OPINION
When West Ham signed unknown Portuguese youngster Xande Silva for £1.8million from Vitoria Guimaraes, few would have expected the forward to make such an impact.
However, just six games into his Under-23s career, Silva was the name on the lips of the West Ham faithful as the first-team struggled through their first four games of the Premier League season.
In those six games Silva had bagged five goals and laid on one assist, impressive numbers for a young player who was only just getting settled in to life in London.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini had taken notice by this point, with football.london reporting that he had been blown away by Silva’s impact for the Under-23s.
Then disaster struck, with the 21-year-old suffering a hamstring injury which put him out of action for two months, just as he was approaching an inevitable shot in the first-team.
Silva is now ready to return, as reported by football.london correspondent Sam Inkersole, and will once again embark on the road to the first-team in a match against Blackburn Rovers on the 26th of November.
While Silva’s path to the first-team has now unfortunately been complicated by their improved form and the breakthrough of players such as Grady Diangana, there is no reason why he cannot work his way back into Pellegrini’s thinking.
With the hectic winter schedule ahead, now is the perfect time for Silva to return as Pellegrini will need to utilise all the resources at his disposal to negotiate such a gruelling period.
And, if Pellegrini does unleash Silva after working his way back into first-team contention, then he could be a player able to bring some Christmas cheer to the London Stadium.
He is a powerful, versatile forward with a keen eye for goal and pace to burn, and has the potential to go on and become a real force for the Hammers.
The never-before-seen dazzler will get fans off their seats, and in the midst of a cold and potentially gruelling winter, that is exactly what West Ham will need.
