Silva dismisses João Mario link

I personally remember him being at West Ham, but that is about it, in the cameos I saw of him, he didn't pull up any trees, or set any fires.

Always helps from someone who has first hand knowledge, which I presume you have.

Hopefully this is a rumour and with no foundation.

That's the kind of talk that we need to hear from our Manager.

You go get him Marco.

For me, the player I saw between 5 and 3 years ago for Sporting was a fantastic player. Like a stockier version of Pienaar. Small, but tenacious. Quick feet. Moved the ball well, with excellent short passing, but not quite as accurate over the greater range. If you played him in a technical side, he would excel. He has a great one touch game. He can use his quick feet to get through congested areas. He can play wide on the right, but lacks pure pace to race down the wing. His trickery is better in confined spaces than beating a man out wide, and he's stuck on the wing more because a manager doesn't trust him in the middle.

When he's not good enough, he is a passenger and the game happens around him. He can look a little lost. It didn't happen very often for Sporting. He was mainly excellent. He was the best central midfielder, in a trio with Adrien Silva (the guy Leicester bought but registered too late to play and then never got going and ended up on loan at Monaco in a swap for Tielemens) and William Carvalho. William Carvalho sat and protected Joao and Adrien and allowed them freedom to attack. If Schniederlin sat and protected and allowed a combination of Sigurdsson or Gomes to attack with Joao then I think he could do well. At Sporting they had rapid wingers, Nani (formerly of Man Utd) on the left and André Carrillo on the right (the guy Silva took to Watford and did well for Peru in the world cup). Up front was Islam Slimani who was a big strong focal point, and Freddy Montero who was the pacy alternative. Sporting were at their best on the counter attack when Joao Mario would play a key role, with his quick feet, quick brain, and ability to slide the ball wide to the wingers.

Where Joao Mario would offer us something we struggle with is breaking through stubborn opponents. For me, we need to improve most when playing against teams who sit 11 players behind the ball. Joao Mario is a player who can help us by having the ability to play a quick one-two to beat a man and open things up. He could dovetail well with Bernard with some quick passing and open up space for someone like Sigurdsson or Richarlison. He could also speed up the transitions and allow us to move the ball much quicker, particularly getting the ball to Calvert-Lewin whilst he still has space to run into, rather than getting it to him when he has his back to goal.

What I saw for West Ham was a decent player who was just getting going. He had mixed reviews, but it seemed the more popular opinion amongst West Ham fans was that they should sign him permanently. It seems he's really struggled for Inter again this season, but it does not seem that they really gave him enough games to really show what he can do.

I think there's definitely a player there, that Silva knows him inside out, and if we bring him in, then he could be a revelation. However, if Silva of all people think that 㾻m for a player bought 3 years ago for €36m is too much, then he makes the decision for good reason.

What has happened to him?

Slimani has been pretty dismal after his decent 2016-17 for Leicester in which he scored 7 in 23, including one against us. Last season he scored one goal in the league, although he did add 4 in 3 league cup matches, and was loaned to Newcastle in January 2018. Got hurt, then suspended, did nothing.

Was loaned to Fenerbahce last summer. Complete flop in Turkey... scored one goal in the league and 3 more in the Europa League. Hasn't even made Fenerbahce's matchday squad since February.

Rumor has it Leicester will now sell him back to Sporting Lisbon for a whole lot less than the 㿈 million they paid for him. He's now 30.

But I was born an Inter Milan supporter and I guarantee you never the neroazzurri fans have reached such a unanimity in their judgment of a player, you won't find a voice outside the chorus.

The last thing I wish is for Inter to offload him to us that would be something little short of a curse for me.

By the way not sure the news made it onto the UK media but he was sent home from training last week for showing poor effort in a team where nobody seems to be trying too hard to begin with

why does Davy Klaasen spring to mind.