"He's a player that often looks like the only grown-up on the pitch" - Barney Ronay on David Silva
When I sat down to binge-watch the new Amazon Prime documentary All or Nothing, I was drowning in pre-conceptions. The behind-the-scenes look into Manchester City's title-winning 2017/18 season has triggered the first seismic shift in the tectonic plates of this fledgling Premier League, as fans and professionals agitate towards their respective standpoints. Fascinating, cringy, classless and compulsory viewing are just some of the jury's verdicts so far, and I don't think I need to tell you which came courtesy of their Portuguese rival.
Personally, I loved it. As a football fan, there's no better elixir to quench our thirst than taking a glance into the extra dimensions of the game. Multiple times a week we fixate on 90 minutes of football, but there's no denying that we are only engaging in the sport at its most superficial form. We focus on the feet of our heroes, and villains, whilst their psyche is speculated upon but rarely confirmed. Our insight into the minds of players and managers often come through a post-match interview diluted with PR spiel and then we re left to spend another week debating over who's annoyed and who's not.
It was the documentary's breaking of these lines that really caught my imagination. Being the fly-on-the-wall finally became a reality, and our wings took flight into Pep Guardiola team-talks, the City dressing room, and the personal lives of their squad. One particular personal life tapped into an emotion that I never thought a football documentary would, and that was David Silva.
