Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted Brazilian midfielder Anderson was talking about quitting Manchester United last season.
The 22-year-old endured a difficult campaign, scarred by poor form, and was tipped in some quarters to be eased out of Old Trafford during the January transfer window.
In the end, he stayed where he was, only to suffer a cruciate knee ligament injury during a Premier League win over West Ham in February.
Happily, Anderson is now on the road to recovery and began football training yesterday.
It means a return to duty is not far away, with Ferguson hoping the break has allowed the midfielder to re-assess his future.
"Anderson has an incredible talent," said Ferguson.
"He loves training and playing. He wants to play every game and train every day.
"But that is a problem for me because at 22 he has not got the maturity to understand we operate a squad here.
"When he does understand that, he will be a fantastic player here but last season he was talking about leaving because he was not playing in every game."
Rather than put his arm around the player's shoulder, Ferguson opted to stand well back from someone who first made his mark with FC Porto in the hope that common sense would eventually prevail.
In that sense, Anderson's extended break came at a good time, with Ferguson now believing the player can fulfil his massive potential.
"Maybe it is a good thing he has been injured for a spell because he can look at the situation," said Ferguson.
"In some ways, I don't want to change his mentality because it is wonderful to see someone who wants to play every minute of every day.
"If you have someone with that enthusiasm, you have to be careful you don't check it to the point when you lose it.
"I didn't talk to him about leaving. I just let him get it out of his system.
"Maybe the injury has quelled the storm in his body because he came back here with the same enthusiasm and has been telling me he is ready to play.
"Everyone has seen the quality in his game and he will get his opportunity."
Ferguson insists the car crash Anderson was involved in on a visit back to Portugal was not as serious as early reports suggested, although clearly Sunday's Premier League trip to Fulham comes far too early for him to have any involvement.
Instead, attention will focus on Wayne Rooney, who has now gone 13 games for club and country since his last goal - against Bayern Munich in March.
It is hard to reconcile the player who contributed 34 goals to United's pursuit of glory last term, and performed so well he is the only Premier League representative in contention for the European club player of the year prize when it is handed out by UEFA in Monaco next week, with the one in the midst of the longest barren streak of his Red Devils career.
Rooney has not been helped by a couple of niggling injuries that disrupted the end of last season and his start to the current campaign has been adversely affected by a chronic lack of pre-season action.
Prior to Monday's Premier League opener with Newcastle, Rooney had been on the field for just 90 minutes in a United shirt, and a further 65 during England's friendly with Hungary.
As Fabio Capello had previously worked out Rooney needs a minimum of 600 minutes on the field to reach his optimum performance level, it is clear the 24-year-old is going to find life hard at present.
Ferguson, himself a former striker, is acutely aware that the longer Rooney is forced to wait for that eagerly-anticipated strike, the harder life becomes.
However, the Scot's intimate knowledge of forward play also means he knows that Rooney will only need to hit the net once for people to soon start wondering what all the fuss was about.
"Strikers live by their goals," he said.
"It is quite straightforward. When they are not scoring they think they will never come. When they come they think they are never going to finish.
"He is no different to any other striker.
"But Wayne had only had an hour and a half's play before Monday, which is not a lot in terms of your normal programme before you start the season."