Fabio Silva
After a performance against Luton full of invention, pace and movement, Fabio Silva still had enough in his locker to throw reporters off balance in his interview on the Molineux touchline. The 21 year old had clearly been his team’s player of the match, had his name chanted throughout and has to be a strong contender to feature in Julen Lopetegui’s Premier League side as the manager looks to add goals to the lowest scorers in the division last season. So, all that remained was for the striker to say how much he was looking forward to the season. Job done. Instead, just as we anticipated him going one way, he went the other. Does he see himself having a great season at Wolves?
Fabio Silva said: “I don’t know what is going to happen until August 31. I think there are things I look for the direction and for my direction, I don’t know what is going to happen. But if I stay I will give 100 per cent for this club. I always do this. In football, some things don’t depend 100 per cent on you. It is about the club, it is about the people who work with me, my agent. It is not 100 per cent my decision but we are going to see (what is) the best solution for both sides and after that we are going to decide.”
Fabio is under contract until 2026 but his future has been the subject of speculation ever since he moved out on loan last season, spending the year at Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven and scoring 16 goals in total. He’s returned to a club that has dramatically cut back on spending this summer as he, Matheus Cunha and Sasa Kalajdzic compete for places up front in a slimmed down squad. Wolves wouldn’t get back the £35m they paid Porto for him in 2020 if they sold him now but his stock will rise if he can follow up his impressive year on loan with more performances like Tuesday’s against Luton. Although hesitant on the subject of his future, there were no clarifications as he give his thoughts about the support he received from the stands on Tuesday, in fact ever since he came to Molineux.
Fabio Silva said: “I am so happy. I need to feel this confidence from the team, from the players, from the staff, from the fans. So, it’s good to come back and see the way they love me, the way they appreciate my game, the way I play. So, I am very happy to be here. As I said before, I am going to try to help the team with my football. Since I came to Wolves, since the first day, I have felt the love from the fans. Sometimes in the bad moments, they stay behind me and they don’t let me down, they stay behind me all the time. I appreciate that a lot. I always say the fans are the most important thing in football, without them we are not the same. I want to say to the fans, thank you for your support. I hope you stay behind me all season.”
The Portugal under-21 international only scored four goals in his 17 Premier League starts and 37 substitute appearances after his then club record move from Porto but plenty of fans saw enough in his performances to want him given a run in the side rather than sold or loaned out again. It can’t have been easy for the then teenager to make an instant impact following his move from Porto, especially with a £35m transfer fee adding to the pressure. But he is philosophical about that, saying he has learned from the experience and doesn’t worry about critics who don’t understand his game.
Fabio Silva added: “This is normal in football. This is why I think sometimes it is good for me in some ways because I came here at 18 years old, to the Premier League, the best league in the world. I hadn’t played many games in Porto either so everything was quick. I had to prove quickly to everyone. Everyone expects 30 goals a season! Sometimes you need time to understand the club, the team mates, the way they play. Sometimes you see players who are 30 and they need time so imagine at 18 years old. But I don’t listen to those people around who don’t understand. They aren’t inside the dressing room or see the work I do outside the dressing room with my people. I always care how the people who love me and care about me see me. I try to be better. As for the other ones, I don’t care.”
Effort has never been an issue for the striker but he feels he has returned to Molineux a better player for regular games out on loan last season.
Fabio Silva said: “I feel amazing. I feel happy again, I needed to go out to feel the happiness again to score goals, to be important. Me and the club together found a solution and we felt the most important thing for me in my career was to go out for one year. That was to play, to have more minutes, to fail and to have some mistakes because at my age sometimes it is important to have mistakes but then afterwards you know you are going to play again. If you have mistakes but play again, I think this is the most important. You feel important and feel the love from your team mates and the fans. It was very important for me to go out for one season.”
He rejects the idea that he has come back to Wolves with a point to prove as that would suggest he was somehow less motivated in his first spell.
Fabio Silva said: “I am a player for Wolves and I am going to do the same like I do always, to try to help the team and put on the pitch my football, the way I play, my runs, my energy. That is what I try to do, I don’t have anything to prove to anyone. What I have to prove is to be myself every day, to be myself in every single game. After, with the support from the fans and from my family and friends, everything is going to happen.”
