Of the more surprising moves this summer, Wolverhampton Wanderer’s decision to pay £36m for Porto’s Fabio Silva is definitely up there.
The 18-year-old had done little to warrant such a price during his time in Portugal, and he certainly hasn’t since arriving in England.
With just four appearances to his name so far and no goals or assists in any of them, plenty are wondering what Wolves saw in the youngster.
Of course, there’s plenty of time for that to change and, in covering his situation today, Spanish newspaper AS have some advice for the youngster.
They explain that the presence of Raul Jimenez at Molineux ‘closes the door’ for the striker and so the under 23’s are now a ‘real option’ for him in the short-term.
That’s obviously not great for the forward, who has gone ‘from puppy to wolf and from wolf to puppy’ in a matter of months and must be wondering what is going on.
The situation is similar to that of Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo at Real Madrid, with the newspaper explaining both of those players arrived at the Bernabeu for big sums in recent years.
Neither, though, made an immediate impact and instead ‘had to taste the honeys of Castilla’ before they were allowed to step up to the first team.
That was very much a ‘one step back to take two forward’ situation for either player, and it’s a tactic that worked, with both ‘in their own right’ part of Zinedine Zidane’s squad.
Indeed, Vinicius Junior has been one of Real Madrid’s ‘most outstanding players’ this season and AS urge Silva to ‘look at himself’ in a similar vein.
They say he needs to realise his passage through Wolves’ U23s is not ‘a setback on the road’ but a way to ‘gain momentum’ and force his way in Nuno Espirito Santo’s plans.
Whether he does so remains to be seen of course, but as AS point out, the example is there, and if those two players can do it in Madrid, there’s no reason he can’t follow their path at Wolves.
