‘Incredible’: Reported Wolves target dominated Real Madrid, and left Thiago Silva stunned

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Thiago Silva has witnessed some extraordinary performances in his long and storied career.

This is a man who has shared a dressing room with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar and Ronaldinho to name just three, winning a remarkable eight league titles at AC Milan and PSG before conquering South America with Brazil last summer.

But even he, a player who has seen everything the beautiful game has to offer at least once, was left awestruck by one of the finest midfield performances in recent Champions League history in September 2019.

There were not too many casual observers who tuned into PSG vs Real Madrid in order to watch a former Everton and Aston Villa midfielder in action.

But then followed 90 extraordinary minutes, during which Idrissa Gana Gueye completed 93 per cent of his passes, won the ball back seven times and even grabbed an assist as PSG romped to a 3-0 win over the 13-time European champions.

And Silva was left speechless. Well, almost.

‘Incredible’

“Idrissa… it’s incredible. I have no words,” the 35-year-old captain spluttered in conversation with RMC after a remarkable performance from his £30 million team-mate.

“I don’t know how many balls he recovered today, and it was not easy balls either. Gana had a very good match.”

At the time, Gueye looked like the missing piece of the PSG jigsaw, a modern-day Claude Makelele who would give Les Parisiens the balance their uber-attacking side so badly needed.

So imagine the surprise when, according to Le10 Sport, Gueye was transfer listed just nine months after that masterclass against Madrid. The man himself is far from happy after being dumped on the scrapheap, despite interest from an exciting and ambitious Wolverhampton Wanderers side.

If a return to England does occur, Wolves will have one of the best defensive midfielders in the world in their ranks, a man capable of making Eden Hazard, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez look like powerless passengers.

But maybe PSG should remember that it was Gueye, rather than Neymar, Kylian Mbappe or Mauro Icardi, who has transformed them from perennial nearly men into bonafide Champions League contenders.