Fabio Silva has officially completed a loan move to Anderlecht.
The Wolves striker will spend the 2022/23 season with the Belgian giants in a bid to get regular game time and further his development.
Silva joined Wanderers two years ago, but it has not been plaining sailing for the youngster.
After arriving at the club for a £35.6 million fee, Silva was rather thrown in at the deep end when Raul Jimenez suffered his fractured skull.
The plan was never for Silva to play as much as he did in that first season.
In his second season, minutes were hard to come by as Bruno Lage turned to Jimenez at almost every turn.
Now, Silva will head to Belgium and hope to make a big impression.
Explaining the club’s decision to loan him to Anderlecht, Scott Sellars said (via Wolves official): “We’ve had lots of discussions between myself and Bruno, and with Fabio as well, about what we feel is best for his development, and we felt that a season playing regularly would be very good for him at this point in his career.
“He’s only just turned 20 today, so he’s still a very young boy and he needs a season of playing regular senior football in a competitive league so he can come back to Wolves stronger.”
And Sellars pointed to another young Wolves player as a potential factor in their decision.
“We saw with the performances of Morgan [Gibbs-White] last year how much of a positive impact a loan can have on a young player, so we believe it’s the right step in his development to follow the same path,” he added.
Upon joining Anderlecht, Silva has also signed a one-year contract extension with Wolves.
Gibbs-White fortunes were always likely to come into Wolves’ thinking, as Fabio Silva joins Anderlecht on loan
Having seen how well Gibbs-White did last season, it was perhaps always going to be likely that Wolves would send Silva out on loan in the hope of him having similar success.
He has big potential, but so far during his time at Wolves, the circumstances just haven’t been ideal for him to realise it.
He needs to be playing week in week out, and hopefully he’ll be able to do that in Belgium.
We’ve seen glimpses of a potentially brilliant all-round centre-forward.
Hopefully in a year’s time, Wolves will be fully vindicated in their decision to loan Silva out.