Thiago Silva

In the midst of a lot of division among the fandom on Lampard & certain players, what needs to be done to improve, etc... can we take a moment to all appreciate (least I hope) what an absolute Rolls Royce of a defender this guy is! If David Luiz is the pimped out lowrider with hydraulics & all, Thiago Silva is the Bentley you see accompanied by a motorcade. Hasn't been flawless, but not far off & the guy's 36 y/o

The term leader in this modern era of football gets banded around WAY too freely IMO. In the case of Chelsea, not being funny but when you have people fooling themselves into thinking guys like Jorginho & Rudiger are 'leaders' because they shout a bit & look intense (especially the latter) that just shows how devoid of genuine leadership the game is atm. Thiago Silva IS a leader! You could see it, the potential, when he was a young man at AC Milan & you can damn sure see it now. Though the defense as a whole still has work to do, everything's so much calmer this season at the back except for the keeper (who I personally just don't rate that much). Though we've seen his physical gifts are waning at his tender age, his ability to be in the right place at the right time is still extraordinary.

As grateful as I am to have him here now, man we missed a trick not picking him up in 2012 when we were capitalizing on our Champions League win in the market. I don't remember any strong rumors linking us with him so it's not so much a 'one who got away' type of thing, but in terms of how well he'd of fit into our culture back then, a time when we still had a few natural leaders in the squad + his Brazilian CB partner David Luiz . Would've taken the captaincy from JT when he left, not a doubt in my mind about that.

Just a little appreciation article for our signing of the summer