West Ham United could terminate the final year of Felipe Anderson’s £80,000-a-week contract to let him join Turkish giants Galatasaray, as reported by Sabah.
If the Hammers hoped a loan spell in Portugal would see Anderson return to the London Stadium a man reborn, they were sadly mistaken.
The former Lazio star bid farewell to FC Porto on Wednesday, insisting he will miss his time at the Estadio do Dragao.
The feeling may not be mutual, however.
In 15 games, Anderson produced only one goal and three assists as Porto lost their Primeira Liga crown to Sporting Lisbon. He resembled a fading shadow of the once wonderous winger who set West Ham back a club-record £33 million fee as recently as 2018.
With clubs across the continent counting the cost of the pandemic, it has become common for clubs to release high-earning, out-of-favour players to ease a crippling wage bill.
Mesut Ozil, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Shkodran Mustafi have all seen their contracts terminated by Arsenal since summer 2020, to highlight just a few examples.
And the same fate could now befall Anderson.
Sabah claims that, given one of West Ham’s highest-earning players has no part to play in David Moyes’ plans, the London giants could be tempted to simply let him go for free.
A £33 million loss doesn’t look good on the balance sheet. Then again, neither does having an £80,000-a-week outcast on your books.
The report adds Anderson would be tempted to join fellow Premier League flops Ryan Babel, Radamel Falcao and Sofiane Feghouli at Galatasaray.
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