Wellington Silva is a player that confuses many Arsenal fans. Back at the end of 2009, Arsene Wenger signed him for a fee around £3.9 million after he impressed on trial and put 4 past the Norwich youth team. At the time he was deemed to be one of the most exciting young prospects to emerge from Brazil, having been watched by Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Chelsea. So yeah, he was a pretty big deal at the time.
Unfortunately, if you look at his present situation, his future at the club is unclear. Ever since signing for Arsenal he has been hampered by a lack of a work permit meaning he has been forced to go out on loan. Now I cannot, in all honesty, say that I ever watched him play on loan apart from a few YouTube compilations. It seems that he lacks end product but is a more than capable dribbler with excellent ball control. In that respect he is similar to Raheem Sterling, although he is yet to be proven in the Premier League. However, at the end of last season. Silva was granted his permit to play in England and thus finally has his chance to prove just exactly what all the hype that surrounded him was all about.
Sadly though, I don’t think that Silva will make it at Arsenal for a number of reasons. He has no experience in the Premier League, and the experience he does have comes from a few disappointing seasons in Spain where he didn’t really shine. Secondly his situation is very much like that of Joel Campbell; I don’t think he will get the opportunities to truly show how good he is. At present Arsenal have a plethora of options; Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott, the Ox and Serge Gnabry taking up the wing positions and Wenger has also been known recently to play Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey out on the right which only pushes Silva further down the pecking order.
In reality, I expect Silva to be given roughly 2-3 games either off the bench or starting to prove what he is worth. Afterwards, unless a wave of injuries hits our squad in which case he has to play, he will go out on loan to another Premier League club, or even a Championship club. From there I can see him either underperforming or being struck by injury meaning he gets very few minutes on the pitch. Following this, much like Ryo Miyaichi was, he will be shipped off abroad in a last ditch attempt to prove he is a worthy Arsenal player after which Wenger will decide enough is enough and get rid.
Now I hope this isn’t the case because ever since I found out that Arsenal had signed him I have been waiting and waiting, hoping that he will get his chance to cement a place in the squad. As everyone knows with Alexis, the South American’s have a certain flair about their play which we have only really seen recently in the Premier League. Now I’m not saying that Silva is the same calibre as Alexis, but I argue he can offer something very similar. From what I have seen, he has incredible ball control and is partial to the odd bit of skill, much like Sanchez. The only problem I see with Silva is that he lacks end product. He has not had a single season so far where he has stood out for his tallies of goals and assists.
It’s difficult to say exactly what will happen with Silva. I hope for his sake, after having waited this long that he will perform well enough in training and pre-season (despite not being taken to Singapore for a pre-season tour) to repay the initial faith Wenger had in him and so earn a place in our team.
If he doesn’t then he will just end up like Joel Campbell and Ryo Miyaichi who’s initially promising careers look set to be carried out at other clubs. What a shame that would be.
