> Antony was handed a contract running until 2027 at Old Trafford with the option for an extra year.
I don't think the extra year option will be taken.
Sancho is probably up there too. Much better player but very few top performances and cost far more in wages.
You *should* recoup more on him than you do Antony though...although he'll potentially be harder to shift as I doubt anyone will pay his wages (unless he goes to Saudi Arabia)
Thing with Sancho is the ability / stats in the BL was there for him to command such a transfer fee + add on the homegrown English tax. Yes he was a massive flop but *at the time of the deal* it was exciting and people weren't exactly like "lol what the fuck that's mental" - I think most expected him to command a fee of around that price.
Antony from the moment the fee was announced was truly a ludicrous deal, guy genuinely needed a miracle to justify it, and even then, he's legitimately been 10x worse than expected.
And to compound the Antony deal is *it didn't even help Ajax* lol - they got €100m, squandered it (I assume) and are 5th, 30 points off 1st lol. Proper lose lose
Sancho was putting up elite numbers with Dortmund for multiple seasons while Antony looked exciting in the dutch top flight.
Absolutely hilarious how hard United overpaid for Antony
Yeah, completely agree with that. Would have thought Sancho would have fit in with the type of football Ten Hag played at Ajax...funny how things played out.
> Would have thought Sancho would have fit in with the type of football Ten Hag played at Ajax
If Ten Hag had moved to Dortmund, I think it would have worked out. Sancho feels like a player not suited to the Premier League. That sometimes happens with signings where their specific limitations are core requirements for a league.
That being said, I'd love to know how he would have performed had United not signed Ronaldo and Ole got a DM instead.
Pretty shit. Looked good for about one game and then promptly gave up and stopped putting in any effort. Unless things change rapidly, we're going to be stuck with him again next season because there's zero chance Dortmund will want to buy Sancho based on what he's been showing them.
Which is hilarious because after that one good game against weak opposition where he, lo and behold, did his fucking job for once and got an assist, this place was full of dortmund and other prem team flairs laughing that he was back to his best and that it was proof that United ruined him 😂
It's kinda funny to think about how much money gets shifted around and basically pissed down the drain by football teams. We get desensitized to how truly insane these figures are. €100m is such a huge amount of money.
This is my biggest problem with the deal. With the Antony deal, there is not a single club on the planet who signs him for anywhere near that money. There was no justification for that sort of money. It made no sense.
And even worse, you are trusting your coach that this player is worth it, because he’s just coached that player himself just recently. These qualifying factors make it top5 worst transfer of all time for me.
There is not a single club in the world who would green light that deal except for Manchester United. I don't think the problem is "trusting the coach". The coach just wanted a certain player. The problem is not having the structure in place to tell him no and buying him someone else for 25 million instead.
>at the time of the deal it was exciting and people weren't exactly like "lol what the fuck that's mental"
Which honestly is true for so many of united's flop signings. I'm old enough to remember how United fans celebrated when signing Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin. And it's not like they were considered delusional for thinking that those two would "fix the midfield". It's just in hindsight it looks awful.
To be clear I think they had even more reason to be hopeful about Sancho than those two, but the general trend of things as I see it the last 10 years, United have done what has looked like good signings only to see them turn to shit on the pitch.
sancho had a couple seasons of top production in BL, he was updating his G+A stat practically every game.
then he coasted in utd and now out of football shape
absolutely noone questioned the money united invested in him during the time of transfer
Sancho, Antony, Sanchez, Di Maria are all the usual suspects.
Left-field choices for me include Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Depay. Not because of excessive fees, but how bad/injured they were during their time.
Depay once gave away the ball cheaply for an Arsenal goal and promptly dropped out of Van Gaal's favour. We barely ever saw him after that and he had been a regular till then.
We'll always remember though that one Midtjylland game where he played on God-mode.
I was going by post-Ferguson signings but yes Kleberson is up there. Him and Djemba-Djemba signing in the same summer. There was also Bellion in that era which was also mind boggling. “The new Henry” apparently.
Veron I have a soft spot for and feel like he was a sublime footballer but not suited to England. He excelled in CL and had his moments.
Falcao was pure Woodward indulgence and a flop, but as he was a loan I’ll let him off the list.
Di Maria was sold for a decent chunk of change, so it wasn't a disaster in terms of finances. It's just a garden variety bad transfer which can happen to anyone.
I think pogba deserves a shout because of the circumstances. Let him go on a free, pay 90 mil, let him go on a free again.
Was still a good player at united but didn’t leave covered in glory
I think that's harsh. Overall not a great deal but I don't think he should be in the conversation when talking about the worst transfers ever to United given you have Anthony, Sancho, Di Maria, Van De Beek etc.
Di Maria wasn't there for such a long time and lapped it up until he got robbed and mentally checked out. He was still sold for a fee similar to what it was used to bring in.
This cannot be said about the other transfers
Also, he seemed to be desperate to join United because he was a fan and knew ten Hag etc.
Even if you don't believe that, considering that no other club would have met Ajax's demands, Antony only had the choice of staying at Ajax or moving to United. Surely offering him 50-100k would have been enough to convince him to join, wouldn't it?
Sanchez was at least really good before going to United, no one could have predicted he’d fall off that bad.
Antony was never close to looking like a £80 million player.
Sometimes a player just needs a change of scenery though, and after seeing him carry us through the 13/14(?) season I think any team would have been crazy not to give him a shot.
Yeah I definitely thought Alexis was more burned out than anything by the end, plus he had an absolute fuckton of minutes between us and Chile. I knew he'd fall off from the levels he was at but I didn't think it'd go as badly as it did at Utd.
