Bernardo Silva still hunting exit door but love for him at Man City remains

It is 2042. A 48-year-old Bernardo Silva has just completed his shift in the Manchester City midfield. It included 13km of running, but effort was allied with quality on the ball and the tactical nous his manager valued. And yet he isn’t entirely happy. Like every summer for two decades and more, he sought to leave but found himself trapped in the most luxurious of prisons, a brilliant footballer condemned to play in a brilliant team while being exceptionally well paid.

And if that gets him precious little sympathy and may not be an entirely accurate foretelling of the future, Silva is an illustration that Frenkie de Jong is not the only midfielder at the centre of a strange saga involving Barcelona and a Manchester club. There could have been a finality to the Portuguese’s afternoon on Saturday – he was the last player off the pitch, applauding all four stands, giving his shirt to a spectator – which had the appearance of a fond farewell; except this may not be goodbye at all. He has looked for an escape route in previous summers but is still at City.

open image in gallery

His may be a unique situation. He would get in almost any team in the world – Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan tried to render City an exception with their excellence against Bournemouth – and joining virtually any other would see him trading down.

He seems to prefer one of the worst Barcelona teams of the last 35 years to perhaps the best in City’s history when, as De Jong can testify, dreams can turn sour at the Nou Camp, even if those ambitions only consist of being paid the sums agreed in a contract.

And the City family are united in wanting to keep him. The loudest ovation of the 4-0 win over Bournemouth was not reserved for Erling Haaland’s home debut or Gundogan or De Bruyne’s sumptuous goals, but Silva’s introduction.

Pep Guardiola can sound peculiarly open about his possible departure, from namechecking Silva as one who wanted a transfer in 2021 to saying on Friday that he did not know what would happen, but there are few footballers he loves more: this is not a case like Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus or Oleksandr Zinchenko, whose desire for first-team football was facilitated but who were not as integral to his plans. “I want Bernardo Silva here 100 percent, or 110 percent,” he said this week. “I love him, I go weak when I talk about him. He is a special person.”

His team-mates’ affection for him is clear, too. “He knows,” said De Bruyne. “I think he’s very loved.” The Belgian is a straight talker who nevertheless sounded unconcerned. Perhaps he recalled previous summers when Silva thought of pastures new, perhaps he deemed it unlikely that Barcelona would somehow pull a 23^rd or 24^th lever to purchase and register him. “The way that I see it, I think that he will be here so there’s nothing that I’m worried about,” De Bruyne added. “Whatever happens he is great for us and I expect him to be here with us this year.”

open image in gallery

And if there are some reasons that have prompted Silva to ponder a future elsewhere, most notably his unhappiness during life in lockdown in Manchester, his wanderlust gave way to wonderful football. Arguably only Mohamed Salah performed better in the Premier League in the first half of last season; Guardiola would argue no one was superior in 2018-19.

That magnificence would make him hard to replace, and virtually impossible in the last two weeks of a window. Maybe, while Guardiola gives the impression he is waiting for events to unfold, his comments are actually underpinned by a confidence that Silva is going nowhere.

If so, he will feel the odd man out again. City had sufficient allure to bring in Haaland, perhaps the world’s most coveted striker, and have kept De Bruyne, one of the game’s finest midfielders, with rather fewer alarms. Barcelona can exert a gravitational pull, as people as different as Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha show, and perhaps Silva hoped to name his dogs after players at the Nou Camp instead of John Stones, but City’s efforts at persuasion on Saturday showed how much they appreciate their selfless superstar. And if De Bruyne is right and Silva is going nowhere, maybe this season is Groundhog Year for him. And perhaps the next campaign will be, too.