I've never been a boo-boy. I look for players redeeming features, and I usually find them. With this guy, it's different. The way he's conducted himself today, and in recent weeks, he has no right to wear that blue shirt. I see no pride, no heart in his game. There's no questioning his skill, his goalscoring ability. But the faith that Silva has placed in him, his monster transfer fee and wages, don't seem to have instilled any sense of responsibility in him. You always feel that he's thinking of himself rather than the team. He's a mood player who's switching off far too often. He's no chaser of lost causes, no tackler - how often do we see him not go for the ball, allow the defender to outleap him, making sure that he goes to the floor in the hope of a free kick. How many times is he trying to wind up defenders or getting wound up himself. His attitude stinks. He is still just 21, and there's no reason why he can't go on to have a great career and become a big star for Brazil, but that's not going to happen unless he gets his attitude and his priorities sorted, and he's a long way from doing that right now.
The warning signs were there in his performances the second half of last season. And the worrying thing is, Silva saw all those performances but still paid through the nose to bring him to Everton.
