The line from Alex Ferguson regarding team captaincy and what he sought from the man wearing the armband is worth reconsideration this week.
“I only ever wanted a leader,” Ferguson said of captains such as Willie Miller, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane, “rather than someone who might look good on top of a cake.”
That trio never gave the impression they would take kindly to the suggestion of being the cherry on top. They were the substance.
There are times when witnessing 5ft 8in Bernardo Silva out on the pitch, or in the tunnel alongside 6ft 5in Gianluigi Donnarumma, it is possible to think he is indeed small enough to fit on top of a cake. There’s a daintiness about him, a lightness.
But as with the United trio there is also an attitude from Bernardo, authority. There’s enough grit to make broaching the cherry-on-top subject risky and lately there’s been a noticeable spikiness, which to opponents must be borderline unpleasant. But then so is professional football at times and Bernardo is at its apex.
Stature comes in differing forms and there is no doubt Donnarumma, for example, looks up to Bernardo. All do at Manchester City. At the end of last Sunday’s potential title decider with Arsenal, in which Bernardo ruled, Pep Guardiola acclaimed his captain by repeatedly pointing towards him and urging the fans to recognise again what they have in the Portuguese midfielder. At the end of Wednesday night’s less compelling 1-0 victory at Burnley, Guardiola was deep in conversation with Bernardo, who had delivered another near faultless personal display.
In December Guardiola described “Bernie” as “my weakness” and his dependency is understandable. “He has a special sense to compete,” Guardiola said. “That step up in certain moments is what defines him.”
When Guardiola’s man is beating an Arsenal centre forward – 6ft 2in Viktor Gyökeres – to a header in the penalty area, the step up in a crucial passage of play is made.
Pep Guardiola consults Bernardo Silva after Manchester City's win over Burnley on Wednesday. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire
Pep Guardiola consults Bernardo Silva after Manchester City's win over Burnley on Wednesday. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire
“Like f**king Cannavaro,” shouted Erling Haaland.
The stats pack showed wee Bernie had done more than jump. He had run farther than anyone else in the match. It is not always the greatest indicator of skill or influence, running, but on this afternoon it mattered. Lost causes were recovered and by Wednesday City were top of the division, five solid wins away from securing a seventh Premier League title in Bernardo’s nine seasons. There’s a Champions League trophy in there, too, plus two FA Cups (so far) and five League Cups.
Bernardo Silva, Manchester City: captain-leader-legend.
The phrase, of course, comes from a banner in honour of John Terry at Stamford Bridge. Just over 48 hours after Bernardo’s performance against Arsenal in a high-stakes game, Chelsea turned out at Brighton to, apparently in the eyes of a quaint squad, fulfil a fixture.
This Chelsea did, losing 3-0. It was a remarkable dereliction of professional duty and ultimately cost Liam Rosenior his new job.
At the final whistle Chelsea players, including bannerless captain Enzo Fernandez, stared into the travelling support and saw angry faces. The defeat, Chelsea’s fifth in a row in the league, further jeopardised their chances of playing European football next season, which in turn destabilises the ownership’s grand economic plan, which in turn raises question marks about every player’s future. Though given just three weeks ago Fernandez spoke admiringly of Real Madrid, and was dropped by Rosenior, fresh uncertainty at the club may suit him. Plan seems to be just another four-letter word at Chelsea.
The BlueCo strategy, remember, features long-term contracts, cute accountancy and short-term thinking. Rosenior was given a six-year contract as head coach and removed after 106 days.
The affliction of short-termism is hardly unique to Chelsea. Tottenham? Nottingham Forest? But for all the accusations to be levelled at City – 115 of them – short-term, knee-jerk activity is not a modern characteristic.
Marc Cucurella, Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez look to the referee for an explanation during Chelsea's fifth Premier League defeat in a row. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Marc Cucurella, Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez look to the referee for an explanation during Chelsea's fifth Premier League defeat in a row. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Guardiola is an example of real planning, not blue-sky projecting. His 10th anniversary at the club approaches. Bernardo is another – he made his debut almost nine years ago. On Wednesday at Turf Moor he surpassed Mike Summerbee’s total of City appearances – 453. Only seven men in the history of a club formed in Victorian Britain have played more games for City. As was demonstrated by his mileage last Sunday, Bernardo is their everywhere man; the contrast with Chelsea’s nowhere men is obvious.
Sometimes we can over-rate and overstate the importance of captaincy, but leadership, true leadership, well it’s a different matter.
Bernardo leads by the way he plays and behaves. His technique and vision are known, and there was a subtle piece of skill near the Burnley byline on Wednesday that flummoxed defenders. Mercurial stuff.
But he pushed as well and over time Bernardo’s physical reliability has also become cherished. Only once in his nine City seasons has he played fewer than 30 games in the league, including this unfinished season. In six of his eight completed seasons he has played more than 50 games and it is set to be seven of nine by next month. As others have noted, no other player in Europe’s top five leagues has appeared in more matches in this period.
The Brighton pitch, where Chelsea failed on Tuesday, was where Bernardo made his entrance into English football as a City substitute in August 2017. Signed from Monaco, it was two days past his 23rd birthday and he replaced Sergio Agüero. We full-named him Bernardo Silva because David Silva was still at City.
On Saturday evening when he leads City out at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final against Southampton, Bernardo will have Nico O’Reilly alongside. O’Reilly was 12 when Bernardo joined. He and Agüero are representative of different City eras and they are bridged by the man who started out at Benfica and who is expected to return there in the summer.
He will be 32 when next season starts and inevitably there will be comments about his age as if the statistics above and the evidence of our eyes did not inform us that Bernardo is not for stopping. Were Chelsea smart, they would intervene and sign him for his leadership alone. They had seven players 25 or younger in their starting XI at Brighton and how each would benefit from Bernardo’s knowledge.
But Chelsea’s sporting and financial model excludes this kind of common sense. City could win a domestic treble; Chelsea could finish 10th. City have a captain; Chelsea have a recipe.