David Silva prepares the mantle for his worthy successor

The 32-year-old ex Spain International believes his namesake Bernardo is more than capable of filling his shoes when his Manchester City career draws to a close.

The Spaniard, widely seen as the Club’s greatest-ever player, signed a new one-year contract extension last November, tying him to the Club until the summer of 2020 and has been in wonderful form so far this season.

The midfielder has scored seven goals in 15 appearances this season - just three short of his total from the last campaign - and has starred alongside Bernardo in City’s rise to the summit of the Premier League table this season as they look to retain their league crown for the first time.

And David, who will take a ceremonial kick-off in Spain’s game against Bosnia on Sunday after announcing his international retirement in August, says his Portuguese colleague has all the attributes to become a City great.

“He's a brilliant player with lots of quality and works very hard,” Silva said.
“He's got a huge amount of quality.

“Football moves on, players come and players go.
“But there's always someone to come in and fill your shoes and we're lucky that we've got lots of players to do that.”

Despite his excellence in the Premier League, David has never won the PFA Player of the Year award, but he insists individual recognition is of little importance to him as long as City are winning titles.

“It’s not something that I've every worried about and I'm certainly not worried now,” he added.. “What interests me is winning titles with the group. We've done that and I hope to keep winning.”

The Spaniard, has been at the heartbeat of the Blues’ success since his 2010 move from Valencia, and is showing no sign of slowing down at the age of 32.