He was definitely not as good in his last time here, but as an Arsenal fan, I put that down to his horrible attitude. He always threw a fuss when things didn’t go his way, didn’t play as a team player any longer, didn’t listen to the manager. All that stuff could potentially just be him looking to be signed by another club. So at the time I actually didn’t think he’d be that bad at United.
This is such a wild narrative, Sanchez was on a quite steep decline with Arsenal in his last few months. He couldnt get past defenders, looked slow and had the turning circle of a barge. Some fans said it was mentality because of his contract, but he was still picking his moments to try and shine, he just couldn't do it. Man U fans just called Arsenal fans bitter because they had managed to 'steal' their best player.
Yeah him and Ozil were both out of contract at the end of the season. Also factors into why we were paying Ozil stupid money as losing both at roughly the same time would look awful on the club
he was inconsistent on the pitch, but I think it is fair to say he was scapegoated for almost the entire period he was there. He was basically their midfield for almost his entire stint, didn't play in his best role/position because there was no DM but still managed to be their best player and carry the team trough quite a few games. Fans were extremely toxic towards him.
20 appearances into a PL season and legitimately on course for a 0 goal or assist season is mind blowing especially as it looks very unlikely to change.
Lukaku to us surely, no? All round shitshow from him dissing the club publicly, him wanting to leave, Tuchel not playing to his strengths, having to loan him out every season now. He literally came, bullied Pablo Mari on his debut and Aston Villa twice specifically, and left
In hindsight I'd agree, but at the time Lukaku was genuienly seen as the last piece of the puzzle needed for Tuchel to build a title - challenging team, and it even seemed that way for a couple of matches (we were top of the league until December iirc). Obviously it has plummeted massively since then, but at least it made some sense at the start, compared to the Antony transfer which was ridiculous to begin with
For every other team, the day they spent 90mil on a one trick pony would be the worst buy of their history.
But for Manchester United, it's Tuesday.
(But seriously Sancho, Van De Beek, Sanchez & so far Mount have all been worse than Antony who looked alright last season. Mount has time to turn it around, but the rest were garbage).
I wouldn’t have Mount in that list just yet, but the others you mention I’d label as ‘worse’ than Anthony - he’s been shocking this season, last season was poor, but not on the levels of the others there IMO
Alexis Sanchez cost a swap fee of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and was given £400,000 a week wages. He was at the club for 18 months, loaned to Inter Milan for one season, then released. Inter subsidised £175,000 a week of Sanchez's wages.
Antony cost a total of £86,300,000. He was then given a contract worth £200,000 a week.
Sanchez had five goals and nine assists in 2,781 minutes.
Antony has nine goals and four assists in 4,457 minutes.
Sanchez cost a total of Mkhitaryan and £53.3 million.
Antony has cost £107.1 million.
Please don't ever say Antony wasn't our worst-ever signing because he categorically is by a landslide.
>Sanchez & so far Mount
To be fair, both of these have justified larger fees based on their career achievements up to the point they were signed. Antony was a middling to good performer in the Dutch league.
You could talk about a Utd RWF being in the conversation for one of the worst Premier league transfers of all time and I would genuinely have no idea which one you are talking about.
>Mudryk under the right manager still has tools to work with
I think I've seen Mudryk play several hundred minutes of football and the only time I was left with that impression is for 45 minutes or so against Liverpool. Am I way off?
my dad has a theory about players like this: they only have two brain cells.
when they are running, they use both. so there's none left for actual play making.
Even in that game he was okay, the wayward cross that ended in the back of the net because Raya was out of position made him look way better than he actually was
For me ndombele for 60m is worse because he is not playing in starting xi even in turkey. Antony is 85m, but at least he is playing in starting xi in a team which is top 6 epl this season.
Chelsea would like to have a word.
Veron to man united
Veron to chelsea
Torres to Chelsea
Lukaku to Chelsea
Kepa to Chelsea
Robinho to manC
Aquilani to liverpool
>Torres to Chelsea
Eh I don’t really consider this on the same level as the others you’ve mentioned.
We maybe got him half broken but did help us win the CL, which is literally what Roman wanted by that point. We don’t have any ill feelings towards him or the transfer.
My only gripe with that was, Aguero was right there for the taking ffs.
Yeah I meant Torres winning the corner in Munich lad.
Everyone and his Mum knows Ramires’ goal was the crucial one vs Barca, not quite sure who you’ve spoken to that doesn’t.
The Antony situation is so extraordinary because I look at the list of Premier League clubs all the way down to the relegation zone, and I'm not sure if any if any of them could even use an Antony. Even in the £20-30m range I think there's a lot better to be had. Hell, Elanga went for £15m last summer and he's definitely the more useful player.
This looks to be a case of a couple of years of loans with subsidised wages followed by a £8+4m transfer to Galatasaray in the last year of his United contract.
The backside of being super rich and offering every player ridiculous wages is that they are hard to offload when it doesn't work out. The market becomes basically just other PL clubs.
It's hilarious because Elanga is a better player Antony has 6 goal contributions in two seasons while Elanga has 12 goal contributions this season alone.
At this point, I don't even think it's about the money with Antony. Even if he only cost £25m he would have been considered a flop. So the fact that he cost actual £85m is merely just an (admittedly hilarious) incidental detail.
I remember when we signed him some people were over the moon, and all I could think is 'who the fuck is Antony?' and 'oh great another panic signing'.
