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) -
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) -
- 
