We think it’s only fair to announce that Fabio Silva is a fail. The Portuguese striker, absurdly overpaid for by former Wolves boss Nuno Santo, was a dismal flop at Molineux, and current boss Gary O’Neill just isn’t interested in him one bit.
£35M invested on a kid who had done well with Porto youth but in senior football for them had 3 goals and 2 assists in 21.
It’s not bad, for 500 minutes or so, but £35M? Porto saw Nuno coming.
He crashed hard at Wolves. 5 goals, 6 assists in 72 appearances under Santo, then replacement and countryman Bruno Lage before new manager Julen Lopetegui dumped him on loan to Anderlecht then PSV, where, in fairness, he did ok – 15 goals and assists in 32 in Belgium and 7 in 19 in Holland. It’s adequate.
But the pressure at Rangers is unlike anything, and at Ibrox it’s 4 goals in 19. No assists.
Forget Belgium, it’s a pretty weak league. Doing good numbers there doesn’t mean a lot, the best of Belgium move elsewhere. In Holland, the 7 in 19 isn’t overly inspiring. And 4 in 19 at Rangers pretty much sums it up.
This isn’t a £35M striker, it’s a £5M striker at most (and we’re being generous). And of course, what are we all talking about today?
Yes, ‘that’ dive yesterday.
After all the nonsense with Rangers fan groups trying to defend his ridiculous swan diving v Celtic, it came home to roost as the forward ran towards an easy chance and guess what?
His diving instincts kicked in, he lost control of himself and he threw himself to the floor in a hilarious, inexplicable and comical dive with the goal at his mercy.
This was him not in control of his own actions, and he just threw himself to the floor to get a penalty. Instead of slamming the ball home and scoring the easiest goal of his life.
This was pure training and cognitive instinct kicking in, and it was one of the most absurd things we’ve ever seen on a football pitch.
He lost his place for this match, and we’d like to see him remain as far away from the XI as usual.
He flirted with being ‘ok’ for a while, but it’s clear that Rangers shouldn’t dare to contemplate making this deal permanent.