Manchester United news: Anderson's contract could be cancelled

Exclusive: If Manchester United are unable to find a buyer for £26m Anderson in January, they are willing to pay the £1.4m required to end the midfielder's contract.

Manchester United will consider cancelling the remaining six months on the £60,000-a-week contract of Brazilian midfielder Anderson if they are unable to find a new club for the player in January.

Anderson, whose transfer from Porto in May 2007 ultimately cost United £26m, has been told he can leave Old Trafford by manager Louis van Gaal after failing to impress during pre-season.

But despite making the 26-year-old available for transfer during the summer, United received no offers for a player who was once regarded as one of the game’s brightest talents following his emergence as a teenage prodigy at Porto.

With Anderson’s stock having now fallen so low within the game, however, it is understood that United are ready to explore the possibility of paying up the remainder of the player’s contract, which could cost up to £1.4m, simply to remove him from the playing squad and enhance his prospects of finding a new club.

Efforts to offload Anderson last season failed to succeed, with Italian outfit Fiorentina rejecting the chance to sign him permanently following a six-month loan spell at the club earlier this year.

While United would prefer to negotiate a sale or loan, which would see the Old Trafford club pay a portion of Anderson’s wages, the option of cancelling his contract - a five-year deal signed in October 2010 - has not been ruled out.

United cancelled the final two years of the contract of French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez in June 2004 at the cost of £5m, and with United already out of the Capital One Cup and with no European football on the fixture list this season, a similar move is being considered with Anderson due to the remote prospects of him featuring in Van Gaal’s squad between now and the end of the season.

Anderson has made two appearances for the first-team under Van Gaal, playing in the 4-0 Capital One Cup defeat at MK Dons and then making a twenty-minute substitute appearance in the 0-0 Premier League draw at Burnley four days later.

But since making an appearance in the reserve team alongside Luke Shaw and Adnan Januzaj in September, he has been overlooked in every squad subsequently selected by Van Gaal.