Fabio Silva hoping treble will give him Wolves boost

The £35million club-record signing described his treble in a 9-0 win over Liechtenstein as a ‘special moment’ which he dedicated to his family for their enduring support.

Silva has scored just four goals in 54 Premier League appearances since joining from Porto, failing to find the net in 22 outings during the 2021-22 campaign.

The 19-year-old is aware of the scrutiny on his shoulders but determined to be a success, admitting his international success came as a timely confidence boost.

He said: “I am really happy. It’s a very special moment for me for everything I’ve been through this season, all the things that have been talked about and everything.

“I would like to dedicate these goals and this moment to my family, who have always been with me. It will certainly give me much more strength to continue working.”

Silva, who made just one substitute appearance in Wolves’ final four matches of the season, has spoken before about the importance of his inner circle.

Speaking earlier this year, he explained: “I don’t have many friends. I know a lot of people in football, all the people want to meet you, but I have my close friends, the people I trust.”

Silva was far from the only Wolves attacker to experience a difficult campaign. Raul Jimenez and Daniel Podence finished top of the club’s scoring charts with just six goals each, while only the bottom three scored fewer times than Bruno Lage’s men.

Speaking recently about the team’s struggles in front of goal, technical director Scott Sellars said: “Ultimately, we would say that we haven’t scored enough goals really this season and you’re always looking at opportunities to try to do that.

“I think Fabio [Silva] has shown again that he’s really developing this season and obviously Raul [Jimenez] has come back from an obviously traumatic injury and is still settling in, I still think he’s finding his feet.

“It’ll be a situation where we have to look at the end of the season, review everything. Ok, we haven’t scored a lot of goals and what are we going to do about it?”

Former Wolves defender Romain Saiss is close to joining Besiktas. The Morocco international spent the last six years at Molineux.