Transfer news: Why Sandro leaves English football having failed to fulfil the potential he showed at Tottenham

The Brazil international midfielder leaves QPR for Turkish side Antalyaspor today after seven years in England in which injuries stopped him from becoming the player he should have been

QPR's Sandro has agreed to join Turkish side Antalyaspor having failed to reach his potential in England (Getty)

It was May 2011 and Sandro had just put in yet another performance of total midfield dominance, athletic power and finesse away at Manchester City. Even at 22, the Brazil international was the best player of his type in the country at the time, and Roberto Mancini collared him post-match and asked him if he wanted to join City that summer. Sandro said no, he wanted to stay and captain Tottenham to the title, and he meant it.

It was not a ludicrous thing for him to say. Spurs had Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, had just lost the quarter-finals of the Champions League to Real Madrid, where those two would end up. On the way, before Sandro arrived, they had shredded Inter Milan, the reigning champions of Europe.

All it shows is the supreme confident optimism of the young footballer still on his way up in the game. Sandro always believed that he was heading for the very top and in his first few years at Spurs, as he dominated Premier League and Champions League matches, who would have disagreed with him?

Even when Sandro left Spurs for Queens Park Rangers in September 2014, he went there with the firm belief that QPR was a stepping stone on to Chelsea or Manchester United. All he had to do was to prove his fitness.

And yet when Sandro finally left QPR, as he did today, it was not for either of those teams but for Turkish side Anatalyaspor, whose billionaire owner Ali Safak Ozturk is desperate to make a statement. He has given Sandro a three and a half year contract and a generous pay-rise. Almost seven years after arriving from Brazil, Sandro’s time in England is done. And it is hard to look back on most of it with anything other than regret.

Because Sandro should have become a top player. He won the Copa Libertadores at Internacional in 2010, his last act in Brazil before joining Spurs. He settled into English football almost instantly, playing better in the 2010-11 season than he ever would again. He needed a translator in the dressing room but it did not matter. Against Milan and Real Madrid in the Champions League he looked a natural fit for that level. He had a picture of him tackling Ibrahimovic at the San Siro up on his wall.

Sandro's time in England has been blighted by injury and poor form (Getty)

But if there was one problem with Sandro it was that he could never stay fit for a full season. Harry Redknapp could not count on him as much as he first hoped, then neither could Andre Villas-Boas. Sandro damaged knee ligaments in January 2013 in a match at Queens Park Rangers and, in truth, was never the same player again.

When Mauricio Pochettino took over at Spurs in 2014 he did not want Sandro. Having turned down interest from Villas-Boas’ Zenit St Petersburg, Sandro joined Redknapp’s QPR for £6m on deadline day. He was one of the last big-name players QPR overpaid for, a practice that has cost them dearly in the last five years.

Earning almost £50,000 per week put Sandro in a difficult position at QPR and the club made no secret of their desperation to unload him

Unfortunately, though, QPR only applied for a 90-day certificate of sponsorship, which is part of a UK work visa. When the Home Office found out Sandro had to go back to Brazil, just when QPR needed him most. He had to apply for a new visa at the UK embassy in Bogota. By the time he returned to London, QPR were in the Championship.

Earning almost £50,000 per week put Sandro in a difficult position at QPR and the club made no secret of their desperation to unload him. There were few serious takers, and while he ended up at West Bromwich Albion on loan, did not do enough for them to take up their £4million option to buy.

When Sporting Lisbon came in for him last June it felt like the perfect fit. Sandro wanted to go to Portugal for family reasons, he could play for a big club in the Champions League and, in Jorge Jesus, a top manager. But Sporting pulled out, citing a failed medical, a diagnosis Sandro still disputes.

Sandro stuck with QPR when they were relegated from the Premier League (Getty)

But the news was out and that effectively ended Sandro’s chance of a move to another top European team. So he had to train at QPR waiting for his contract to run down. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink would only play him in the League Cup, but he scored three goals in two games in the competition, including a brilliant instinctive volley at Sunderland, a goal that showed the talent he would always have. Ian Holloway finally brought him back into the team in the Championship, even if he could not make the desired impact.

Sandro’s last game in England was a solid hour at Molineux on New Years Eve, in a rare away league win for Holloway’s side. QPR have been trying to get him off their wage bill for at least 18 months and will shed no tears this week. But English football, the Brazil national side, and the player himself may wonder what might have been.