SERGIO TURNED SILVA INTO GOLD
Departing David thanks Aguero for helping him look even better during a decade of dominance
DAVID SILVA thanks one person more than most for helping him to enjoy a glittering career at Manchester City – Sergio Aguero.
Silva has left City after a decade of brilliance that saw him make 436 appearances and win 14 major trophies to help the club become the dominant force in English football.
The Spanish sensation, 34, will be immortalised in bronze after City revealed plans to build a statue of him outside the Etihad.
But Silva believes the man with the golden touch was Aguero because the Argentinian was so good he made life easy for him in English football.
Silva and Aguero formed a lethal double act in their nine years together at City, with one setting up the chances and the other finishing them off.
Silva’s 21 assists for Aguero rank second in the Premier League all-time list only to the 24 Frank Lampard created at Chelsea for Didier Drogba.
Aguero has gone on to become City’s greatest-ever goalscorer and Silva believes his team-mate made him look good because he is one of the best strikers in the world.
Silva said: “We played really close to each other and Kun [Aguero] is the one who needs to score the goals because he is the striker. I was only to help him and create the chances for him to score. So in this case, I’m happy, because I think I helped him.
“The stats are there, I gave him lots of assists and, to be fair, he makes it easy because he knows how to find the spaces and is clinical in front of goal.
“He has been playing on a very high level for so many years and scoring lots of goals, which is hard to achieve in football. He is one of the best in the world.”
Silva says he will always be grateful to Roberto Mancini for signing him from Valencia in 2010. He also loved playing for the attackminded Manuel Pellegrini.
But the World Cup winner admits that the arrival of Pep Guardiola in 2016 took him to another level and turned City from a great team into a special one.
“Mancini was the one who brought me here,” said Silva. “He used to call me quite often when I was in Valencia asking me to join City.
“He trusted me and because of him I made one of the best choices in my life. I was here 10 magnificent years and all because of him.
“Manuel was also a great manager and a great person too. He liked to play very offensive football, controlling the ball. We had a very good year with him, winning the league.
“But it was good news when we heard Pep was coming. I knew he liked to work hard and loves possessionstyle football. For my characteristics, I thought his arrival could be very beneficial for me.
“In the end he proved that his method worked really well for us and we won lots of titles.We learnt how to dominate the games against the big teams.
“We converted City into a winning club and this is a good thing, despite the higher demands. Our fans deserved it after all those years without any silverware.”
One of the most astonishing statistics about Silva is that he won just one Premier League player-of-thethere month award – the same as Adam Le Fondre and Connor Wickham.
But the humble Silva says he could not care less about individual honours because he can show 14 winners medals from his time at City now he’s joined Real Sociedad.
He added: “It doesn’t bother me. Football works like this sometimes. Even if you win titles with your team it doesn’t mean you are going to get an individual award.
“What matters is the collective awards because it is a team effort. I am happy enough with the people who enjoy watching me play each week.
“Fans, team-mates and the people I work with – having their appreciation for me is enough.”
He is the one who scored the goals. I was only there to help