Everton target Thiago Silva might have played his final game for Paris Saint-Germain according to former France international Jerome Rothen, who tells RMC that the veteran defender ‘must leave’ the Ligue 1 champions.
Whatever happens this summer, a 35-year-old Brazil international will go down in PSG folklore for all the right reasons.
The long-serving skipper was handed a seventh Ligue 1 title in eight years recently when the LFP decided to bring a premature end to the 2019/20 season due to the global health crisis.
While Silva will be understandably thrilled to enhance his already enviable trophy haul, this latest domestic triumph must taste a little bittersweet. With his contract due to expire in July, the former AC Milan star appears to have been denied the chance to bid farewell to one of Europe’s most passionate fan bases on the Parc des Princes pitch.
The sentimentals among you might suggest that Silva should be offered a one-year extension in that case. But the straight-talking Rothen has a more brutal solution in mind.
“Since the beginning of the year, he has been making declarations (about wanting to stay at PSG). But, for me, Silva must leave,” says a man who represented the capital club from 2004 to 2010.
“Now stop, that’s enough. He is 35 years old and I think PSG has to move him on. In addition, they have the players to compensate for his departure.
“You are going to sign up for the long term with (Presnel) Kimpembe and Marquinhos, who get along very well and they have shown very nice things, especially Kimpembe. I have no desire to see Thiago Silva stay.”
L’Equipe claimed recently that PSG’s players, led by Silva, had refused a pay cut during a financial crisis which threatens to leave an indelible mark on French football. And Rothen was hardly impressed by that either.
“In relation to this attitude, he doesn’t deserve to stay.”
If PSG follow Rothen’s advice, that does not mean Silva’s time at the top level is over. TMW claim that Everton made contact over the weekend for a modern-day great who shone under Carlo Ancelotti in France.
“When Thiago gets onto the pitch, he controls the defence with his great personality and character. He is the boss of the defence,” a gushing Ancelotti wrote in his 2015 book My Coaching Secrets.
“Thiago is a leader, technically capable of doing extraordinary things in the two phases of the game. With him, things at the back are simple and efficient.
“His speed, his great ability to recover the ball, the way he reads the game, all combined with an extraordinary leap in aerial duels makes him one of the best defenders in the world.”
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