Manchester City say goodbye to club legend David Silva
After ten years at the club, Manchester City legend David Silva will depart the blues at the end of season, having won eleven major trophies and making over 400 appearances in all competitions.
After ten years, eleven major trophies, and 400 appearances, Manchester City legend David Silva is leaving the Etihad.
The Spanish midfielder has managed to win an impressive four Premier League titles, two FA Cups and five EFL trophies.
It remains to be seen, however, whether he will leave the club with a Champions League winner’s medal in his hand, the only major honour missing from his time at the club.
It would certainly be the best going away present for the Spanish international, who also has two wins at the European Championships and a World Cup to his name.
Such success is above and beyond what Silva ever thought he would enjoy in his career:
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“When I look back at everything, I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined what I would achieve,” Silva said.
“When you are young, you don’t dream about all of this.
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“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.”
While it may seem a distant memory in the face of all that he has achieved in Manchester, David Silva’s transfer to the Citizens was largely down to the financial troubles of his former club, Valencia.
“Why did I leave Valencia? Because the club needed me to,” Silva admitted, not long after he joined City.
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“I was happy there and wouldn’t have left, but the situation the club was in demanded it.”
In the end, the Spanish club in the end accepted a bid of £25m for Silva.
Given his success in the last ten years, this seems like a a bargain price, but even in 2010 it was a massive steal for City.
Pep Guardiola has called Silva “one of the best” players he has ever known. And this is coming from a man who has worked with too many world-beaters to count.
Premier League players, both past and present, have also sung the praises of the little midfielder known as El Mago (the magician).
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Jamie Carragher, back in 2017, called Silva City’s “best ever player” and Alan Shearer put the Spaniard in the same bracket as “Thierry Henry at Arsenal, Manchester United’s Eric Cantona or Silva’s Manchester City teammate Sergio Aguero”.
Peculiarly, despite these plaudits, Silva has, surprisingly, received few individual awards during his time at City.
The 34-year-old has won only one Premier League Player of the Month award and has appeared in the League’s team of the season only twice.
For the fans, some believe the Spanish maestro is destined to remain dwarfed by the likes of modern City legends such as Kompany and Aguero.
The founder of CityXtra, Freddie Pye, told The Manc that Silva “will always be in the shadow of the likes of Kompany, Aguero, and Yaya Toure in the eyes of other football fans, purely down to these players having scored goals that ultimately won trophies.”
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Freddie believes that when it comes to standout moments for Silva, it is not about goals.
“City fans will fondly remember the assists, the moments of magic, the gliding across the surface effortlessly,” he argued.
There have been many of them.
Silva’s sumptuous through ball to Edin Dzeko set up City’s sixth goal in their famous 6-1 thrashing of United at Old Trafford; voted one of his best moments at the club.
Another fond memory was his assist against Wigan back in 2011, where he managed to bypass three opposition players with ease to slide a perfect ball through to Aguero to bag his hat-trick.
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And, of course, who could forget Kompany’s winning header against United back in April of the 11/12 season? A goal, which effectively won the blues their first Premier League title, came from a Silva corner.
Despite the standout moments, many recognise Silva’s biggest contribution to the team was his consistency and his ability to control a match despite having played under different systems, under three different managers (Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola).
Supporters are also passionate about making sure Silva’s contributions to club are recognised. Some are asking for statue of Silva to be placed outside of the Etihad, with a petition set up in aid of this mission close to 1000 signatures.
It is unclear what the future holds for the Spanish star.
But, for now, Silva is only thinking about the Champions League.
What a way to go out…
Sport
The player celebrations from Stockport County’s League Two trophy presentation are glorious
Danny Jones
If you’re a Stockport County fan, you’ve had a very good year as the Hatters have just been crowned League Two champions and will be back in the English third tier next season – safe to say they’ve been making most of the trophy celebrations.
Players and staff very much included.
Edgeley was filled with flares and even people climbing on rooftops when they officially secured promotion back to League One for the first time in 12 years – the second time they’ve managed to go up in three seasons – and there was a great attendance in Stockport town centre for the bus parade.
But it was last week’s trophy presentation back at the stadium that produced some of the most memorable scenes, with County topping off a season of impressive and often high-scoring performances on the pitch with plenty more pageantry. Cue the music.
We still haven’t stopped laughing at Kyle Knoyle.
