Magic Silva leaves immense Premier League legacy
It says everything about David Silva’s decade at Manchester City that if he could go back to 2010 and give himself a piece of advice, it would be not to change a thing.
“I think I would tell him to do things in the same way that I have – to stay relaxed and to work hard,” he said this week. “To try and adapt to the league, to the club, the team-mates – while always trying to learn.”
Silva arrived in Manchester as a newly-crowned World Cup winner but if anything, he has only enhanced his reputation and standing in the 10 years since. This weekend, the Premier League will say farewell to a player who many consider to be its finest foreign import.
Is he? It is an open and contentious debate. Several of Silva’s City team-mates – past and present – can lay claim to that title, not to mention the likes of Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Eric Cantona and many others.
And on the day that Jordan Henderson was named the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year, it is startling to note Silva’s relative lack of individual honours for a player who is so highly-regarded.
There’s just one Premier League player of the month award on his mantelpiece, just two Professional Footballers’ Association team of the year appearances. Even in terms of City’s club awards, he was only their player of the season in 2016-17 and the players’ player in 2011-12.
Accordingly, he is either viewed as a genius unappreciated in his own time or a very good player lacking in defining seasons, matches and moments.
The truth probably lies somewhere in between – in the subtleties beyond goals and assists – in his ability to pick, time and weight a pass, to hold possession in tight spaces under pressure, to orchestrate attacks with the knowledge of where every other player is on the pitch.
Silva is not and never has been an individualist. That is a disadvantage when it comes to discussing where this player or that player sits in the pantheon, but it has been to City’s extraordinary benefit. He will leave Manchester with four Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five League Cups and potentially a Champions League winners’ medal.
Pep Guardiola had one word to sum up the Spaniard’s Etihad career on Friday afternoon. “Extraordinary,” he said.
“The amount of games, the huge quality in the games he played, the titles.” He is one of the players on which the modern, Mansour-era City was built along with Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Touré and last man standing Sergio Aguero. “Always this club will be grateful to him.”
The player himself is simply happy enough doing what he does for a living.
“I think I have said this once before, when you are young you don’t dream about all of this,” Silva said.
“You dream about becoming a footballer, a professional footballer, you dream of playing in the top flight, but you never think about all the things that you could possibly achieve. Even more so now when I look back at everything I have achieved I could never have imagined it, even in my wildest dreams.”
Contrary to the perception, there have been signature performances – the 6-1 at Old Trafford, which tipped Manchester’s balance of power City’s way springs immediately to mind – but Silva’s excellence has been steady, constant and consistent rather than a case of burning brightest and then burning out.
“I have always tried to do my absolute best, to always behave well and I have tried to work very hard too. I hope that people have enjoyed my football for all of these years.” How does he want to be remembered? “As a good guy, as a good guy that enjoys football. I hope the people enjoyed my football as well.”