Seol searching is over and Wolves have a diamond
Much about Britain worried Seol Ki-Hyeon when he arrived last August. The food. The hairdressers. The ghost in his hotel. Paul Ince. And the football - especially the football.
Though the South Korean international reckoned that with time he would solve any off-field problems, he admits his first matches at Wolves left him wondering whether he had been wise to leave Anderlecht for the Championship.
"Kick and rush and run up and down," he recalls. "For a midfielder it felt like being an athlete was most important, because you didn't have the ball much. But now it's pass, pass, pass, which is what I like."
He smiles, which is what a lot of Wolves supporters have been doing recently, watching him in action. In the last few games, Seol, given a free role by Glenn Hoddle to play behind the strikers at the point of a midfield diamond, has been a revelation. In scoring three goals in his last five games, all shots from long distance, and making a series of chances for the forwards Kenny Miller and Seyi George Olofinjana, his dancing feet have given Hoddle's improving team an extra dimension, so much so that there is a real confidence at Molineux they can hurt Arsenal in the FA Cup tomorrow.
Rather refreshingly, the 26-year-old Seol admits he had never heard of Hoddle when the former England coach replaced Dave Jones. "I was worried because the manager who had signed me [for £1.2m] had gone. I had never experienced this and didn't know what would happen next." What happened was that Hoddle recognised him as the most talented footballer he had worked with for a long time and, moreover, quickly worked out the way to make the most of his ability.
Once again Seol - who usually plays either as a winger (right or left; he is genuinely two-footed) or a striker for his country - was "a bit scared", unsure whether he could make the most of a freedom he had never previously enjoyed. It quickly became apparent that he could, though he acknowledges the importance of Ince's holding role at the opposite point of the diamond, adding that it also helps that he has begun to understand something of the former England international's character.
"At first when he was always shouting, always angry, I thought he had a problem with me on the field, because in the clubhouse he is a nice guy, very funny. But the others explained it's what he says, not how he says it, that matters. Now I listen carefully."
In much the same way he has found answers to his other teething problems. Once a month he drives down to London for a supply of Korean food and a haircut from a Korean barber. Together with his young family he has moved out of the hotel which boasted it was haunted, though his new house is, he says, worryingly nearby.
His success in his new role has been noted at home, where the Arsenal match is being screened live. Seol has mixed feelings about this, pointing out that after South Korea's remarkable success in reaching the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup - he started every game except the semi-final against Turkey, for which he was substitute - the crowds at home expect the players to win every game they play.
"But every team in Asia wants to beat us now, so it's difficult. Two weeks after the Arsenal game we have a very important match against Kuwait, so I hope I can do something which will make them pleased to see me back again."
When he returned to Anderlecht he was repeatedly asked why he was not reproducing the form he had shown in the World Cup. "When you win a big game, like against Italy [when Seol scored the winner] you are full of confidence. When I scored that goal I couldn't hear anything for a few minutes; I felt like everything should stop, nothing could ever be better."
Becoming the first Korean to play in the Premiership would push it pretty close, though, he says. Yesterday Hoddle, without hesitation, called him the best player at the club, and should Arsène Wenger make the same mistake as Rafael Benítez, Seol could wreak havoc with those young Arsenal reserves. However, he would rather match himself against the likes of Sol Campbell.
"I want to check my level, find out whether I have a chance to play in the Premiership," he says. Those who have seen him recently do not doubt it.