Feature: Valencia’s Silva Lining

"Manchester United have made an offer for David Silva, but Valencia have turned it down and that is because of the player's wishes.

"He wants to stay in Spain. We can confirm he will be starting the season in Valencia, and if does ever make a move, it won't be to the Premier League."

-David Silva’s agent Julio Llorente to Sky Sports News

Valencia: rejoice! In a summer wildly tipped to shred the entire unit to pieces, the confirmation of David Silva staying on at the Mestalla must certainly be one silver lining that Los Che supporters would be hugely pleased with.

True, there are Damocles’ swords hanging over the future of Joaquin and even David Villa but Llorente’s declaration that David Silva is indeed going to play for Valencia next season is certainly going to seep hope and optimism into the heart of Valencia.

Because in a bicycle stand, when one bicycle falls, the rest follows suit. Because when one dog barks, the others start barking too. Because one rotten apple in a basket spoils the rest.

Because the exit of one key player from the Mestalla would have triggered fears of an exodus. Because had David Silva’s agent indeed still sounded uncertain, it would have implied the pathological dragging of an unwanted saga.

The Silva Record

David Silva might still be just 22 years of age but at Valencia he is already a star and one of the pillars of Los Che’s future success. A relatively low-profile and somewhat underrated player, who featured impressively on loan at SD Eibar in 2004-2005 and Celta Vigo in 2005-2006, he burst onto the scene in the 2006-2007 season when he sparkled and dazzled both in La Liga and in the UEFA Champions League for Valencia.

Under Quique Sanchez Flores, so ridiculously sacked in late late October last year at 4:23am, David Silva expressed his versatility by playing mainly on the left side of the midfield and at times as a striker, partnering David Villa and on certain occasions when Villa was injured even replaced him.

In 2006-2007, he exhibited why Flores had been so wise to draft the player back into the Valencia set-up. He started 31 matches in La Liga and 7 in the UEFA Champions League(and scored 3 goals) and was consistent throughout the campaign.

In the disaster-strewn 2007-2008 season David Silva was one of the few, non-vocal and non-political players for Valencia as he racked up 32 starts in the league. His consistency was a boon to a largely dysfunctional Che unit as matters both on the pitch and off it went worse.

The Silva Style

Born to an Asian mother and a Spanish father, David Silva has achieved much at so young an age but yet he remains humble. Unlike several of his contemporaries, both in Spain and elsewhere, he hasn’t let the glory and the glamour barge into his head. He doesn’t release tenacious and paper-selling comments and speaks through his agent Julio Llorente.

Silva was inducted into the Valencia first team at the start of the 2006-2007 campaign precisely to replace Pablo Aimar and while Flores did try and accommodate the youngster into Aimar’s playmaking role for a while, everyone soon began to realize that Silva is at his best on the left side of the midfield, from where he can, and does, whip in deliciously accurate crosses as well as can cut inside.

So much so that at just 22 Silva managed to secure himself a starting berth for Spain in Euro 2008, something remarkable when you consider the amount of talent that the current Spanish side has.

David Silva is a young humble lad who likes to focus on football. Which is exactly what Valencia desperately need at the moment. After last season’s Ronald Koeman’s traveling circus that in the end almost became something resembling a Greek tragedy as well as a Shakespearean comedy and this summer’s (ongoing!) wild transfer speculation, the club needs to get back on track and needs to wrestle back some stability.

The Silva-Lined Valencia Future

Which it can only do by holding onto the star players. Valencia have lost much of their integrity in the last four years after Juan Soler took over and now that the architect of the club’s downhill slide has eventually packed his bag and gone fishing for good, it is time that the new management starts the difficult process of reconstructing a fallen citadel.

The Silva lining that has just appeared on an otherwise grey Valencia cloud is surely an auspicious sign.

Subhankar Mondal