From bringing Isaac Olaofe’s ‘Tanto’s on fire!’ chant to life to hammering home puns on names like Fraser Horsfall, no matter how obvious, these are the kind of deeply unserious celebrations we expect from a trophy presentation.
County fan or not, you’ve got to admit it looks like a good party.
It’s moments like these that players, fans and staff work hard all season for; to prat around like muppets in front of their adoring supporters. They even got assistant coach, Clint Hill, in the mix and, as it turns out, he proved to be one of the biggest ring-leaders.
We sincerely hope the Hatters keep trickling out more of these party scenes as we know there’s plenty more that fans would love to watch back.
We’re still yet to see captain Paddy Madden, who won Player of the Month for April, and the gaffer himself, Dave Challinor, who has comfortably secured his legacy as one of the club’s all-time greats.
Challinor and the club have made no secret of seriously eyeing up the Championship and who knows what else at County’s momentum continues to build, especially with a huge stadium redevelopment kicking off soon.
What do you reckon, Hatters – do you reckon a third promotion could be on the cards?
Erik ten Hag opens up on Man United’s failed Harry Kane and Frenkie de Jong transfers
Danny Jones
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has shed more light on his club’s failure to sign two key transfer targets in previous transfer windows, Harry Kane and Frenkie de Jong.
With Man United‘s interest in the proven Premier League star and England captain along with the former Ajax star turned Barcelona midfielder having been widely publicised last year, it was no secret that they were top of the wish list at Old Trafford but nothing concrete ever came of it.
Now, addressing the Kane and de Jong transfers directly for the first time, ten Hag not only admitted that he wanted to sign them but that he wasn’t given the full backing of the board to do so, suggesting that his squad therefore missed out two key talents that he hoped to build the playing style around.
Speaking to club legend Gary Neville in a Sky Sports exclusive, the 54-year-old was careful not to outwardly criticise the previous executives – the majority of whom have now departed – but confessed that they weren’t able to get either deal across the line.
As you can see, ten Hag revealed that he quickly identified Kane as the ‘proven’ striker who could have brought “30 goals” to the team but that they simply couldn’t get him, presumably down to the potential transfer fee and wage expectations.
The 30-year-old striker obviously went on to sign for German giants Bayern Munich and has now broken the record for the most goals in a debut Bundesliga season, not mention being on the verge of surpassing the highest-ever tally in a single campaign, held by Robert Lewandowski (41).
He went on to express that he has every faith in the striker they did manage to sign, insisting that 21-year-old Rasmus Højlund “will get there [to that level] but needs time” and was offered some of “the biggest potential” on the market when they snapped him up.
As for his fellow Dutchman, de Jong – who he previously coached as part of the hugely talented Ajax which impressed so many in 2018/19 – ten Hag hinted at the failure to sign him as being a key factor in why he couldn’t implement his tactics at United, telling Neville: “you have to bring in [the right] players”.
The three-time Eredivisie winner went on to explain, “You need the player with those typical assets and you can’t bring a player, say, here who has a [certain] style of play I don’t want to change his nature.”
With Neville naming de Jong specifically, ten Hag confirmed the name by adding that he envisioned a partnership between him and Casemiro or, indeed, Kobbie Mainoo eventually, adding: “They would have been really complimentary with each other, absolutely. That is the [type of player you need] if you want to play the Ajax style.
However, despite having reportedly agreed on a sizeable fee with Barcelona (the number of which has been much disputed), it came to be that de Jong seemingly didn’t want the move and preferred to stay with the Catalan club.
As a result, this meant that United had to continue experimenting with different midfield combinations and signing alternatives like Christian Eriksen and Mason Mount, who perhaps weren’t as high up on the list of transfer targets or as well suited to ten Hag’s desired approach on the pitch.
ten Hag ultimately went on to add that a laundry list of injury problems this season has also derailed the progress of his squad as a unit, with the Red Devils having been forced to utilise 31 different back-four combinations so far.
There have been some rumblings that de Jong could be open to another potential move elsewhere again this summer, but it’s fair to say that even if they were in the running it will take more than one player to get his side back on track.
You can watch the interview with Gary Neville in full HERE.
It remains to be seen how well ten Hag will be backed by the new footballing administration this summer but it is said United are willing to consider serious offers for several members of their first-team squad as they look to raise funds for any prospective incomings.