COS’s Old Trafford correspondent considers the David Silva conundrum.

David Silva

Is a move for David Silva imminent? That is the question being asked by supporters of both Liverpool and Manchester United on this website. The rumour mill seems to have been working overtime on this one and we have even seen comments posted on the site claiming that a deal has already been done with the Valencia player: with fans of both North West clubs believing he is as good as theirs…

What about Manchester United?

We reported on this site recently that United had made contact, via intermediaries, enquiring over the availability of David Silva. However, despite all the reports and rumours, there have been no further developments since those initial enquiries. I`m not going to try and predict whether or not United will make a move in the future – after all there is still an awful lot of this transfer window remaining and I`m sure there will be a few surprise twists and turns – but the feeling at David Silva`s end is that, with a World Cup at the end of the season, now may not be the best time to move to another league and try and establish himself in a new environment.

Those are the facts at the moment, and people are also asking for my opinion – but we need to be careful not confuse the two. However, as people are asking, and as one poster asked: “If you were a betting man, would you bet on Silva playing in the Premier League in a fortnight`s time?” – I would have to say that I suspect he will still be at Valencia. (Guillem Belague)

So, we sold Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, that’s a big chunk of our attacking prowess gone out the door, but we did get Michael Owen, Luis Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan, but does that make up for the combined loss of the Portuguese and Argentine stars? Good question and one I have been pondering.

Obviously the replacements brought in are by no means direct like for like signings but they do help cover for the loss of two players who combined to score 101 goals in two seasons and provided ammunition for loads more, so lets not underestimate the importance to the club of both, although obviously more onus should be placed on Cristiano’s efforts in an United shirt.

So where would David Silva fit in? Well clearly as an adaptable attacker he offers us options that would be greatly improved by his presence, but how important would he be? With Valencia ploughing a furrow on the right and either Nani (showing real signs of improvement this summer) or Ryan Giggs as primary options on the left. I guess Silva would fit most comfortably in the hole behind the striker, but hang on where would that leave the other three strikers? Clearly it would be a tight squeeze to fit all our top players in such a starting eleven and the argument that a team has 50-60 games and therefore needs strength in depth is correct to a point but don’t underestimate the problems it also causes. After all this is in the end the reason Carlito left, do we really need another headache like that?

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