Tom Oldfield
Manchester United have never struggled to fill the right wing position. As the club began to assert their authority on the Premiership in its formative years, Andrei Kanchelskis took the league by storm with his pace and eye for goal.
As Sir Alex Ferguson switched to youth, David Beckham arrived on the scene and held down the right wing role for season after season with a stunning array of cross-field balls and dazzling free-kicks. The Red Devils maintained their stranglehold on the title and added Champions League glory in 1999.
Then came Portuguese young gun Cristiano Ronaldo, a name that would soon be known all over the globe. He took a few seasons to settle but once he did he was unstoppable, taking goalscoring from the wing to a new level. Despite his exit, there is little doubt that Ferguson will soon find a reliable replacement on the right.
The left wing is a totally different story, though.
Ferguson has worked hard to ensure smooth transitions from year to year, team to team. Yet for all his clever decision-making on the right wing, he has found it nigh on impossible to track down a worthy successor to Ryan Giggs on the left.
Jesper Blomqvist tried and failed. Nani still has a lot to learn and may leave Old Trafford before August. Plenty of other youngsters have been earmarked for the role but no one has earned the right to fill the Welshman’s boots. And so, Ferguson is again looking to recruit a left midfielder.
Armed with a large transfer kitty, which has been greatly enhanced by the £80M sale of Ronaldo to Real Madrid, he need look no further than Valencia’s David Silva.
Valued in the region of £25M, Silva possesses the necessary attributes to finally end Ferguson’s sleepless nights over replacing Giggs. The Spaniard, a vital part of his country’s glorious Euro 2008 success, is just 23 and his poise, dribbling and creativity have made him one of the summer’s hottest properties.
Wayne Rooney played a chunk of games on the left wing, particularly towards the end of the campaign, but most pundits agree that his best position is as a central striker. Forced to cope without Ronaldo’s eye for goal next season, Rooney must take over that mantle and Silva could be the perfect sidekick.
There is much still to be decided at Old Trafford. It appears that Carlos Tevez is on his way but is misfit Dimitar Berbatov staying? Is French starlet Karim Benzema set to arrive? Or even the highly-rated and prolific David Villa? The first decision for Ferguson, though, should be to snap up Silva, Villa’s club colleague at Valencia.
At around 5”7, the midfielder, who can operate centrally and on the right too, is not the physical specimen that Cristiano Ronaldo is but his style of play makes him a worthy successor to Giggs. His probing and careful passing, combined with his ability to torment full-backs and link up play, would create countless chances for Rooney, Berbatov and whoever else the club buys to bolster the attack.
He is an energetic presence with a genuine love for the game and, therefore, would have no issues coping with the heavy fixture pile-up of life in the Premier League, while also challenging in Europe. Returning to the Champions League is clearly vital for a player of his pedigree.
Silva ought to score more goals, admittedly, but he has the capability to do so. After all, who could forget his rocket strike at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea in 2007? It is an area of his game that would surely improve with age, especially under Ferguson’s watchful eye and with United’s attacking mindset.
There is no doubt that the Spaniard has a big future and Old Trafford would be an ideal home for him if Ferguson can get the chequebook out quickly enough. And so, as United look to bounce back from the Champions League final heartbreak and the departure of Ronaldo, there could yet be a Silva lining.
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