Felipe Anderson has been tipped to become “one of the best players” in Portugal after completing his loan move from West Ham United to FC Porto by former Lazio tea-mate Bruno Pereirinha, speaking to O Jogo.
While Manuel Pellegrini was willing to indulge the Brazilian’s ability to swing from the exceptional to the anonymous, a penchant for going missing was never likely to go down well under an old-school British boss who learned his trade from the ‘school of hard knocks’.
And it didn’t take Anderson long to fall foul of David Moyes’ demands at the London Stadium.
The Scot’s preference for Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen over expensive imports such as Anderson and Sebastian Haller spoke volumes.
And a man who set the Londoners back £42 million as recently as 2018 will now hope to rebuild his reputation in a somewhat ‘lesser’ competition – albeit one Anderson could take by storm if he rediscovers his 2018/19 form at Porto.
“I think he can become one of the best players in the league if he adapts and maintains his confidence levels,” says Bruno, Anderson’s one-time teammate at Italian giants Lazio.
“(He) creates a good atmosphere in the dressing room and is a hard worker.
“He was losing some space at West Ham, although FC Porto is also a demanding club. He will have to adapt to (coach) Sergio Conceiçao’s ideas, but at Lazio he already played a role in which he had the whole wing to himself. He had a very large participation in the defensive phase.”
Speaking to talkSPORT last week, Anderson admitted he is open to the idea of returning to West Ham next year.
West Ham’s record transfers
- Sebastien Haller
£45 million
- Felipe Anderson
£41.5 million
- Marko Arnautovic
£25 million
- Pablo Fornals
£24 million
- Issa Diop
£22 million
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