Silva’s The Man …

By: Cesar | January 5th, 2009

In my Monday afternoon haze, I missed this ditty by Guardian Unlimited scribe Sid Lowe, who thinks David Silva’s quite good … check it out and read my last ‘post’ for more about Our Beloved.

He stands three days short of his 23rd birthday and six inches short of six foot. He’s a millionaire and champion of Europe yet still lives with his parents. Not just lives with them, in fact, works with one of them too: his dad, a former Canary Islands copper, is a security guard at Paterna, the training ground where he rolls up every morning behind the wheel of a shiny black motor. Mic-wielding mentalist Pepe Reina called him “that guy there, the very little one” and waved his hand by his knee like a patronising passer-by ruffling a toddler’s hair just in case anyone didn’t get the message. Almost everyone else, meanwhile, calls him el chino.

In fact, he was born in Arguineguín – the same Canary Islands town as Juan Carlos Valerón – and his name is David Jiménez Silva. As Reina recognised, “he might barely measure 1.70m but he has talent to die for”. Former Liverpool winger Antonio Núñez declares him “among the most impressive footballers I’ve played with” – and Núñez played with the galácticos. El País says he has “a mine in his left foot”, which might sound dangerous – especially for his left leg – but is a reflection of his talent, and there’s temperament too: Silva is a tough, feisty little sod, Luis Aragonés said he has the “most balls” in the Spain squad while a former team-mate recalled the repeated kickings he took by cooing: “he just took it – he must have horchata [Valencia's cold milk drink] for blood.” He certainly has mala leche, the bad milk Spaniards equate with fight.

This summer, Barcelona tried to sign him. And this weekend, he showed why, scoring one goal that was not allowed and two that were as Valencia climbed into second by inflicting Atlético Madrid’s first defeat in 15 with an impressive 3-1 victory. This weekend, ran the headline in AS, “David Silva danced on Atlético’s grave”; Sport found space amid the huge adverts for its unique reversible Barcelona coat – the only jacket that’s equally rubbish both ways round – to admit that someone who doesn’t play for Barça was quite good. According to Marca, he was the best present you could wish the three wise men to bring you. According to El Mundo Deportivo, he was the “motor of the week”, sponsored by car company Opel. And according to AS, he was worthy of the jornada’s Gold Award.

Which is pretty good for anyone who doesn’t play for Madrid. Better still on a weekend in which Andrés Iniesta came back from injury to score what looked like an offside goal as Barcelona beat Mallorca 3–1, prompting Lionel Scaloni – who has clearly had a very, very easy life – to declare it “the worst thing that’s ever happened to me”.

It was a weekend in which Hugo Sánchez made his debut as Almería manager and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and, ahem, “Lass” made theirs for Madrid; in which Arjen Robben, Andoni Iraola, Yaya Touré, and Aritz Aduriz scored blinders and Asier Riesgo saved penalties; and in which Juande Ramos carefully clipped his nails on the Bernabéu bench. Hell, even in his own match there was competition from comically incompetent referee Rodríguez Santiago. But still Silva was the star.

Not bad for a footballer rejected by Madrid, who joined Valencia at 14 and was singled out as a special talent at 15 only to be dismissed as a “fútbol sala player” and a “myth” by one dressing-room heavyweight when he was promoted to the first team squad. Not bad, above all, for a player starting his first match for four months on Saturday night; his first since the opening day; his first since overcoming the ankle injury that forced him into injections before every Euro 2008 game and an operation in September.

It was, said Marca, “a blessed return”. Silva had “arrived and kissed the saint”, which might not have pleased Roger Moore but delighted Valencia’s fans. The ones that bothered to turn up, anyway. “Silva,” Marca insisted, “has changed Valencia’s face”. Victory, El País added, was “all thanks to Silva”.

That’s probably pushing it but you could see their point. David Villa, Joaquín Sánchez and Juan Mata were impressive too. And if Silva has changed Valencia’s face, they haven’t exactly gone from Rosy de Palma to Elsa Pataky. Even without him (and any money), coach Unai Emery – the man who performed a miracle with Almería – had recovered the squad that was a laughing stock last season, the team that was humiliated by Madrid and Barcelona, ended up with the captain facing the president across a courtroom, and the coach Quique Sánchez Flores sacked because they weren’t top and Ronald Koeman to make sure they weren’t bottom. Without Silva, Emery even took Valencia top in week five. “They’re not missing me,” the midfielder insisted.

He was wrong. Despite Valencia’s undoubted improvements, without him the feeling remained that something was missing, even with Mata and Villa in the side. A little more creativity, a little vision, a little spirit, a little spark. A little something special.

And that’s the point: it’s not just that Valencia won with Silva back in the side – after all, they had won eight times without him – or even that he scored two great goals. It was that they played their best football at last; that with a defensive midfielder less and a visionary more, there was something more convincing about them; that they scored three but could have got five.

It was that however much Atlético showed that they may not be good enough to challenge the big boys and certainly aren’t good enough when they haven’t got everyone available – they’ve played without Simao, Maxi, Forlán or Agüero – they’ve collected just one point in the eight games and won one in five against Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Villarreal and Sevilla – Valencia were truly impressive; that, even allowing for Atlético’s “defence”, that the side that failed to score against Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla got three the day that Silva rode back into town. It was that as La Liga started up again and a disastrous 2008 was left behind, Valencia climbed back to second – and that this time you get the feeling they might even stay there.

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Silva’s The Man …

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