Adrien Silva has arrived to train with his new teammates.
Silva remains ineligible to play for Leicester until January after the appropriate paperwork for the transfer was not submitted on time on deadline day.
The Portugal international agreed to join the Foxes, who offered a £22 million fee to Sporting Lisbon to acquire his services and the tardiness of the application proved incredibly frustrating for his new club’s supporters as it was a mere 14 seconds late.
Look who it is! 🙌🏻💙@adrien_silva23 trains with his #LCFC team-mates. pic.twitter.com/ym13zYDvJX
— LCFC Live (@LiveLCFC) October 12, 2017
It’s surely no coincidence then that Silva has been awarded the squad number of 14 at the King Power Stadium.
The irony was definitely not lost on the fans who can’t wait to see the midfielder in action.
Wearing number 14 – genius by @lcfc
— Chris Jelly (@chris_jelly11) October 12, 2017
Adrien Silva wearing number 14.
Someone has a sense of humour. #14Seconds pic.twitter.com/R9vc9yobK6
— John Bennett (@JohnBennettBBC) October 12, 2017
Is Adrien Silva number 14 because the papers were 14 seconds late?
— Rikhil Majithia 📸 (@RikhilMajithia) October 12, 2017
giving Adrien Silva the no.14 ffs is this real pic.twitter.com/Lq4jEpmyL5
— george (@GeorgeeEvanss) October 12, 2017
Fifa recently refused to grant him international clearance to play but Leicester are currently considering whether to lodge an appeal to the Court for Arbitration in Sport, according to the Leicester Mercury.
The fact that Silva is not officially registered means that the No. 14 shirt is not officially his. He wore the No. 23 at his previous club and for Portugal but that number is not free at Leicester at the moment so why not maintain a cheeky nod to the transfer gaffe and keep the No. 14 when he’s officially allowed to play for Craig Shakespeare’s side?
“He wants to play football and train,” Shakespeare said of the 28-year-old, via the BBC.
“He’s had to miss out not only on club football but international football and we’ve tried to keep his spirits up.
“I speak to him on a regular basis during training to make sure he’s fully focused on what his requirements are. The camaraderie and the banter is brilliant in and around the changing rooms and I wanted to integrate him as quickly as possible and I can do that now.
“It would be remiss of me not to plan for the worst-case scenario, which is that we don’t have him until January.
“In terms of his fitness, we will have a plan in place – and we will probably have a Plan A, B, C, D, E and F, so it’s something that we will continue to monitor.”