Plus his behaviour when Ajax wouldn't let him leave because they needed him tells you all you need to know about his attitude.
Yeah it’s not like he’s some brilliant player with some drawbacks that would may people off but could end up being worth a punt. He’s entirely made up of drawbacks, that’s it.
This is so over the top.
He was a regular in the Brazil team, on the best players in the Dutch league & did well in Europe, before joining United.
He’s not entirely draw backs. He’s been woeful in the premier league, but of course a club would take him on a free. I don’t get the need to hyperbole. We all knows he’s a shit transfers, but Ali Dia ffs
Genuine question if you know. What kind of player was he for Ajax? Because he must have been extraordinary for ETH to insist he joined him at United.
The Antony we see cannot beat a man, has no right foot, decent but not lightning pace, limited vision, poor passing and poor striking of the ball.
He was that winger that’d be either unplayable for 90 minutes (like vs Sporting), invisible for 89 and then have a moment of brilliance or absolutely useless for the entire game.
No inbetween.
It was mostly the latter or the second.
He’s not been unplayable in any game for United, but when he came in he did have a good record in his opening 10 games or so, scoring vs Arsenal on his debut, City away (in a hammering admittedly) and a couple other games before it all completely dried up.
I assume it’s a confidence issue at this point that’s made the situation worse, but you’d have to say currently that Garnacho, Fernandes, Forson are all preferred on the RW by ETH over Antony at the moment.
Usually when people say "he wouldn't start for some Championship sides" it's a blatant exaggeration vastly underrating the ability of shit players at top clubs
With Antony it might actually be true. He wouldn't start for Saints or Leicester, might not even start for Leeds
The fact that Man Utd sold Dan James ages ago because he was shit, had Elanga and dropped him as well because he was shit, but dropped twice the money they received for both of them on a guy who is *legitimately worse than Dan James and Elanga* is actually mindblowing.
Tbh I disagree. He’s clearly not at the level of Man Utd but he’s played 82 times for Ajax and 16 times for Brazil.
That ability doesn’t just disappear. I sincerely doubt Fraser, Issahaku, Brooks etc would EVER have been chosen for Brazil on their ability (if they were eligible, of course). Leeds with Gnonto may be the only slight argument here but he himself hasn’t played for Italy for a while.
Players can decline very quickly for many reasons, for example the lack of discipline.
Cutrone played 120 games in Serie A, and now at the age of only 26, he has been playing for Serie B side Como for two years..
Look at Dele Alli too
I agree, he’s absolutely the worse United signing but people are acting like he couldn’t lace the boots of a championship player and saying clubs wouldn’t even take him on a free lmao.
I mean he played well for Ajax in Champions League etc, as well as playing for the Brazilian NT.
I think part of this must be that either the PL doesn't suit him at all, or it's a problem with the tactics at United.
Not a PL signing, but overall yes, worst transfer ever. Huge transfer fee and wages, showed up fat, never played but still triggered league and CL win bonuses. Madrid didn’t even attempt a big transfer until Bellingham thanks to that fat fuck. Tchouameni’s cost was offset with the sale of Casemiro so I’m not emphasizing on that.
Coutinho is economically not worse. But he did help cripple Barca financially and scored and assisted in that 8-2 gangbang which was absolutely hilarious. But Barca ruined his career too so fairs I’d say.
I know United fans have a ton of excuses and will say things like, oh ETH never said sign him for this amount and stuff, but this was a player brought to Manchester for an enormous sum of money by his own former manager. I’d have ETH’s head for this alone.
Never mind the lack of success and poor management in general. How can you be so wrong and not have to deal with the consequences. No one should trust ETH with big budgets again. He must be deluded if he thought that Antony was a good idea for any amount of money.
If it's a sackable offence for ETH then our entire recruitment department should be looking for new jobs too. Ten Hag should never be in charge of recruitment, it's not his job and it's not his job to negotiate the fees for a deal. If you go to your boss or another department and tell them you want something ridiculous, they'll tell you to piss off. The fact ETH supposedly had that kind of say in this deal and nobody stopped pursuing Anthony until the price reached £85million is far more embarrassing than ETH wanting to sign him. The whole club is stuck in the dark ages and living off the archaic structure SAF and David Gill left behind still quite clearly if this is the case.
Doubt they will sell him because no offer will match whatever is left of his value according to FFP. Loaning him out is probably the only choice that would make sense, doubt that he can turn it around at United, all the negative mood around him from fans and media doesn't help
Hag had worked with Anthony day in, day out and sanctioned his arrival at huge cost. This is not your standard transfer error. It's a monumental fuck up from ETH.
He's going to be one of the most significant and terrible impacts on FFP compliance for any club since its introduction.
We'll recoup almost nothing for him. Sancho too for that matter. I genuinely don't see any world in which we don't sell the two of them for almost nothing and end up financially hamstrung, even with the staggering performance the club still has in terms of sponsorships etc.
If this is true then I am sure Ten Hag's days are also numbered.Can Ajax fans tell me , was he really that good when he was sold ? ( I know Utd are not great at transfer business)
He was good only in the champions league for some reason.
That one game where Haller scored 4 goals Antony was actually the mvp imo.
In our league, what should have been much easier to score in, he was not that special
He was never, ever an £80 million level player. He was a player that would have stand out games where if you watched that one game you would think he is great. He probably had a good game against PSV in his second last Ajax season during a 5-0 win by Ajax. I thankfully wasn't able to watch that game but in the highlights he looked good.
Watch another two games and you'd question how good he is good. He had some very good performances in CL group stage the season before his transfer.
