Rangers have reportedly taken a decision on Wolves striker Fabio Silva, who joined them in January on loan for the rest of the season.
Gary O’Neil sanctioned his exit from Molineux very early in the winter window. The groundwork was already laid before it had even opened, with Rangers evening confirming the deal on December 28.
He had not proven himself to O’Neil, who was happy to let him depart for the rest of the campaign, after he only made a handful of appearances for Wanderers.
The hope was that Silva would get back to scoring goals, like he did on loan at Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven last season.
But it hasn’t been a particularly fruitful spell up in Scotland for the 21-year-old – and now there is word of a decision on the player from Rangers.
Rangers seemingly unwilling to sign Fabio Silva permanently from Wolves, striker to return to Molineux
Fabio Silva’s transfer to Wolves just hasn’t worked out.
The club forked out a whopping £35 million for him in the summer of 2020, despite the fact he had barely played for FC Porto’s first-team. The move was influenced by the super agent Jorge Mendes, who Wolves have looked to rely on less in recent times.
Silva struggled to make an impact at Molineux, and he was clearly very raw when he arrived.
The loan spells with Anderlecht and PSV seemingly did him good, but he returned to Wolves last summer and O’Neil never really fancied him.
The move to Rangers hasn’t worked out, with many of their fans having been critical of his performances and theatrics. He has struggled to score goals too, netting four times in 19 appearances.
Wolves officials may have hoped he’d thrive in order to get his market value up a bit ahead of a potential sale this summer.
But it looks as though Wolves will struggle to get decent money this summer, and it sounds like Rangers won’t be trying to turn the move permanent, with journalist Rudy Galetti writing on X tonight: “Fabio #Silva will return to #Wolves at the end of the season after 6 months on loan at #Rangers, as @sebsousapinto reported. The future of the ST is yet to be discussed with #WWFC: his contract will expire in 2026 #Transfers.”
Pinto had claimed earlier on X that Silva was ‘not staying’ at Rangers.
Recently, Silva had opened the door to a potential permanent move to Ibrox. He may well now be looking at other options.
A big hit coming on Silva
At this point, it’s likely that the Silva transfer to Wolves will go down as one of the worst in the club’s history.
It was a huge amount to pay, and there was never any basis for investing that much in a player with such little experience of first-team football.
Silva has seemingly always been weighed down by the price tag, and the expectation that came with it. He’s been a bit unlucky at times, but he also needed to have shown much more by now.
It’s hard to see Wolves doing anything other than selling him this summer. But officials will need to expect to take a big hit on him. It was previously suggested the club were hoping for around £15 million, but that might be deemed too high now.
After his latest spell with Rangers, clubs are not exactly going to be fighting over him.