On Wednesday, we covered articles from Portuguese newspapers which were talking about Felipe Anderson’s absence from the Champions League this week.
The West Ham loanee was left out of Porto’s squad which faced Marseille, and it turned out there was no surprise from the local press, given his poor form since joining the Dragons.
Since then, Felipe Anderson’s sister has sent a statement to Portuguese outlets in which she claims that only she can be trusted to speak about the player’s career from now on.
It’s a little hard to understand why would she do it at this time, but it seems like an attempt to defend her brother from the criticism he’s been getting in his first weeks at Porto.
“Felipe was brought to Portugal by agents who are no longer part of his career. Only I, Juliana Gomes, can speak officially on his behalf. I will have a meeting with the club to inform them of this new panorama and also to try to understand if we can do something for Felipe to do as quickly as possible what he came to do in Portugal, which is to play his football and help Porto,” (via Record).
“As Sérgio Conceição himself publicly clarified, Felipe Anderson didn’t receive many chances to play until now solely and exclusively due to the coach’s options. I guarantee that he has been working hard and that he didn’t have any kind of extra-field or personal problem. I want to reinforce that Felipe is very focused and will continue to fight for his space with the same good conduct that has always guided his career.”
Out of David Moyes’ West Ham plans for the season, Felipe Anderson was loaned to Porto in the final days of the transfer window. He was heavily criticised for losing a challenge which resulted in a Sporting equaliser in his first game for the club.
Since then, he only had a chance to play a few minutes in a league game last weekend, and still couldn’t impress.
