Pep Guardiola has no doubt David Silva belongs in the top five of Manchester City’s greatest players.
Spanish playmaker Silva is set to leave City at the end of the season after a glittering 10-year spell at the club.
The 34-year-old World Cup winner has helped City to 10 major trophies, including four Premier League titles, since joining from Valencia in 2010.
Speaking in a new documentary about the player’s life, ‘Made in Gran Canaria’ by City TV, City manager Guardiola said: “I’d only say that he has to be proud for all that he has achieved in football because he has been consistent and, especially at this club, he will be always remembered as one of the biggest, biggest, biggest players ever to wear the Man City shirt.
“If we’re talking about the top five, David is one of them, and I don’t say that lightly.”
Silva, who made his 400th appearance for City last August, keeps a low profile off the field.
Guardiola feels that has probably affected the levels of praise he receives from the outside, but he is hugely admired by those in the game.
Guardiola said: “He’s not interested in giving interviews, social media, Twitter, Instagram, any of that.
“And it seems like people like David get less recognition than people who do that all day.
“But I’ll tell you something that he does have, and that’s the respect of his fellow professionals – of his team-mates, his rivals, his managers, managers he’s played against. And he has earned all of that.
“Some have all the respect outside but inside the changing room they have none. David is exactly the opposite and that’s the best legacy he could have.”
:: From 10am on Thursday, fans can access the full ‘Made in Gran Canaria’ documentary exclusively with CITY+, City’s brand-new subscription service, which provides unrivalled access to exclusive Manchester City content. Available on mancity.com, Man City app and smart TV.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here