Moyes must finally axe Pellegrini’s “aggressive” £4.2m WHU flop, he’s stealing a wage

Having joined Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United side in what was a £2.7m deal back in the summer of 2019, the expectations of Goncalo Cardoso were high amongst those involved with the club.

Indeed, following the confirmation of the former Portugal U20 international’s signing on a five-year contract, the club’s then-director of football, Mario Husillos, stated of the defender:

“Our scouts in Portugal have watched his development very closely for some time now and we are very happy to have secured his transfer. He has made excellent progress at both club and international level, playing for Portugal in the European U19 Championship final this summer.

“He is of course a player for the future, with a lot of potential in front of him, but we feel he is ready to be with the first-team squad from both a physical and technical point of view. He has a very good character and mentality, and speaks good English, which will help him to settle more quickly as a young player arriving in a new country.”

Should West Ham sell Cardoso this summer?

However, two and a half years later, the £450k-rated 21-year-old is still yet to make a single appearance for the Hammers, with Cardoso having been loaned out to FC Basel in the second half of last season.

The defender made five league appearances for them, averaging an extremely disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.60 – before being shipped out to Betis Deportivo – the reserve side of, rather coincidentally, Pellegrini’s Real Betis – in the current campaign.

And, when considering that the £11k-per-week centre-back was brought into the club with the intention of being the Irons’ fourth-choice in the position, coupled with West Ham having suffered something of a crisis in the heart of their defence this season, the fact that the self-proclaimed “aggressive” Cardoso has not been recalled from Spain would appear to speak volumes about David Moyes’ opinion of the Portuguese defender.

As such, it would very much appear as if ExWHUemployee’s 2021 claim that the 21-year-old doesn’t have “a career at West Ham” has been proven correct, something which leads us to believe that Moyes simply must axe the defender who has so far cost the club roughly £1.5m in wages over his 133 weeks in East London this summer.

In other news: WHU can seal dream Rice replacement in 21 y/o “phenomenon” who’s “out of the ordinary”