Manchester City legend David Silva is set to slip away without the fanfare he deserves
It is sad that one of the Premier League’s modern greats may leave our game this summer with the same lack of fanfare that greeted his arrival almost 10 years ago.
When David Silva pitched up at Manchester City in late summer 2010, he was hungover — ‘still a bit p****d’ — from the party that had followed Spain’s victory in the World Cup final. So nervous was he that he may lose his medal, he still had it in his pocket. Not that he showed it to anyone. He was never that type.
He passed his medical and went straight to his hotel to lie down. ‘I was just tired,’ Silva said later. ‘The physio (at City) has always reminded me of it.’
David Silva (above) has been arguably the club’s most influential player in the past 10 years
In collecting 11 trophies at City in the decade since his £24million transfer from Valencia, Silva has been arguably the club’s most influential and consistent player. Only the prolific Sergio Aguero runs him close.
His plan to leave this summer always felt right. His unique powers have been slightly on the wane for 18 months or so.
But to go quietly, almost unseen, with the world on pause during the coronavirus pandemic, may be another unfortunate knock-on effect of the outbreak. Of his era, others have left to suitable acclaim: Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Yaya Toure. City know how to say goodbye in style. Silva — if he is lucky — will play his final games in empty stadiums and leave, literally, without a handshake.
Silva has collected 11 trophies at City in the decade since his £24million transfer from Valencia
If he gets a match ball, it may have to be sterilised first. If he is less fortunate and this season is abandoned without another of his lovely passes being played, he may never return from the family home in Gran Canaria.
Asked on a video Q&A he conducted for City this month where he would like his statue to be erected, he replied with a smile: ‘At the entrance. No, only kidding. But a lot of people have mentioned this to me on social media. I can see that I am appreciated and that makes me very proud.’
It is understood Silva’s time at City will be commemorated with a mosaic at the club’s training ground. His next move — long presumed to be back home to play for Las Palmas — is unconfirmed but may be to America or even Japan.
A return to Valencia has been mooted, too. ‘I still want to play for a few more years,’ said the 34–year-old.
The Spaniard was hungover when he was unveiled by Manchester City 10 years ago
In the longer term, Silva has recently become attracted to management, a seed germinated during his spell this season as City’s captain.
It is the sheer, uncomplicated beauty of his football that will be Silva’s true legacy, though. Some City players of his time were signed on the hoof, but not this one. Roberto Mancini had wanted to sign the Spaniard for Inter Milan when he was manager there, but could not get it done.
‘When Mancini arrived at City, Silva was the first name that he mentioned,’ a source told Sportsmail. ‘Roberto was obsessed with Silva. He felt if he could sign him then everything else in the team would work from there. In the end it was a relief that Silva came, just so the manager would stop talking about him.’
Silva proved a vital cog for Mancini’s City, just as he did for the next two coaches — Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola. His City career may not boast a moment to rival Aguero’s title-clinching goal against QPR in 2012, Toure’s FA Cup semi-final winner against Manchester United a year earlier or Kompany’s howitzer to down Leicester last April, but as a consistent body of work, his is beyond rival.
Silva was an integral member of the squads that won three consecutive tournaments
At City, they view him as one of the club’s greatest players. In Spain, meanwhile, they always knew what the English club were getting. Aston Villa goalkeeper Pepe Reina said his international team-mate had ‘talent to die for’, while national team manager Luis Aragones — under whom Silva won Euro 2008 — said Silva had the ‘biggest balls’ in the team.
Certainly Silva was brave. For his type, to thrive in the Premier League is to live with pain. The memories of years being chased around the country’s pitches will long be validated not only by a vast medal collection, but also by scars around his shins and ankles. Unlike most, Silva never wore protection.
‘I prefer to take the risks of getting an injury,’ he said. ‘If I bandaged my ankles, it would be like blindfolding my eyes.’
With the ball, his impact was profound.
The 34-year-old playmaker has been linked with a return to Valencia in the summer
Nobody has created more goals in the Premier League over the last 10 years than Silva.
Guardiola altered his position a little by asking him to sit deeper, but he has embodied the Catalan’s philosophy. Control the ball, move the ball, use it well.
The last 12 months or so have not been Silva’s best. City’s sports science stats have detected a drop in output since 2018, but elite footballers don’t need numbers to tell them when they have travelled beyond the top of the career curve.
Silva hinted he was perhaps glad his race was almost run during that City Q&A two weeks ago.
If his focus in life has shifted a little since son Mateo was born very prematurely at the start of 2018, it would be understandable. Mateo survived but it was a harrowing time. ‘Mateo has brought me some perspective,’ Silva said.
He leaves knowing exactly what he has been part of in Manchester. His natural quietness does not mean he doesn’t understand his worth.
‘When I first got here there was huge respect for United, and now I think it’s more the other way round,’ he told Sportsmail this season. ‘It is nice I have something there as a legacy.’
Silva’s impact has transcended local rivalry, but he will be missed the most in Manchester.
We must be careful with our use of vocabulary in these strange, sad times, but for Silva to exit when the lights are off seems very wrong.
A lap of honour in an empty stadium isn’t a lap of honour at all.
