Amongst the many exciting signings that Milan made last summer, I thought Andre Silva was one player who didn’t get his fair share of opportunities. Neither Vincenzo Montella nor Gennaro Gattuso trusted Silva to start games. This, despite the fact that Silva had an exceptional scoring record for Milan when starting in the Europa League, as well as some crucial game-winning goals when coming off the bench in the second half of last season’s campaign.

I’d like to think that someone in the upper echelons at Milan saw something in Silva, because wisely the Rossoneri have only loaned, in stead of selling of him to Sevilla. To me, it came as no surprise to see Silva hit the ground running in Spain, opening his campaign with a hat trick in Sevilla’s opening day demolition away to Rayo Vallecano. Supported by a midfield that understood his intelligent runs and a manager who trusts him, the young Portuguese played with a confidence and swagger that was missing last season.

As many football fans and journalists suffer from recency bias, it has been forgotten how proven a talent Silva was at Porto. I for one, am looking forward to seeing him playing regularly at Sevilla and becoming an even more refined player as the season goes on.