wolves manager Glenn Hoddle takes a lot of credit for how well this Korea move has worked out, he also openly wonders how things might have been for Silas.

Instead of persevering with Seol in the way Hoddle and his management team have done, Jones allowed Silas to go back to Portugal for a season's loan at Maritimo.

"Maybe going back to Portugal wasn't the best way of preparing for the English Championship," said Hoddle. "It isn't going to advance him to equip himself here, which is a shame for the lad but that wasn't my decision.

"Silas has got loads of ability but he found it very hard to adjust and I would have thought it would have been better him playing in England or Scotland or somewhere more like the football here.

"Sometimes, players need to adapt to the pace and style of the game and their team-mates, but he is under contract here, he still has got a year left and the likelihood is that he will come back for pre-season to the club and pick up where he left off."

If that were to happen, it would be hard to imagine that both players could be accommodated in the same team. Such is Seol's adaptability, though, that it might happen.

"Seol's a wonderful player," said Hoddle, "He can play with both feet. In world football, let alone this country, you don't see many naturally two-footed players, but he's had to adapt to the English game.

"I think we've learned something from when he comes back from duty with Korea. Earlier in the season we played him and, for two games, he was not there but, after I rested him against Leeds, in the four or five days leading up to the Ipswich game, you could see a massive difference.

"Players are a little bit like horses. Watching players in training, you know whether they're peaking and Seol was really peaking.

"You could see his sharpness was back, he was playing with his head up and doing things you knew he would take on to the game."