Did West Ham boss David Moyes make a big yet rare mistake by selling Felipe Anderson?
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The 28-year-old winger left the London Stadium to link up with his former club for around £4 million according to Tutto Mercato Web.
Anderson has made a fine start to life back in the Italian capital. He was on fire for Maurizio Sarri’s side against Roma yesterday, bagging a goal and an assist in Lazio’s 3-2 win over their arch rivals.
The speedy winger has now racked up two goals and two assists in six games for the Serie A outfit (Transfermarkt).
What makes Moyes such a good manager is his ability to get the best out of misfiring players who are low on confidence.
Just look at what he did with Marko Arnautovic, Michail Antonio, Pablo Fornals and Aaron Cresswell to name but a few.
Did West Ham boss Moyes make a big mistake selling Felipe Anderson?
The counter argument is obviously the fact that Anderson was due to be out of contract with West Ham next summer.
So the Hammers risked losing him for nothing.
Had the Brazilian stayed at the London Stadium, however, and showed the kind of form he is now displaying for Lazio, he would surely have been handed a new deal.
And if he didn’t, and we did end up losing him on a free transfer, it would have only been around a £6 million loss taking into account the £4 million fee we received for him and the wages we would have had to pay him.
That wouldn’t have been the end of the world.
Anderson would have give us a completely different option this season on both flanks.
With his ability, he could have made a real difference for us.
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It’s all hypothetical of course. There is no way to know how the South American would have performed had he stayed in east London. There is certainly a debate to be had regarding whether Moyes might have made a mistake by letting Anderson go though.