by nottsblue » Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:59 pm
Dave Silva
Club legend. Without a shadow of doubt. Since he arrived he has been simply majestic, arguably one of the best foreign imports the PL has ever seen, let alone at our place. Will go down in history as one of our top five players ever in the whole history of the club. He owes us absolutely nothing, indeed we will be forever in his debt for what he has done for us in his time here.
But.
Past greatness does not count for anything when the side is selected in the present. Form at the present coupled with how training for that particular game has gone should dictate whether a place is merited or not. And sadly, over the last few months, Silva has not performed as well as either he has done previously or indeed the level required to justify continued selection. There may be many reasons for this. Age is not his friend. He covers a huge amount of ground in a game and he is probably just half a yard slower than 6 months ago, which is starting to show. The mental toll of the birth of Mateo and subsequent worry might have caught up with him. Who knows. However, whatever the reason, I don’t think we can rely on him in the really big games any more. As we couldn’t with YaYa at the end of his time as well. All good things wind down eventually and this is probably the time when Silva starts to wind down.
This is not to say he should be sold. Far from it, he can still play an important role for us next season, just more sparingly and perhaps from the bench. He is a hugely popular and respected guy in the dressing room, the Amazon series highlighted this all too well. The likes of Foden can learn volumes from him in training and there will be plenty of games where we can utilise his silky skills and experience.
Football has no room for sentiment, just like any other business and we should be no different. Players come and go all the time, some before they should, some against their will. But Silva has earned the right for him to dictate when he calls time on his City career. But he still has to earn the right to be selected for each match and currently he isn’t doing that. We shall see whether Foden turns out to be good enough to be selected week in week out as either his replacement or somewhere else in the team long term, but unless he plays we won’t know. He certainly would have done just as well as Silva has over the last few games, but a few games are just that. Not a basis for the long term. But he needs his chance.
Maybe that will come more frequently next season. I for one hope so. I mentioned in the Bernardo thread a while back that his form this season is bittersweet because although it’s obviously fantastic, it does mean the influence of Silva will diminish. But that’s football and the old saying the King is dead, long live the King rings true