​”Silva glides around the pitch and is an integral part of our recent successes. He is a genuine pleasure to watch. When he’s on the ball, he makes the whole team tick. He has an incredible awareness and is the perfect player for the modern game.” Colin BellBy John EdwardsAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt is easy to forget, at the end of a glorious ten years for one of English football’s modern greats, that David Silva was already one of the finest midfielders in the world when he arrived at Manchester City in the summer of 2010.The deal with Valencia was done on 30 June, ten days before Silva added a World Cup medal to the European Championship one he had won two years earlier as a glittering member of Spain’s golden generation.Both Real Madrid and reigning Premier League Champions Chelsea had courted the diminutive playmaker at one stage or another, but it was City who prevailed, much to the delight of then manager Roberto Mancini.“I am so pleased he is coming to us because I think he can make a big, big impact for Manchester City,” said the Italian, whose words proved wonderfully prophetic.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSilva might also look back on his own comments on signing day with a wry smile, having very much delivered on his aim to ‘bring success to City and win trophies for them.’But for a player whose speed of thought sets him apart, life in Manchester got off to somewhat of a slow start.Spain was a scene of jubilation after La Roja’s crowning glory in the summer of 2010 and, in his own words, Silva enjoyed the celebrations ‘a little too much’, so much so that he later admitted to still feeling the effects of the festivities when he arrived at the Club for his medical!But there was no settling in period, with Mancini keen for his new signing to acclimatise to English football as quickly as possible.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe was thrust into the action immediately, making his debut against Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day of the 2010/11 Premier League season, despite carrying a slight knock.One of seven new signings that summer, it was evident in the 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane, where Joe Hart was the star of the show, that Mancini’s new-look City would need time to gel.‘The newcomer from Spain must have spent the first half-hour wondering if he was going to spend the whole of his City career seeing so little of the ball,” wrote Paul Wilson in The Guardian.However, surrounded by fellow pillars of future success in the form of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta, it did not take long for it to become evident that Silva would not only survive but thrive as the team’s creative heartbeat.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA month later, he scored his first goal, a crisp finish against Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League, and by mid-October he had served the Premier League with notice of his beguiling talent.Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road, where the main stand is