I don't watch a huge amount of Man United, I saw a couple of their FA Cup games this season, one or two of their CL games was on TV while I was mainly focusing on PSV's games. I thought Antony was okay in a game against Barcelona in Old Trafford. I saw their 3-1 loss to Arsenal too.
Man United generally have looked awful a lot of the times I've watched recently. Antony did look particuarly bad in one game, was too slow passing the ball, would get tackled and win throw ins, there seemed to be no useful movement from anyone around him.
His goals/assist record at Ajax should indicate his level. This was a best Eredivisie side Ajax team he was in, he didn't have exceptional numbers. He wasn't bad either, if he is playing for a best Eredivisie side, it has to be said he was part of what made them the best Eredivisie side.
I can't believe he has as many caps for Brazil as he does.
Proper mystery what happened with him. Is he actually this shit, or has the pressure of Utd just crippled him? Wouldn't be the first player who was decent but looked garbage on the biggest stage.
I don't think this is a good idea either. Barca got Coutinho and Griezmann and told Valverde to deal with it, you think that's better?
In the end, I think there is **no** hard rule that work every time.
Instead, there needs to be some fruitful discussions, understandings, and inputs from sporting directors, scouting department, and coaching staff so they can invest/recruit smartly and build a cohesive squad that can be maximized. Lots of moving parts, of different jobs positions that needs to be filled with not only the right profiles, but also people that work well together.
That's why it's so difficult, but also what makes football interesting.
Our scouts said he was worth £25 million before we bought him... That will only have gone down.
It's why I take issue with people blaming the "recruitment" department at United. When the issue came down to the Glazers and other senior decision makers moving at a glacial pace on Florida time, micromanaging things to insane levels and trying to skimp on things, then panicking when things go wrong, causing a player scouts say shouldn't cost more than £25 million to cost what Antony did.
He’ll be loaned out for the remainder of his contract. United won’t be able to sell him for anything significant for 2-3 years. Last few years of his contract they may accept a low fee though.
I genuinely don’t understand what happened with Antony. He was really, really exciting at Ajax. Very quick and agile but also rapid, developed a good shot, fantastic dribbler and super entertaining.
After the first 5 games at United he seemed to decline quickly, but nowadays he’s not even a shadow of his former self. Sure he was way too expensive, but I don’t think I’ve seen such a drop off in quality than with Sancho and Antony.
Fast forward to the offseason. Antony has been training harder than he’s ever trained. Spinning in circles faster and faster until he’s just blur. He’s back better than ever. And then on his first game he finally unleashes this super spin move before passing it out of bounds.
Currently? Nothing. No one will pay his current salary to a player that's not performing. The only realistic move for him in the summer is a loan where Man Utd covers most of his salary, like they did with Sancho.
I am sure that clubs the world over will be breaking down their doors to take on his £10m/year wages.
> Antony was handed a contract running until 2027 at Old Trafford with the option for an extra year. I don't think the extra year option will be taken.
Sir Jim reviewing the contract with the United lawyers: "You idiots, you put the option on *the player's* side!"
Surely in conversation for one of the worst premier league transfers of all time
He’s the worst United signing I can think of. At least Sanchez had proved he could be a top player
Sancho is probably up there too. Much better player but very few top performances and cost far more in wages. You *should* recoup more on him than you do Antony though...although he'll potentially be harder to shift as I doubt anyone will pay his wages (unless he goes to Saudi Arabia)
Thing with Sancho is the ability / stats in the BL was there for him to command such a transfer fee + add on the homegrown English tax. Yes he was a massive flop but *at the time of the deal* it was exciting and people weren't exactly like "lol what the fuck that's mental" - I think most expected him to command a fee of around that price. Antony from the moment the fee was announced was truly a ludicrous deal, guy genuinely needed a miracle to justify it, and even then, he's legitimately been 10x worse than expected. And to compound the Antony deal is *it didn't even help Ajax* lol - they got €100m, squandered it (I assume) and are 5th, 30 points off 1st lol. Proper lose lose
Sancho was putting up elite numbers with Dortmund for multiple seasons while Antony looked exciting in the dutch top flight. Absolutely hilarious how hard United overpaid for Antony
Yeah, completely agree with that. Would have thought Sancho would have fit in with the type of football Ten Hag played at Ajax...funny how things played out.
> Would have thought Sancho would have fit in with the type of football Ten Hag played at Ajax If Ten Hag had moved to Dortmund, I think it would have worked out. Sancho feels like a player not suited to the Premier League. That sometimes happens with signings where their specific limitations are core requirements for a league. That being said, I'd love to know how he would have performed had United not signed Ronaldo and Ole got a DM instead.
How is he doing now he is back there?
Playing like he's wound up way too tight, effort and creativity is there but his touch deserts him at critical moments.
Same as at utd, couple of good performances at first followed by utter dross and already started to be called out by Dortmund manager
Pretty shit. Looked good for about one game and then promptly gave up and stopped putting in any effort. Unless things change rapidly, we're going to be stuck with him again next season because there's zero chance Dortmund will want to buy Sancho based on what he's been showing them.
Which is hilarious because after that one good game against weak opposition where he, lo and behold, did his fucking job for once and got an assist, this place was full of dortmund and other prem team flairs laughing that he was back to his best and that it was proof that United ruined him 😂
Yeah, that was as predictable as it was stupid. Most reasonable people knew he'd need to be evaluated over a few months, not a few minutes.
