15 Jan 2021 21:32:16
I just want to discuss Fabio Silva as I've seen a lot of posts having an absolute go at the lad claiming he's useless and will never be any good, and even that he doesn't know how to score so will never be prolific.
Well just a few points on this:
1) For Porto's under 19's he scored 20 goals in 26 matches - I know it's a different level but it shows he blatantly knows where the net is.
2) All the big Spanish teams and others around Europe were monitoring him so he obviously has potential and the reason we had to arguably pay over the odds to secure him when we did as Porto wanted to hold onto him and sell him for more in a few years time.
3) He's 18 years old living in a new country, learning the language and traditions/ getting used to the culture in what is admittedly strange unnerving times for everyone so no wonder he's taking time to acclimatise (the plan was to bed him in slowly as very few of the top foreign players have hit the ground running in the premier league let alone a young kid) . So comparing him to Wayne Rooney is just ridiculous - I wonder how an 18 year old Rooney would have done in Spain or Italy (if you want to make true comparisons) .
4) If you watch him closely yes Fabio is missing chances but he has good touch on the ball, is a willing worker and tries to make the right runs but rarely gets given the ball to feet which is where I think his strengths lie - I'm sure given time he will show his true potential if the fans just try being supporters for a change rather than making juvenile jokes about Wolves signing a stinker/ striker.
I for one hope he proves a lot of people wrong and in a few years time is still playing for us in the premier league and Europe.
Apologies for the long post but I feel quite passionately that the lad isn't being given a fair chance by most including some of the pundits who are always trying to diminish the potential of our team as they're afraid of us breaking into the top 4 ahead of some of the "Big 6".
15 Jan 2021 22:28:25
Very good post and the young lad will be a fantastic player if he gets time, and patience. The problem wolves made for themselves was starting the season without a back up striker. Once jota was sold (for a fee we all thought was plenty) our reserve striking options were Silver, too young and Campana who got loaned out. Now it seems crazy for this to happen. We have loaned out Campana, Curtone (we know the reasons on this) , Mir, Bonatini, Ennis. Surely for the good of our club we should have kept someone back.
Curtone to start tomorrow and score 2 and become a wolves legend.
15 Jan 2021 23:34:35
Well said Wolfflea71. You're 100% right. Silva was only meant to be a bit part player this season just like Adama 2 years ago. He's been forced to make the step up out of necessity.
On another note, Neto faces a late fitness test before the derby game.
16 Jan 2021 00:11:36
Hi wolflea71.
Someone else on here posted about playing Semedo further forward. With the way things are at the moment you never know but I think it's too soon for Nuno to openly admit Semedo can't defend. Agree about Hoever. He looks excellent and should prove to be a great buy. Sorry, but don't agree on Silva. You make some good points, young kid, new country etc. All very valid. But I have seen absolutely nothing from him to suggest he'll ever be a force at this level. For the price and reputation he came with, there has not even been a glimmer of magic from him. If we'd paid 5 mil for him then he wouldn't be anywhere near the first team. He needs to be taken out of the firing line immediately to have any chance of progressing. Believe me, I really wanted him to be a success and he seems like a good kid and a hard worker but to put it bluntly, I think we've thrown 35 mil down the pan. I will be very happy to be proved wrong though.
Anyway, let's hope we're all celebrating at 2pm tomorrow.
16 Jan 2021 01:43:29
Wolfflea 71
As you are undoubtedly aware, I have been one of the more prominent and persistent of those who has castigated the club for the “Silva affairâ€.
In this post though, rather than discuss once again the points you make – which have largely been discussed at length previously, I will ask you to look at the matter in a totally different way.
Note I will, so as not to be rude, address your points in another post after this one.
At the start of the summer transfer window the club, (although it didn’t for obvious reasons make this public), knew that after the proceeds for sales – (mainly Doherty and Jota) – were taken into account, had a budget of circa £80m to spend in the transfer market.
After buying Marcal to replace the injured Otto, Semedo to replace the departed Doherty and signing Hoever and taking Vitor and RAN on loan as prospects for the future the club had roughly £35m left to address the other issues it was facing.
Namely and in order of importance 1) a back up for Jimenez made ever more essential given the sale of the only player capable of even partially covering him – Jota 2) A replacement for Moutinho whose legs had obviously gone and was not going to be able to play 38 games this year 3) A RCB as we were only a Boly injury away from having no one who could even attempt to play the role – note Boly is LCB playing out of position and 4) with the benefit of hindsight admittedly a replacement for Patricio who is now showing distinct signs of decline.
