When Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahayan landed in Manchester back in the summer of 2008, City were a team that struggled to finish in the top half of the Premier when he was not flirting with relegation. The Emirates money came, how could it be otherwise, with exciting transfers under his arm. The first, Robinho. But none have left the mark of David Silva on the Etihad, the player who has accumulated the most seasons (10) at City.
Although he carried the indisputable international vitola with the Spain that was the current European champion and was immersed in the conquest of the World Cup in South Africa, that of Arguineguín (Gran Canaria), 34 years old now, was not even one of the two largest investments of the citizen that summer of 2010. Yaya Touré and the wayward Balotelli surpassed him. 30 million euros led the team from Valencia to a team that, despite the ambition of the project, had not yet managed to show up for the Champions League.
A decade has passed since that signing and Europe is precisely the unfinished business of City and a Silva who will say goodbye, in Manchester or Lisbon, to his stage with the shirt skyblue. The pairing has won almost everything since City won the Premier in 2012 after 44 years of drought in the English league. A year earlier, the FA Cup reached a record in which Silva has added another 3 Premier in England, one more FA Cup, 5 League Cups and 2 Community Shield (the equivalent of the national Super Cup). A list of titles to which are added the two European Cups and World Cups that he has won with the National Team. Has defended The Red in 125 games, making him the sixth Spanish international with the most matches.
The Champions League continues to owe the footballer and his club. The 2016 semi-finals, still with Pellegrini on the Mancunian bench, have been the roof for both. Madrid, with a Fernando own goal in the return at the Bernabéu, separated them from that final. The Whites had already slowed them down in the 2012-13 group stage. Now The Madrid team is once again the obstacle to overcome on the way to the precious Orejona. The icing that City and Silva lack in their fruitful relationship of 434 games, 77 goals and 140 assists.
“The cycle closes here,” Silva said in a recent interview with Mister Chip on YouTube. The player has not yet revealed his future but his immediate desire. “We have to focus on the Champions League. We hope we can win it,” he said Sunday after playing his last game with City in the Premier League against Norwich. Madrid will try to prevent it.
The City parks the 'distraction' of the Premier
After closing his domestic season on Sunday with another win against Norwich, Manchester City already thinks without distractions at Real Madrid. The Mancunians could have prolonged their participation in national competitions until this Saturday, when Arsenal and Chelsea play the FA Cup, but City fell into the hands of the gunners in the semifinals. With that, Pep Guardiola has eleven days (counting from yesterday Monday) to prepare with his family the round of 16 in which he will receive Madrid behind closed doors next Friday, August 7 (9:00 pm, Movistar Champions League).
The great unknown in the ranks of the City is the presence of Kun Agüero. The Argentine underwent surgery on his left knee on June 24 and is rushing to meet the Whites. Guardiola is confident that he will succeed. “Hopefully, everyone will be available to play against Madrid, with the exception of Mendy, who is suspended,” commented the City coach this weekend. His has been the most fit team in the Premier after the break. Ten games in the Premier in which they have garnered eight wins and two defeats, with 34 goals in favor and only 4 against to tie the second position and the classification for the Champions in a championship that Liverpool won with seven games to go. for the end.