Wolves journalist Liam Keen has discussed the future of forward Hwang Hee-chan following his performance at the weekend.
The South Korean forward took his total for the season up to three as he scored twice in his side’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle United, goals which also make him the club’s top scorer for the campaign so far.
Wolves signed the 25-year-old this summer on a season-long loan, following a season at parent club RB Leipzig in which he struggled to make an impact on the first team, only making three starts in the Bundesliga.
The club do have the option to make the deal permanent for a fee of around £13m, and that topic was brought up on the latest edition of the E&S Wolves podcast.
Keen was asked by host Nathan Judah whether Wolves should trigger that deal early, but urged caution on the matter, saying that doing a deal early could be a risky move:
“Do you do it earlier? It would be nice to get it done and over the line, wouldn’t it? Contractually, Wolves have got that option, there’s not really a need to force it, I don’t think, or take a big step before they need to, because they’ve got that option there, it’s not going to just disappear in the summer.
“Also, you can never account for what’s going to happen, imagine if they do that in January and then a bad injury happens two weeks later, you can never account for these things.”
TIF Thoughts on Liam Keen’s comments about Hwang Hee-chan’s future at Wolves…
Would you sign Hwang permanently in January?
Yes
No
As Keen says, Wolves don’t really need to rush this deal through, mainly because of the relative control that the club have over his future and how that allows them to assess him properly.
For all we know, this form could be something of a flash in the pan that he won’t be able to keep up as we move through the whole season, so it might not be financially wise to buy someone permanently based on a couple of performances.
If he was going into the open market, then it might be different, but what Wolves essentially have is a ‘first refusal’ on his future come the summer, so they can afford to take their time and truly work out what kind of player they have before making an ultimate decision.
In other news: ‘Any minute now’ – Journalist reveals update on Wolves contract extension ‘likely to happen’