IF I NOU THEN.. WHAT I KNOW NOW..
Pep ignored tip to sign brilliant Silva for Barca
PEP GUARDIOLA has few regrets from his glorious time at Barcelona, but he does rue not signing David Silva.
Guardiola revealed his pal and Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery urged him to sign Silva from Valencia when he was in charge at the Mestalla.
The Catalan hesitated, joking that the Spain playmaker was “too expensive”, and Manchester City pounced to land him for £26million in 2010.
“The first or second year I was in Barcelona, Unai Emery was there with him,” said the City boss. “After the game he told me, ‘David Silva is the player for you, for Barcelona. Believe me, he is a player for Barca by far’.
“And he was so right. He’s a special player.”
Silva is easily one of the best buys of the Sheikh Mansour era and Guardiola paid him a glowing tribute after he clocked up his 300th appearance for City.
He loves him because he has added the graft he demands from his players to his craft.
Guardiola claims he can still improve at 31 and feels he would be up there with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi if he scored more goals.
Silva has six this season and Guardiola said: “Always I said he has to score goals because if Silva scored goals he would be ..... you cannot imagine because he has absolutely everything – the mentality, and he is a competitor.
“Hopefully we can make him become a better player. But big congratulations for what he has achieved here in England.”
In Guardiola’s defence, he perhaps dallied because he had Xavi and Andres Iniesta at Barca and Yaya Toure, who was also at the Nou Camp then, claims Silva is as good as his fellow Spaniards in their pomp.
“Silva is such a similar player to Xavi and Iniesta,” said Toure. “Sometimes we need him in home games to play between the lines and use the ball well.”
Silva and a rampant Raheem Sterling inspired City to their first win in five Premier League games to boost their top-four bid.
Sterling set up Sergio Aguero and Fabian Delph to score after Hull’s Ahmed Elmohamady had put through his own net.
Claudio Bravo marked his first league start since January 21 by letting in the seventh straight shot he has faced to take some of the shine off City’s victory.