Posted on Friday, 1st June 2012 by James Eff
I have been watching him for a long time and I can assure you that Wellington Silva may have come from a favela but he is no Carlos Vela. He is no Denilson either.
Make no mistake about it; this lad is a footballing Houdini. He can squeeze between the most improbable gaps in defence and literally walk his way to the goal. Ask Norwich, or Dagenham and Redbridge where he scored two goals and set up another in a closed-door friendly.
His looks remind me of Chris Eubank, the mercurial boxer who terrorised the middleweight and super middleweight divisions. To weigh Silva, you have to pitch him against Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and add a lot of Brazilian flair and deft arrogance you normally associate with the likes of Ronaldinho and Kaka. That is when Silva shines. He is quick, strong, versatile and elegantly tricky for defenders who revel in dishing out meaty tackles for apparently no reason. This is the quality you only find in Brazilian and Argentinean front and middle men, and some upcoming English talents such as The Ox.
Don’t take my word for it, check this out. You will understand what I mean when I say Houdini:
I am not selling Silva here. He is already an Arsenal asset. What I am trying to do is take the shield off so you could see him better. He is young, but to use that youthfulness to underestimate him is a big mistake. Remember what you said about The Ox when he came to The Emirates? ‘A waste of money!’ someone screamed. It did not take you long to change your mind did it? The Ox is the only Arsenal player ever to have caused fans to boo Wenger for substituting, after the player’s masterful performance against Manchester United. That’s what I am talking about here. Silva has a taste for debut goals and he does it with steadfastness; take Alcoyano for example.
In 2009 he was the youngest member of the Brazilian Under-17 FIFA World Cup team, one year younger than his team-mates. Between 2008 and 2009 he played 11 times for the team and scored five goals. He may have missed the 2012 Olympic team due to the limited playing opportunity that was given to him in Spain, but he is certainly not overlooked by the Brazil team.
He told transfermarkt.co.uk:
‘I am working hard to prove that I am able to play for Arsenal´s first team. That is my goal.’
Some fans have talked about his temperament (attitude, to put it bluntly). But any 17-18-year-old taken from his country to live in Frangistan would do the same; he wants playing time. If I were taken to Eldorado at that age I would want my fair share of time on ball, and of course I would miss the fish and chips too.
To his credit, temperament is a key ingredient that distinguishes determined and competent players from rubber ducks who are only good at floating (I am not going to name names but we have quite a few rubber ducks at Arsenal at the moment).
With that bit of temperament I put Wellington Silva in the category of Rooney and Tevez. This is no mean feat. And as dark clouds hover over The Emirates, it’s time to ditch flip-flops and bring in the Wellies.
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Tags: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arsenal, Carlos Vela, Wellington Silva
Posted in View From The Sphere | Comments (19)
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June 1st, 2012 at 6:05 pm
lovely player, can’t wait to see him on the left and Alex on the right.when can he arrive?
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June 1st, 2012 at 6:11 pm
u realise hes suffered a serious injury….?
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June 1st, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Injury isnt that serious and he is expected to be fit for pre season training…….still so was jack wilshire last season
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June 1st, 2012 at 7:29 pm
Brilliant, but will be more jubilant when I see him in action next season, I just find it hard to believe that anything good can happen to arsenal these days
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June 1st, 2012 at 7:31 pm
I agree! This is a player Arsenal should go crawling to the FA and beg that he be given a special talent award.
Because no one at Arsenal bothered to arrange with clubs he had been loaned to a development program, this lad had, had poor experiences. Why I keep saying our Youth Director of Football is lazy.
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June 1st, 2012 at 7:31 pm
I agree! This is a player Arsenal should go crawling to the FA and beg that he be given a special talent award. Because no one at Arsenal bothered to arrange with clubs he had been loaned to a development program, this lad had, had poor experiences. Why I keep saying our Youth Director of Football is lazy.
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Paul-N Reply:
June 2nd, 2012 at 12:13 pm
So you know exactly what is going on, innit?
You have no idea what the deal is, so why the darts?
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June 1st, 2012 at 7:48 pm
To say he’s no vela or denilson is a bit premature. Vela was good enough to play for arsenal but never got the chance. If silva really is as or more talented than vela (beyond just the dribbling skills, which are pretty incredible), then great, but then he should be given the chances and not left to rot as vela was.
Denilson’s big problem was also never talent, for his position he was very good, and capable of puuting on a good show against the best of them, his problem was complacency, and that can affect even the most talented players. Silva looks like someone who’s driven to do well, but looks can be deceiving, and time will tell.
This is obviously a very talented player, but we have him, oxlade, miyaichi and joel campbell, all competing for 1-3 positions in the team currently occupied by senior players, so it’s extremely unlikely that they all could make it. I think they’re all immensely talented young players, each with a different set of skills, so it’s going to be interesting to which of them manages to stand out in the coming months/years.
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June 1st, 2012 at 8:02 pm
When he comes to us he needs game time, more game time and…oh yeah, game time. It doesn’t matter who loses their place but he has to play. I’ve seen him a lot and he is something special. To say he’s in the same bracket as Tevez and Rooney will become an insult to him. That’s how good he could be be. The sky is the limit for him. He runs and shoots like Henry and has the trickery and guile of Messi. We should all be really excited about this guy….i know I am!!!
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June 1st, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Hope that after coming to the 1st team within a year, he will not burn out like wilshere(no harms meant)
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June 1st, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Pls wenger bring him 4 FA, Carling cup nd EPL cos walcott nd gervinho wil always flatter 2 deceive unless competition mght mak dem better.
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June 1st, 2012 at 9:13 pm
I agree with what you said about his attitude. Come from the favelas into Spain and you’re gonna take a lot of the luxuries you never had back home, maybe he should have kept his head down a bit more but you can’t really blame the kid.
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June 1st, 2012 at 10:04 pm
maybe he should have stayed in brazil for another year like fluminense asked arsene wenger refused then they dumped him from the first team.
had he played more games back in brazil he would have been full international by now. this bungling arsenal management still trusts spanish club with our youth.
i think if he doesn’t win special this time he should go back to brazil and get noticed by national coach. brazil is a footbal nation it only takes a few caps to gain uk permit.
he’s better off there than being stuck in spanish second division.
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June 1st, 2012 at 10:08 pm
personally i am hoping arsenal fc can make effort to get him visa this summer, can they hire david dein part-time?
we signed uncapped south americans when he was around. after him everything became difficult for arsenal.
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June 1st, 2012 at 10:16 pm
am surprised that people still believe in giving the young talents a chance,
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June 1st, 2012 at 10:35 pm
@erick
you can join the board and spend your millions on superstars.
even man city have youth academy. sczesny, coquelin,wilshere,miquel, frimpong maybe we will see gnabry. ozyakup, afobe next season.
the idea of football academy is to pick 2 or 3 good players to join the first team the rest are just there to train and we will be released for small fee to go play football somewhere else.
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June 2nd, 2012 at 8:39 am
fingers crossed for a work permit
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June 2nd, 2012 at 9:06 am
I wonder if Arsenal is looking for a youth director of footfall?
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June 2nd, 2012 at 12:26 pm
I hope he is good but no need to dis Vela or Denilson. Vela was is excellent form in La Liga mind you, while this young man had to go to a 2nd division team in spain. That is not to say that young Silva will not be better but he will have to work hard, have the right attitude and prove it.
I think Denilson’s biggest issue was being derided constantly by the support, a proper scapegoat. When he first some on the scene he was excellent, had some long term back injury and needed time, but Arsenal many Arsenal supporters dont care about the facts.
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