Fabio Silva isn’t wasting a minute in his quest to prove that the £35million Wolverhampton Wanderers paid FC Porto for his services was money well spent. The 18-year-old striker has endured a difficult start to life at Molineux and hasn’t featured under Nuno Espirito Santo since the dismal 4-0 defeat to West Ham last month. After two substitute appearances in the Premier League and a tough first start against Stoke City in the Carabao Cup, Silva has been given a watching brief in Wolves’ last three fixtures.
Nuno Espirito Santo said “He is working very hard. Every minute of the training session has to be useful. He has been involved in the previous games, not in the best moments, not with a favourable scoreline, so it’s hard. He’s a goalscorer and he can help us. It requires time. In Compton he is doing very well. He has the squad to help him and he is starting to speak better English and communicate better. It’s step by step, but he’ll get that. It’s very important, It’s the way we speak to each other, it’s the way they communicate. Our key words are spoken during the game in English. Information, instructions, all the details, it’s always in English. If you speak one word of English mixed with Portuguese, French, Spanish, those in front of you will help. The first thing is to not be afraid, even if you say a stupid thing, don’t be afraid. Everything is new, Fabio was involved in some games in the first division of Portugal, he did well but he doesn’t have enough (experience). He’s very young, physically he felt it, especially in the game against Stoke. Now he’s getting ready, realising with our help what he has to do to take advantage of his talent. He has to improve, he has to grow and he has to compete – but he’ll be ready.”