Wolves loanee Ki-Jana Hoever is making an impression at Stoke
Wolves loanee Ki-Jana Hoever has thanked parent club Stoke for showing trust in him after he continued his goalscoring run for the Potters.
The right-back had a disappointing first half of the season at PSV Eindhoven before cutting his loan short and instead moving to Championship side Stoke.
Hoever followed up his brace against Blackburn at the weekend with another goal against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, and the 21-year-old believes his confidence has improved since making the move.
He said: “I’m really happy with the goal and we are improving every game, so that’s good.
“In general, from the moment I came here, I felt a lot of trust from the manager, the staff and the players – the whole club basically.
“For me, every game my confidence grows. There are still some details we need to work on as a team because we can be better, but everybody is doing their job and I am enjoying it every week.”
Hoever has so far played nine times for Stoke in all competitions and has forced his way into the team.
Stoke boss Alex Neil is pleased with the youngster’s development, but would not been drawn on whether Stoke could keep him for next season.
Neil said: “He has great legs, great quality and we’re really happy with where he is at the moment, he’s progressing great.
“Technically he’s very good. As a full-back, you either get a defensive type or an aggressive type and Ki-Jana’s certainly the latter.
“Athletically, he’s excellent, he’s got great legs and he can get up and down the pitch.
“He’s only a young kid, only played under 50 games in his career, but I think you can see as games go by he’s getting better and better.
“He’s been good for us and I expect his career to be a really good one and hopefully he can play more games in a Stoke shirt.”
When asked about the possibility of keeping him next season, Neil added: “(What happens next is) not something that either him or us are talking about at the moment.
“The window’s shut, Wolves will have their own ideas, Ki-Jana will have his own ideas, we’ll have our own ideas. That conversation is one for further down the line.”
Back at PSV, Fabio Silva is enjoying his loan spell after scoring his fourth goal for the Dutch club on Sunday.
Including his loan at Anderlecht in the first half of the season, the £35million man has now scored 15 goals this season.
