Bell: ‘Silva is a true City great’
Legend Bell’s praise for Merlin as the Blues prepare to say farewell to a true great
COLIN Bell and Pep Guardiola lead the tributes as David Silva’s time at City is coming to an end after a sparkling 10 years at the club.
The midfield genius has confirmed he will bid farewell to the Blues following a decade of service that will see him remembered as one of the greatest players in Premier League history.
His Spain team-mates knew it before he arrived in English football, and City fans were introduced to the brilliance they could expect with a delightful solo goal against Blackpool.
But Silva’s sustained brilliance has seen him leave a lasting legacy on the club, the league, and the game.
Bell, regarded by many as the finest player to ever wear the blue of City, has loved watching the man nicknamed Merlin by his team-mates and the City faithful.
In a tribute published in David Silva: El Mago, a new book celebrating Silva’s career at the Blues, Bell says: “David Silva would walk into any City team.
“He is in my personal greatest all-time XI and is just fantastic to watch. “When he’s on the ball, he makes the whole team tick and we don’t look the same side without him.
“He has an incredible awareness and is the perfect player for the modern game. People ask me how I rate him compared to the players who played during my era and he’s up there with the very best.” Guardiola was offered Silva when he was manager of Barcelona, but City wanted the player more and got their man in 2010.
The pair have worked together since 2016 though - to the great satisfaction of the coach who enjoyed finding out exactly how the playmaker had defied expectations and stereotypes for so long.
Any doubts over whether Silva could cut it in the physical English league had vanished long before Guardiola arrived, and the City boss adored the fighting streak that he found in the player when working closely with him.
“In my first year at City I’d talk to him about how surprised I was that he came here,” he said.
“A league so physical, so tough, so imposing, with this climate, this style of football.
“How he was able to survive or adapt and do it so well.
“That definition, that he’s a bit of a a b ****** , is the perfect definition by [Jose Luis] Mendilibar [who coached a young Silva at Eibar].
“You can tell he learnt his football on the street, like he’s threatening, ‘There’ll only be one winner here.’
“David has that in him and you don’t realise it until you get to know him.
“He’s is a natural competitor, so the competitiveness of the league was good for him.”
● David Silva: El Mago - A Decade Of Magic, an official Manchester City book, is on sale June 4 from shop.mancity.com or Amazon.