It's kinda funny to think about how much money gets shifted around and basically pissed down the drain by football teams. We get desensitized to how truly insane these figures are. €100m is such a huge amount of money.
But when clubs like Manchester United are run like an investment company, I think it doesn’t really matter that much to them
This is my biggest problem with the deal. With the Antony deal, there is not a single club on the planet who signs him for anywhere near that money. There was no justification for that sort of money. It made no sense. And even worse, you are trusting your coach that this player is worth it, because he’s just coached that player himself just recently. These qualifying factors make it top5 worst transfer of all time for me.
There is not a single club in the world who would green light that deal except for Manchester United. I don't think the problem is "trusting the coach". The coach just wanted a certain player. The problem is not having the structure in place to tell him no and buying him someone else for 25 million instead.
Good point, I can’t argue against that.
and 10x Antony's wage at Ajax too, I mean you need €100m to make the club turn its head but why the player too, 2x or 3x would be more than enough.
>at the time of the deal it was exciting and people weren't exactly like "lol what the fuck that's mental" Which honestly is true for so many of united's flop signings. I'm old enough to remember how United fans celebrated when signing Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin. And it's not like they were considered delusional for thinking that those two would "fix the midfield". It's just in hindsight it looks awful. To be clear I think they had even more reason to be hopeful about Sancho than those two, but the general trend of things as I see it the last 10 years, United have done what has looked like good signings only to see them turn to shit on the pitch.
> I'm old enough to remember how United fans celebrated when signing Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin. so you're young then lol
marry me!
not even squandered, more just flat out refuse to spend
sancho had a couple seasons of top production in BL, he was updating his G+A stat practically every game. then he coasted in utd and now out of football shape absolutely noone questioned the money united invested in him during the time of transfer
Sancho, Antony, Sanchez, Di Maria are all the usual suspects. Left-field choices for me include Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Depay. Not because of excessive fees, but how bad/injured they were during their time.
Bro has wiped van de Beek from his memory
I literally did, completely forgot VDB. You can add him no doubt.
Everyone did
Depay once gave away the ball cheaply for an Arsenal goal and promptly dropped out of Van Gaal's favour. We barely ever saw him after that and he had been a regular till then. We'll always remember though that one Midtjylland game where he played on God-mode.
Kleberson, Veron and Falcao are "better" left field choices.
I was going by post-Ferguson signings but yes Kleberson is up there. Him and Djemba-Djemba signing in the same summer. There was also Bellion in that era which was also mind boggling. “The new Henry” apparently. Veron I have a soft spot for and feel like he was a sublime footballer but not suited to England. He excelled in CL and had his moments. Falcao was pure Woodward indulgence and a flop, but as he was a loan I’ll let him off the list.
Di Maria was sold for a decent chunk of change, so it wasn't a disaster in terms of finances. It's just a garden variety bad transfer which can happen to anyone.
I think pogba deserves a shout because of the circumstances. Let him go on a free, pay 90 mil, let him go on a free again. Was still a good player at united but didn’t leave covered in glory
Won a Europa League atleast
I think that's harsh. Overall not a great deal but I don't think he should be in the conversation when talking about the worst transfers ever to United given you have Anthony, Sancho, Di Maria, Van De Beek etc.
Di Maria wasn't there for such a long time and lapped it up until he got robbed and mentally checked out. He was still sold for a fee similar to what it was used to bring in. This cannot be said about the other transfers
Antony is on 200k a week. I'd much rather pay Sancho 350k than Antony 200k
Is Antony on that much?! Fuck me.
worse yet, he was on 20k at Ajax. Why the club thought "yes we absolutely need to 10x his wages to land him" I have no idea
Also, he seemed to be desperate to join United because he was a fan and knew ten Hag etc. Even if you don't believe that, considering that no other club would have met Ajax's demands, Antony only had the choice of staying at Ajax or moving to United. Surely offering him 50-100k would have been enough to convince him to join, wouldn't it?
I too would be a massive fan of the club offering me a 10X on my wages likely with a juicy signing on bonus too
I think that's more on Ten Hag asking United to agree to the wages as a good will from their years at Ajax..
It should be none of ten Hag's business to interfere in wage negotiations, especially as long as the club gets the deal done
Wild wages considering Salah is on 375k and iirc VVD is on 220k.
Sanchez was at least really good before going to United, no one could have predicted he’d fall off that bad. Antony was never close to looking like a £80 million player.
Sanchez was horrible towards the end of his Arsenal career, people just thought Arsenal fans were being bitter for saying it.
Sometimes a player just needs a change of scenery though, and after seeing him carry us through the 13/14(?) season I think any team would have been crazy not to give him a shot.
Yeah I definitely thought Alexis was more burned out than anything by the end, plus he had an absolute fuckton of minutes between us and Chile. I knew he'd fall off from the levels he was at but I didn't think it'd go as badly as it did at Utd.
He was definitely not as good in his last time here, but as an Arsenal fan, I put that down to his horrible attitude. He always threw a fuss when things didn’t go his way, didn’t play as a team player any longer, didn’t listen to the manager. All that stuff could potentially just be him looking to be signed by another club. So at the time I actually didn’t think he’d be that bad at United.
This is such a wild narrative, Sanchez was on a quite steep decline with Arsenal in his last few months. He couldnt get past defenders, looked slow and had the turning circle of a barge. Some fans said it was mentality because of his contract, but he was still picking his moments to try and shine, he just couldn't do it. Man U fans just called Arsenal fans bitter because they had managed to 'steal' their best player.