Instead of doing any of these things however we first went out and bought Silva.
I was still far from unhappy with this, after all Silva was an exciting prospect with an excellent pedigree in Portuguese youth football albeit with no real experience in adult football. Additionally, he was going to have relocate to a new country with all the issues that brings about (Language / culture/ loneliness etc) and would therefore would inevitably take time to settle.
I thought that he was being bought as a prospect and would either go out on loan to a Championship side or play in our age group sides picking up the occasional cameo in the first team in either the cup competitions or in the last few minutes of games where the result was already established. This would allow him to gain experience so that he could acclimatise to both the significantly more physical nature of football in England and the sharply faster pace adult football is played at particularly in England compared to Portuguese youth football.
I therefore assumed that he would be acquired in a suitable manner for a young prospect.
However instead of him being bought in an appropriate manner {I have written 2 lengthy posts on the methodologies for valuing investment including young footballers. These are the “options analysis†method where an array of differing outcomes is assed and valued and then discounted at rates appropriate to the risks associated with them, (the percentage chance of the outcome occurring) and then aggregated to give a fair true value or the “add on†valuation method common in the game where the buyer pays a series of payments – often open ended - as the selling club’s asset – the young player - reaches certain landmarks – games, goals, trophies etc. Think of a farmer selling simple farm land to a house builder. The builder pays a small sum up front but once planning permission is granted pays an overage – more money – to the farmer. Then as the houses are built and depending on the sale prices and sales rates achieved further payments are made to the farmer. This can result in the farmer receiving far more than he would have under the options analysis method but of course if planning permission is never given, he will receive less. However, the builder is protected from paying for building plots when all he gets is farm land, i. e. the risk and rewards are fairly shared! } we paid all of our £35m budget for him meaning that none of the other matters were even addressed. This left us incredibly vulnerable to any injuries but particularly to ones to Jimenez, Boly or our other senior midfielders like Dendonker.
This promptly blew up in our faces when, after 10 games – in which we earned 17 points a rate that would make us a challenger for a Champions league pace – Jimenez was injured.
We have since earned 5 points from 8 games a rate that would if repeated over 38 games (or you weren’t starting with 17 points in the bag after the first 10 games) see the club relegated.
One should note that this collapse in results is not entirely or exclusively due to Jimenez’s absence injuries to, Marcal, Podence and of course ironically Dendonker and Boly have all hurt us as well.
However, this broader demise, (not just Jimenez is injured and not just Silva is unsurprisingly falling short of the required standards), does nothing to alter the basic facts. Whilst it is not the purchase of Silva itself – who with the benefit of hindsight {But which should to anyone with any football nous whatsoever have been obvious beforehand! ) is a prospect, that may or may not come good in a year or two, and is not a Premier League footballer today – it is the way in which he was purchased, (that precluded us from signing an appropriate solution to 1 or more of the 4 aforementioned issues), that has caused the club to go from Champions League place challengers form and results to relegation to the Championship results and form.
Not surprisingly then people including me are unhappy. We want or dream about Champions league football not Championship football.
Although it is clearly not his fault – but the fault of the person in the club who managed this foul up – his transfer and subsequent elevation to the first team is by far the principal reason for this decline. Not only are his performances woefully inadequate but as stated above it is his bungled transfer that means the rest of the squad was unbalanced and has been totally unable to cope with the injuries we have incurred.
However I’m sure most Wolves fans don’t disagree with you and also hope he will be here playing in the Prem and Europe for many years to come.
That could and should though have been achievable without the debacle that this season is rapidly becoming if the transfer had been correctly or even rationally handled.
Sorry v v long post. I normally sadly agree with you re conspiracy theories about protecting the big 6 but tragically this v painful error that is hurting us so badly at the moment is entirely of our own making.
16 Jan 2021 11:32:53
Thefutureisoldgold, a very good post with some interesting views however whilst you mention the potential revenue from player sales, you have overlooked/ forgotten that we are facing a fine by UEFA regarding FFP.
16 Jan 2021 11:54:40
Jas - Hence the budget was only £80m INCLUDING actual player sales (not potential? ) . I agree if it wasn't for FFP we could have bought Silva and others and there wouldn't have been a problem. Sorry I didn't explicitly say this but thought it was a v long note anyway and the point has been made over and over again so I assumed well understood
Our spending is constrained by FFP thus to enable us to meet the basic requirements of the squad we should have bought Silva using the "add ons" method not via a ludicrously and totally unjustifiably high up one off up front payment.