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Adrien Silva - Sporting Lisbon

DubaiSpur

Ian Walker
A bunch of people on Twitter are piping up claiming that we've made a 26 million pound bid for this guy that Sporting has accepted - their sources from Portugal are apparently primarily A Bola and Jornal de Noticias (the former not very credible, the latter much more so, apparently), who have both picked up on the news today.

https://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=680980 - the A Bola article in question, I believe.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/6l9m6y/jornal_de_notícias_report_that_sporting_lisbons/

The r/soccer link that claims that Jornal de Noticias have reported on him accepting our offer isn't a direct link to the news source - it's a link to Hotspur HQ, which in turn cites the news source, but a quick scan of Jornal de Noticias' web page doesn't reveal any matches for a keyword search of 'Adrien Silva' or 'Tottenham' within the last few weeks. Maybe it's in the print edtion, I don't know. Either way, the Portuguese fans on r/soccer (namely, the SCP fans in that linked r/soccer thread) are adamant that if Jornal de Noticias says something, it's usually very credible, so if they *have* said it, we're probably on pretty solid ground here given the unambiguous nature of the statement (i.e, we *have* made a 26 million pound bid that *has* been accepted by both Sporting and Silva himself).

Anyway, if this is true (and that is a *big* if), it's not entirely surprising given that Silva's popped up in rumors about our targets for the past year (I believe we were linked with him last August to begin with), and the man himself's been pretty open about wanting to move on (even going as far as announcing that he was leaving to join Leicester in January, a move that apparently fell through at the last minute). It is, however, surprising given that a) he's 28 and will be 29 in March, b) has no Prem experience, which will make an adjustment to the league harder (and time is not on his side in that regard given his age), and c) he's not particularly tall (1.75m, I believe), strong or quick - he's apparently an all-action central midfielder, but that's not a position we're particularly short in.

So, what do you folks think? The r/soccer thread I've linked above paints a *very* promising picture of him - leader, captain of his club, respected by his teammates and the fans for his commitment and leadership, all-action midfielder with a penchant for constantly closing down the opposition and a good all-round technical player - can score, can pass intelligently, has a knack for dribbling and can hold his own in the middle. In fact, his all-round ability is probably why Sporting fans there are suggesting that he could be either a destroyer (presumably like Wanyama) or a Dembele-rotation option without any hassle. An opinion backed up by this guy....


...who also seems confident that this is happening, and appears to be a Portuguese football 'analyst' of some sort, albeit not one I've heard of.

So what do you folks think? Obligatory highlights video below (from a year ago, but all the recent ones have atrocious music) -

 
26mil is not going to make anyone happy here ... 27mil is what gets the fans going

Fair :p . The thing that excites me is that those Sporting fans on r/soccer are saying 26 million is too *little* - they apparently really do adore him, and one guy suggested that the only way Sporting would accept such an offer would be if Silva himself asked the board to settle for that amount. Which speaks positively about a lot of things - his ability, yes, but also his character, his commitment to the clubs he plays for (or Sporting, at least) and the concurrent respect he enjoys from the fans and presumably the board too (otherwise they'd have no reason to accept his request, would they?).

Again, it feels like it's unexpected in terms of his age, his profile and his physical attributes relative to our existing options in that CM role, but it also feels really exciting if it does come off - which is still a big if, admittedly.

So I'm excited, at least. :)
 
An ITK said we weren't interested earlier when we were linked,
but there's a vibe now that this transfer is actually about to happen.

Experienced leader and fighter with decent skill level. More competition in a midfield that sometimes look weak when Dembele is out.
Bad news for Onomah's chances of a Spurs career though ..
I do however think it makes us stronger for the coming season - I don't want to see Wanyama AND Dier playing together again.
 
Weird one, paying so much for a 28-29 year old is so unlike Levy, but after Sissoko it shows anything is possible these days.

Squad strenghtener I guess.
 
An ITK said we weren't interested earlier when we were linked,
but there's a vibe now that this transfer is actually about to happen.

Experienced leader and fighter with decent skill level. More competition in a midfield that sometimes look weak when Dembele is out.
Bad news for Onomah's chances of a Spurs career though ..
I do however think it makes us stronger for the coming season - I don't want to see Wanyama AND Dier playing together again.

Well thank fudge that you are not the manager ... you may have to unfollow spurs next season for a lot of games
 
From what I have have read of him it sounds a truly uninspiring signing - my guess would be it's paper talk
 
Weird one, paying so much for a 28-29 year old is so unlike Levy, but after Sissoko it shows anything is possible these days.

Squad strenghtener I guess.
Dont think its weird at all. Poch isnt stupid, and as great as it is having a squad full of youngsters you arent going to win anything without a couple of quality experienced players and in todays market they are going to cost £££.....
 
Experienced leader and fighter with decent skill level. More competition in a midfield that sometimes look weak when Dembele is out.
Bad news for Onomah's chances of a Spurs career though ..
I do however think it makes us stronger for the coming season - I don't want to see Wanyama AND Dier playing together again.

At the start of last season when these two were forced together in CM it looked defensive, uncreative and just a bit bland.

I was very much an advocate of Moose/Wanyama, Moose/Dier BUT never Wanyama/Dier.

Yet once again, what i forgot, was it was early days and what i have learnt is these issues/problems/challenges (call them what you will) are Poch's expertise and one by one he resolves them and gets them right.

Most of our play revolves around a system and as long as you have players that can take things onboard, then in Poch's world it is just time on the training ground to knock it in to shape and get things right.

I actually remember having a moment at one of last seasons games (towards the backend) thinking 'wtf was i worrying about, i need to stfu and let Poch work his magic'...........and im gonna, his track record deserves it.
 
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