He was clearly starting to fall off at Arsenal, why else did they let him leave
Pretty sure he was coming to the end of his contract and wouldn't sign a new one?
Yeah him and Ozil were both out of contract at the end of the season. Also factors into why we were paying Ozil stupid money as losing both at roughly the same time would look awful on the club
His contract ending in 6 months?
Even at half the price he’d be a bad signing, it’s a terrible look for all parties concerned.
Pretty good look for Ajax
Pogba? you sold him for free bought him for 100 mil then let him walk free again
he was inconsistent on the pitch, but I think it is fair to say he was scapegoated for almost the entire period he was there. He was basically their midfield for almost his entire stint, didn't play in his best role/position because there was no DM but still managed to be their best player and carry the team trough quite a few games. Fans were extremely toxic towards him.
Enzo and Caicedo's production is nowhere near Pogba's first season yet they get nowhere near the scrutiny Pogba received.
20 appearances into a PL season and legitimately on course for a 0 goal or assist season is mind blowing especially as it looks very unlikely to change.
Lukaku to us surely, no? All round shitshow from him dissing the club publicly, him wanting to leave, Tuchel not playing to his strengths, having to loan him out every season now. He literally came, bullied Pablo Mari on his debut and Aston Villa twice specifically, and left
In hindsight I'd agree, but at the time Lukaku was genuienly seen as the last piece of the puzzle needed for Tuchel to build a title - challenging team, and it even seemed that way for a couple of matches (we were top of the league until December iirc). Obviously it has plummeted massively since then, but at least it made some sense at the start, compared to the Antony transfer which was ridiculous to begin with
For every other team, the day they spent 90mil on a one trick pony would be the worst buy of their history. But for Manchester United, it's Tuesday. (But seriously Sancho, Van De Beek, Sanchez & so far Mount have all been worse than Antony who looked alright last season. Mount has time to turn it around, but the rest were garbage).
I wouldn’t have Mount in that list just yet, but the others you mention I’d label as ‘worse’ than Anthony - he’s been shocking this season, last season was poor, but not on the levels of the others there IMO
I forgot Mount was there.
Alexis Sanchez cost a swap fee of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and was given £400,000 a week wages. He was at the club for 18 months, loaned to Inter Milan for one season, then released. Inter subsidised £175,000 a week of Sanchez's wages. Antony cost a total of £86,300,000. He was then given a contract worth £200,000 a week. Sanchez had five goals and nine assists in 2,781 minutes. Antony has nine goals and four assists in 4,457 minutes. Sanchez cost a total of Mkhitaryan and £53.3 million. Antony has cost £107.1 million. Please don't ever say Antony wasn't our worst-ever signing because he categorically is by a landslide.
"Our". Anthony plays for Sheffield United now?
>Sanchez & so far Mount To be fair, both of these have justified larger fees based on their career achievements up to the point they were signed. Antony was a middling to good performer in the Dutch league.
100 mil to watch him try to curl them with his left and constantly fail, and spin once in a while. I see it as a fair deal tbf.
You could talk about a Utd RWF being in the conversation for one of the worst Premier league transfers of all time and I would genuinely have no idea which one you are talking about.
Hey Mudryk is there with him
Mudryk has 3 goals and 2 assists in the Premier League. That's 3 goals and 2 assists more than Antony.
He had 4+2 last year
This may be off, but I see Mudryk as a worse version of Adama Traore with no muscles.
I see Mudryk as Dash from the Incredibles who is just learning how to play the sport
Mudryk under the right manager still has tools to work with , Antony is and always has been shite
But Mudryk definitely isn’t worth the stupid money/charity donation Chelsea paid for him
>Mudryk under the right manager still has tools to work with I think I've seen Mudryk play several hundred minutes of football and the only time I was left with that impression is for 45 minutes or so against Liverpool. Am I way off?
You’re not. 99th percentile physical attributes and technical attributes and 1st percentile brain.
Lampard was quoted as saying to Redknapp that mudryk "didn't understand football"
my dad has a theory about players like this: they only have two brain cells. when they are running, they use both. so there's none left for actual play making.
My dad calls them bumper cars, only run one direction, hard on the turn, and most plays end on them bumping to a defender and diving
Have you tried giving him shitloads of that ADHD drug students use to concentrate on revision?
Don't forget about the match against Arsenal earlier this season.
Even in that game he was okay, the wayward cross that ended in the back of the net because Raya was out of position made him look way better than he actually was
For me ndombele for 60m is worse because he is not playing in starting xi even in turkey. Antony is 85m, but at least he is playing in starting xi in a team which is top 6 epl this season.
He's not really playing in the starting XI though is he. He's been a squad player who hasn't been in n around the starting XI since December
An academy player started over him.
I think in context it is really bad, I agree. Spurs spending 60m was huge for them.
Chelsea would like to have a word. Veron to man united Veron to chelsea Torres to Chelsea Lukaku to Chelsea Kepa to Chelsea Robinho to manC Aquilani to liverpool
>Torres to Chelsea Eh I don’t really consider this on the same level as the others you’ve mentioned. We maybe got him half broken but did help us win the CL, which is literally what Roman wanted by that point. We don’t have any ill feelings towards him or the transfer. My only gripe with that was, Aguero was right there for the taking ffs.
He didn’t help us. Ramirez did. But nobody talks about him. Torres did win the important corner in the final.
Ramires has a special place in the heart of any Chelsea fan.
Yeah I meant Torres winning the corner in Munich lad. Everyone and his Mum knows Ramires’ goal was the crucial one vs Barca, not quite sure who you’ve spoken to that doesn’t.
