Manchester United finally call time on enigmatic Brazilian

Anderson on his way to Fiorentina

Much like the Bermuda Triangle, Anderson’s time at Old Trafford has remained under a cloud of mystery ever since his switch from Porto in 2007 for around £20m. In his six-and-a-half year stint at the club, the Brazilian interspersed moments of brilliance with months of mediocrity.

That is precisely the reason why Moyes has been swift in putting the Brazilian out of his misery by moving him to Fiorentina on loan, a deal which is expected to be finalized before the end of the week.

Signed from Porto on the back of Martin Ferguson’s glowing endorsement that the Brazilian “was better than Rooney”, Anderson never quite lived up to his reputation. A reputation built on the back of two successful seasons with Gremio and Porto ever since he won the Golden Ball in U-17 World Cup in 2005. And it was not as though he wasn’t given time.

In fact, at a club like Manchester United, patience is a luxury that isn’t afforded to many players, but Anderson was given leeway above and beyond any other player at the club.

However, even though he was given more opportunities than he deserved, Anderson never quite made much use of it. Ever since signing in 2007, Anderson made just 104 top flight appearances for United and started just 70 of those games.

And of those, he was substituted a staggering 51 times, meaning that he only completed 19 matches, or two and a half League games each season in his seven seasons at the club. All the more reason why Moyes was more than keen to move on a player, who was either injured or out of shape for most of the current season.

And whilst his United career is all set to end in tears, that was not how it all began. It began with so much promise that there were those who were already heaping praise on Sir Alex, for finally solving the central midfield problem, that originated ever since Roy Keane’s departure a couple of years ago.

Anderson came of age in the 2-2 draw against Arsenal in November 2007, in a game in which he absolutely dominated from central midfield and showed a lot of bite and steel, against an opposing midfield that consisted of Cesc Fábregas and Mathieu Flamini. He came off in the 76^th minute to a rapturous applause from the crowd, the likes of which, he was to see plenty more of, as the season wore on.

The 2007-08 campaign, which was Anderson’s debut season, was arguably his finest one in a United shirt. It saw him play 24 League games, including 16 as a starter and finish the season with 38 appearances, all of which are career-high numbers during his time at United.

He finished the campaign as a European champion, aged just 20, as he calmly converted the sixth penalty in a shootout victory against Chelsea in the final in Moscow, in what was his biggest contribution to United in all his time at the club.

After that however, it was all downhill. From a promising start, Anderson went on to become a perennial disappointment. From having his name cheered by the crowd, he came the target of a series of chants involving his weight. There was a “butt” of jokes about his weight, which had started to become a big problem, as the Brazilian took the phrase growing into his role, a bit too literally.

In spite of all that, Ferguson still kept the faith. In hind sight, that was probably not one of Sir Alex’s wisest decisions. In his latest book, Sir Alex tells us of how, instead of complaining about the Brazilian’s reckless shooting and his far from inspired passing, the Scot praised him as a “lovely boy”.

Perhaps shedding some light on why he didn’t sign any central midfielder since and also why he gave him a four-and-a-half-year contract in December 2010, when all evidence pointed towards showing him the door. That season was the zenith of what was wrong with Anderson.

Just after hitting a purple patch, Anderson requested a loan move to Vasco da Gama and suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury in February that saw him out of action for seven months. Following that, in the summer, after a high-speed crash in his £125,000 Audi R8, he was dragged out of the car unconscious.

In the end, Anderson turned out to be a footballing enigma, if there ever was one. At the best of times, he looked like he was Roy Keane’s reincarnate, flying into tackles and breaking up attacks, whilst going forward with pace and precision like your typical box-to-box midfielder. At the worst of times, he looked lost at Old Trafford, and resembled a Sunday League player, who has had one too many beers to drink.

So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the biggest loser in the Brazilian’s proposed move to Florence will be Bem Brasil, a popular meat restaurant that invites diners to “feast on an endless supply of the finest quality Brazilian food and succulent, barbecued meats”, one that Anderson frequented far too often in his time with the club. And as a result, he is all set to leave Old Trafford amidst a litany of jibes about his weight and his insistence that tomorrow will be his day.

Unfortunately for United, that tomorrow never came. And it could have all been different, if Own Hargreaves, his partner in crime, in that superb 2-2 draw with Arsenal had stayed fit. At certain points in that season, Hargreaves and Anderson formed a central midfield pivot the likes of which hadn’t been seen, since the heydays of Ince and Keane way back in 1995.

Unluckily, for Anderson and for United, his partner’s legs were made of glass and the duo, never played together after that season. And Anderson leaves United with four Premier League titles, having scarcely contributed to winning any of them and, pound for pound (pun intended), one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s worst signings ever.