Yesterday proved to be a busy and eventful day at Stamford Bridge.
Fresh from lifting the UEFA Champions League title last weekend after beating Manchester City 1-0 in Porto, Chelsea have wasted little time in putting plans in place ahead of the start of next season.
Ahead of what is likely to be an action-packed summer of transfer activity for the Blues, they confirmed yesterday that head coach Thomas Tuchel has extended his stay at the club by a further two years and duo Thiago Silva and Olivier Giroud by a further 12 months.
Whilst there was an element of surprise to Chelsea's decision to retain Giroud's services, although there is still a chance he could be sold this summer, no such surprise was sparked by the Blues' decision to tie Silva down for another 12 months.
After joining the club on a free transfer from French club Paris Saint-Germain last summer, Silva has cemented himself as an instant fans' favourite in west London, becoming a key figure in the project that Tuchel is currently building. Despite not being a million miles away from turning the age of 37-years-old, Silva still has plenty to offer, as proven by Chelsea's decision to keep hold of him for another season.
On the Blues' decision to retain his services, Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia said: "When we brought Thiago Silva in last summer, we knew we were adding a world-class player to the squad.
"Thiago has duly shown everyone at Chelsea his immense quality throughout this season, and he has had a huge influence on and off the pitch for us.
"We said when he signed that we hoped Thiago would add new trophies to his impressive list of honours, and he has done just that with our success in the Champions League this weekend.
"We now hope that he carries on in exactly the same fashion in the coming year."
Chelsea's thinking behind bringing Silva to the club last summer was simple: to add a degree of experience to what was a notoriously leaky defence. Although he did improve matters at the back in the first half of the season under former Blues chief Frank Lampard, he played an instrumental role in the success that was discovered during the second half of the campaign following Tuchel's arrival.
Of the 16 games that Silva featured in between the time from when Tuchel took over to last weekend's victory over City, Chelsea kept nine clean sheets, highlighting just how crucial he is to this defence. Often playing in the centre of a back-three, the former AC Milan's experience and knowhow proved to be key.
He has oozed class and professionalism and silenced any doubters that thought he would be too old to compete with the demands of the Premier League.
However, the impact Silva has had at Stamford Bridge in his first year or so at the club will have come as no surprise to newly-appointed Real Madrid and former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Ancelotti, appointed as Zinedine Zidane's successor at the Bernabeu earlier this week, and Silva worked together at PSG and the Italian chief soon become acutely aware of the qualities Silva has within his armoury.
"When Thiago gets onto the pitch, he controls the defence with his great personality and character," Ancelotti said, speaking back in 2015. "He is the boss of the defence.
"Thiago is a leader, technically capable of doing extraordinary things in the two phases of the game. With him, things at the back are simple and efficient.
"His speed, his great ability to recover the ball, the way he reads the game, all combined with an extraordinary leap in aerial duels makes him one of the best defenders in the world."
Word for word, Ancelotti is bang on the money. Silva has lived up to be everything that the former Everton boss said he was six years ago.
He is a leader, has great ability and has a great personality, something which has been proven throughout the campaign.
He is extremely popular at Stamford Bridge and has had a remarkable impact on the club in just one season.
In all, the Brazilian racked up 34 appearances for the Blues in all competitions this season, which is a fairly solid amount of games for a player of his age at such a competitive, intensive level.
With the next 12 months of his future now sorted, Silva and Chelsea will be hoping that more special memories can be created following last weekend's Champions League triumph.
