When you score a four-minute hat-trick on your debut, you’re either going to be a special talent or a player that bursts onto the scene and then fizzles out as quickly.
Unfortunately for West Ham United, Xande Silva fell into the latter category.
There’s little doubt that the east Londoners expected him to do well for them, parting with €4 million (£3.3 million) for his services, according to talkSPORT, Vitoria Guimaraes being the grateful recipients back in 2018.
However, he disappeared into the background as fast as he’d pushed himself into the spotlight, and, according to Hammers News, manager David Moyes believed he’d never make it at the top level.
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That’s obviously behind the reason that the Scot decided to sell the player to Nottingham Forest for a paltry £200,000 (per Claret and Hugh), with Hammers News also detailing the player’s 2019 bowel surgery as being another potential reason for the switch.
At just 24 years of age, there’s a strong possibility that Silva will go on to prove Moyes wrong, particularly at a club such as Nottingham Forest, where they allow their players to express themselves freely.
Despite the Championship being renewed as a tough league, Forest continue to play an expansive game, and for someone with the skill set of Silva, that’s manna from heaven.