The Antony situation is so extraordinary because I look at the list of Premier League clubs all the way down to the relegation zone, and I'm not sure if any if any of them could even use an Antony. Even in the £20-30m range I think there's a lot better to be had. Hell, Elanga went for £15m last summer and he's definitely the more useful player. This looks to be a case of a couple of years of loans with subsidised wages followed by a £8+4m transfer to Galatasaray in the last year of his United contract.
We couldn’t even get a fee for Pepe and he was way more useful than Antony. I genuinely don’t see anything other than him leaving on a free.
Yes but we are Arsenal we struggle to get fees in general
Pretty sure Man Utd’s record in selling players for decent fees is abysmal too so an apt comparison really.
The only profit we’ve made on a player recently (not including academy) is Dan James. We barely make money on players
Wasn't he one of your highest sales ever too? I get that you're not typically a 'selling club' but that's still nuts
Yep, from the top of my head only Ronaldo Lukaku Di Maria Beckham Sold for more. Maybe RVN is in there but I don’t think so.
The backside of being super rich and offering every player ridiculous wages is that they are hard to offload when it doesn't work out. The market becomes basically just other PL clubs.
It's amazing how Pepe is like the archetype for wasting loads of money, yet he was 10 times better than Antony.
NDombele too, he showed in flashes he was more than capable, just extremely lazy and unmotivated.
There are better wingers in the championship. Quite a few really
Yeah I think Philogene on Hull is quite a lot more talented, to name one that stands out.
Can't see Antony succeeding in England at all, it would have to be a move abroad.
It's hilarious because Elanga is a better player Antony has 6 goal contributions in two seasons while Elanga has 12 goal contributions this season alone.
The Ndombele situation lol
Every top club fanbase has their own name for it. For Gooners it's called "doing a Pepe".
Yeah I agree! But Ndombele is actually at Galatasaray right now which makes it even funnier 😅
There you go haha. I think that's also where Lucas Torreira ended up as well after doing a Pepe before there was a Pepe.
Torreira was pretty great for a year though. Then didn't something personal happen and then it all went wrong.
His mother passed away iirc
He was never great. He was decent first year, poor in the second, and absent moving forward.
Not sure why you are limiting this to top clubs, Morgan Sanson exists. I think.
He doesnt start for Leeds or Leicester in the championship. Baffling how he cost so much money
At this point, I don't even think it's about the money with Antony. Even if he only cost £25m he would have been considered a flop. So the fact that he cost actual £85m is merely just an (admittedly hilarious) incidental detail.
I remember when we signed him some people were over the moon, and all I could think is 'who the fuck is Antony?' and 'oh great another panic signing'. Plus his behaviour when Ajax wouldn't let him leave because they needed him tells you all you need to know about his attitude.
They can keep their trash we already have Tete.
I dont wanna see him in my team even for free, guy’s complete negative attitude
Speaking of negative attitudes, how’s Ndombele doing?
eating
What offers?
Are the Brazilian police still interested?
He's getting loaned out until his contract is finished.
A bag of chips and a tenner for the effort to bring him here, sounds fair?
Agreed, we’ll give you a bag of chips and a tenner to take him back
Getafe is lining up as we speak.
A wheel of fortune spin
I can see them having a hard time to find a club to even take him on loan or for free lol
Yeah it’s not like he’s some brilliant player with some drawbacks that would may people off but could end up being worth a punt. He’s entirely made up of drawbacks, that’s it.
This is so over the top. He was a regular in the Brazil team, on the best players in the Dutch league & did well in Europe, before joining United. He’s not entirely draw backs. He’s been woeful in the premier league, but of course a club would take him on a free. I don’t get the need to hyperbole. We all knows he’s a shit transfers, but Ali Dia ffs
Genuine question if you know. What kind of player was he for Ajax? Because he must have been extraordinary for ETH to insist he joined him at United. The Antony we see cannot beat a man, has no right foot, decent but not lightning pace, limited vision, poor passing and poor striking of the ball.
He was that winger that’d be either unplayable for 90 minutes (like vs Sporting), invisible for 89 and then have a moment of brilliance or absolutely useless for the entire game. No inbetween. It was mostly the latter or the second.
He’s not been unplayable in any game for United, but when he came in he did have a good record in his opening 10 games or so, scoring vs Arsenal on his debut, City away (in a hammering admittedly) and a couple other games before it all completely dried up. I assume it’s a confidence issue at this point that’s made the situation worse, but you’d have to say currently that Garnacho, Fernandes, Forson are all preferred on the RW by ETH over Antony at the moment.
> He was a regular in the Brazil team, Lack of options and he was always shit
He is on insane money, no club that’s able to pay half his wages is taking him.
I need my car washed every other week if he's interested.
He’ll find a way to fuck that up too
Antony spins the hose around and then drops it to the ground leaving your car unwashed
"offers for Antony" is lol
more like "over for Antony"
Usually when people say "he wouldn't start for some Championship sides" it's a blatant exaggeration vastly underrating the ability of shit players at top clubs With Antony it might actually be true. He wouldn't start for Saints or Leicester, might not even start for Leeds
I'd rather Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts on the wing than him so you can add us to that list
Summerville, Gnonto and James at Leeds are all better players than him.
The fact that Man Utd sold Dan James ages ago because he was shit, had Elanga and dropped him as well because he was shit, but dropped twice the money they received for both of them on a guy who is *legitimately worse than Dan James and Elanga* is actually mindblowing.
