West Ham United: Some fans are regretting Edimilson Fernandes being sold

Edimilson Fernandes put in an impressive performance for Switzerland, scoring the last goal as they went on to beat the Republic of Ireland 2-0 in their Euro 2020 qualifying game.
In the dying moments, the 23-year-old got the ball inside the box and calmly sent it towards goal, with it going in despite Shane Duffy’s best efforts to make the block, as shown in the highlights video on the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel.
This has got some West Ham United supporters talking about their former player, wondering why he was sold in the first place:
Watched Switzerland v Ireland this evening and former Hammer Edimilson Fernandes never put a foot wrong in the game playing in midfield and then at RWB when Lichtsteiner went off, still maintain that we should never have sold him.
— TheWestHamWayCoUk (@WestHamWaycouk) October 15, 2019
Between joining the Hammers from FC Sion in 2016 and being sold to Mainz 05 in the summer of 2019, Fernandes played a total of 48 times for West Ham, getting one goal and one assist, as per Transfermarkt, while he also spent last season out on loan at Fiorentina.
Some fans feel that he was given up on too early by Manuel Pellegrini, with questions being asked about why Carlos Sanchez was kept on and the 23-year-old let go.
Fernandes has started all 7 of Mainz’s Bundesliga games this term, averaging 1.9 tackles, 2.1 interceptions, 2.1 clearances, 0.6 key passes and 0.6 dribbles per game, as well as completing 84.3% of his attempted passes, as per WhoScored, with this showing how effective he can be in his overall game.
A selection of Twitter reaction to the performance, including posts from baffled West Ham fans, can be seen below:
Never understood why we sold him and got Sanchez in? Does what Sanchez does but better, younger, and had more potential to grow as a footballer. Baffling
— ESSEXHAMMER (@WHULUVA) October 15, 2019
Miles better than Sanchez imo and confident would have played 15+ games for us this season
— Mr C (@mattcordery) October 15, 2019
Agreed.
— Iron Thompson (@at67435) October 15, 2019
Always what i said. Perfect energy and work rate! Only going to GET better
— JB (@BurchettJason) October 15, 2019
Couldn’t agree more. Young, tall, can play multiple positions, never seemed to cause any problems attitude wise either.
— cornelius crabtree (@pastramitom) October 15, 2019
I liked him he would of flourished under pellegrini young mobile was very good on loan at Fiorentina Aswell
— will earle (@willearle_) October 15, 2019
Me too,had great potential. Better player than given credit for.
— Andy Wellbelove (@andywellie) October 15, 2019
