Five young Wolves cubs who did not work out
Wolves have opted not to sign young French midfielder Enzo Loiodice on a permanent basis – despite some excitement when he arrived on loan.
The 19-year-old is heading back to Dijon after just a handful of appearances for the under-23s, but he is not the only one to have come in with a fair amount of promise but end up quietly leaving over the past few years.
Here, we go over five others who suffered the same fate as Loiodice
Pedro Goncalves
When Nuno Espirito Santo became Wolves boss in the summer of 2017, several Portuguese stars made the move over with him.
Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota were the standouts, of course, but there were also fairly high hopes for Goncalves.
Brought in on a free from Valencia, the central midfielder linked up with the under-23s and looked a decent prospect.
However, aside from an half-hour cameo in a 2-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday in the Carabao Cup in 2018, Goncalves did not make a first-team breakthrough.
He returned to Portugual last summer, joining top-flight outfit Famalicao, and has done pretty well for himself since.
The 21-year-old has made 24 starts in the Primeira Liga, helping them rise to fifth in the table.
Sherwin Seedorf
Given his surname, Seedorf’s signing in the same window as Goncalves turned a few heads.
Fans wondered if he had any connection to four-time Champions League-winner Clarence, and then found out they are in fact distant relatives.
He impressed for the under-23s in his first season with Wolves, so much so that he was awarded a two-year contract extension.
But after unsuccessful loan spells with Bradford and the now-defunct Jumilla – Wolves’ former partner club in Spain – he joined Scottish side Motherwell for an undisclosed fee.
There, he mas made 28 appearances and scored three goals.
Paulo Alves
In the summer of 2018, Portuguese attacking midfielder Alves was brought in following his release from Liverpool – but he was soon gone.
He came up with a lovely curling effort in a 2-0 Premier League Cup win against Oxford at Molineux. That was about it, though.
Commonly known as Paulinho, he joined Pribram in the Czech Republic last summer and is now with Sanjoanense – back in his homeland.
Ming-yang Yang
Since taking over the club in 2016, Fosun have made no secret of their desire for Wolves to unearth an Asian star.
David Wang, Tsun Dai, Dongda He, Hong Wan have all arrived, as well as Yang – a Swiss player with a Chinese father.
He was brought in on a three-year deal in the summer of 2017 after gaining a fair amount of senior experience in Switzerland, with both Lausanne-Sport and Winterthur.
But apart from a loan spell at Jumilla, Yang struggled for any consistent game time and was recently released.
Flavio Cristovao
Another youngster who was brought in last summer, after a successful trial, was Cristovao – the son of former Portugal international Helder.
The holding midfielder did not have to wait long to make his first-team bow either, replacing Pedro Neto for the last 13 minutes as a much-changed Wolves team bowed out of the Carabao Cup in the last 16 at Villa.
But, strangely, that was it for 23-year-old Cristovao.
After that appearance, he went back to the under-23s before being let go entirely in January. He is now with Austrian second-tier outfit FC Juniors.
