New Rangers striker Fabio Silva has effectively admitted his Premier League spell with Wolverhampton Wanderers went south after the manager who took him there, Nuno Espírito Santo, moved on.

Speaking to Rangers TV on his career thus far, the 21-year-old striker, who Santo invested big money (£35M) in in the summer of 2020 for the-then Porto striker, explained that his first season in England was actually great and he was doing well under Santo, but when the Portuguese boss departed that following summer, it all went a bit wrong for him.

Now, he didn’t specifically say Santos’ exit was the reason, but he admitted his first season was great under him, and then the second season not so good.

Fabio Silva was only 18 when he joined Wolves, and for an 18-year-old to get 9 goals and assists in 37 appearances on their debut season at that level in just 11 starts is good, it’s very good.

In truth, at PSV? 7 goals and assists in 19 which is solid, and 15 goals and assists at Anderlecht in 32 which is also very good.

There’s clearly a talent here, a big one – but it’s gone a bit awry for him in the Premier League without the manager who took him to England being there.

He showed signs in Belgium and Holland that the talent is still very much there, but Rangers will be hoping for similar results to Brighton’s Abdallah Sima, who couldn’t find the right club/manager but has thrived for Rangers over the past few months.

Silva is being well-managed under Philippe Clement, and the boy looks very, very happy to be at Ibrox.

He has all the potential in the world to be a top-class striker – as we said before, we liken him in ways to Daniel Cousin of yesteryear (Clearly Tom Miller saw that article) and we hope he can have a similar kind of impact.

Rangers have a £35M striker up front now. Hopefully Fabio Silva demonstrates just why he cost Wolves that much.