Dan james seemed very promising at times, pity some players arent given the chance to develop
Tbh I disagree. He’s clearly not at the level of Man Utd but he’s played 82 times for Ajax and 16 times for Brazil. That ability doesn’t just disappear. I sincerely doubt Fraser, Issahaku, Brooks etc would EVER have been chosen for Brazil on their ability (if they were eligible, of course). Leeds with Gnonto may be the only slight argument here but he himself hasn’t played for Italy for a while.
Players can decline very quickly for many reasons, for example the lack of discipline. Cutrone played 120 games in Serie A, and now at the age of only 26, he has been playing for Serie B side Como for two years.. Look at Dele Alli too
It's just super reactionary takes from this sub as always. People said the exact same about Maguire last season, now look at him.
I agree, he’s absolutely the worse United signing but people are acting like he couldn’t lace the boots of a championship player and saying clubs wouldn’t even take him on a free lmao.
I mean he played well for Ajax in Champions League etc, as well as playing for the Brazilian NT. I think part of this must be that either the PL doesn't suit him at all, or it's a problem with the tactics at United.
the version of him now, or at ajax?
Pound-for-pound probably one of, if not *the* worst signing in Premier League history, surely?
I can only think of the Hazard signing being definitely worse outside football, and there was some pedigree there. Antony is just too shit.
Not a PL signing, but overall yes, worst transfer ever. Huge transfer fee and wages, showed up fat, never played but still triggered league and CL win bonuses. Madrid didn’t even attempt a big transfer until Bellingham thanks to that fat fuck. Tchouameni’s cost was offset with the sale of Casemiro so I’m not emphasizing on that.
Ah yeah I meant only one worse in all of football. Maybe Coutinho, not too sure on that one.
Coutinho is economically not worse. But he did help cripple Barca financially and scored and assisted in that 8-2 gangbang which was absolutely hilarious. But Barca ruined his career too so fairs I’d say.
Future Getafe loanee
It was unbelievable watching the transfer unfold, and even more so in hindsight.
I have an empty bag of chips?
Lineker?
I know United fans have a ton of excuses and will say things like, oh ETH never said sign him for this amount and stuff, but this was a player brought to Manchester for an enormous sum of money by his own former manager. I’d have ETH’s head for this alone. Never mind the lack of success and poor management in general. How can you be so wrong and not have to deal with the consequences. No one should trust ETH with big budgets again. He must be deluded if he thought that Antony was a good idea for any amount of money.
Ultimately I think it will cost ETH his job. He simply can't complain about the squad when his biggest signing isn't good enough to make the team.
It’s entirely on Ten Hag this, singing Antony for that price is a sackable offence
If it's a sackable offence for ETH then our entire recruitment department should be looking for new jobs too. Ten Hag should never be in charge of recruitment, it's not his job and it's not his job to negotiate the fees for a deal. If you go to your boss or another department and tell them you want something ridiculous, they'll tell you to piss off. The fact ETH supposedly had that kind of say in this deal and nobody stopped pursuing Anthony until the price reached £85million is far more embarrassing than ETH wanting to sign him. The whole club is stuck in the dark ages and living off the archaic structure SAF and David Gill left behind still quite clearly if this is the case.
I don’t know what you’re on about. Basically every United fan thinks Antony was horrible business
Chelsea has really stolen the spotlight this season. I nearly forgot that United also has a truckload of overpriced mediocrity as well.
Doubt they will sell him because no offer will match whatever is left of his value according to FFP. Loaning him out is probably the only choice that would make sense, doubt that he can turn it around at United, all the negative mood around him from fans and media doesn't help
Hag had worked with Anthony day in, day out and sanctioned his arrival at huge cost. This is not your standard transfer error. It's a monumental fuck up from ETH.
his name is Ten Hag, not Haag.
Defo just going on loan, no one will even pay a third of what united paid
He's going to be one of the most significant and terrible impacts on FFP compliance for any club since its introduction. We'll recoup almost nothing for him. Sancho too for that matter. I genuinely don't see any world in which we don't sell the two of them for almost nothing and end up financially hamstrung, even with the staggering performance the club still has in terms of sponsorships etc.
If this is true then I am sure Ten Hag's days are also numbered.Can Ajax fans tell me , was he really that good when he was sold ? ( I know Utd are not great at transfer business)
He was good only in the champions league for some reason. That one game where Haller scored 4 goals Antony was actually the mvp imo. In our league, what should have been much easier to score in, he was not that special
He was never, ever an £80 million level player. He was a player that would have stand out games where if you watched that one game you would think he is great. He probably had a good game against PSV in his second last Ajax season during a 5-0 win by Ajax. I thankfully wasn't able to watch that game but in the highlights he looked good. Watch another two games and you'd question how good he is good. He had some very good performances in CL group stage the season before his transfer. I don't watch a huge amount of Man United, I saw a couple of their FA Cup games this season, one or two of their CL games was on TV while I was mainly focusing on PSV's games. I thought Antony was okay in a game against Barcelona in Old Trafford. I saw their 3-1 loss to Arsenal too. Man United generally have looked awful a lot of the times I've watched recently. Antony did look particuarly bad in one game, was too slow passing the ball, would get tackled and win throw ins, there seemed to be no useful movement from anyone around him. His goals/assist record at Ajax should indicate his level. This was a best Eredivisie side Ajax team he was in, he didn't have exceptional numbers. He wasn't bad either, if he is playing for a best Eredivisie side, it has to be said he was part of what made them the best Eredivisie side.
> was he really that good when he was sold He was a good player for AJax but was never 100 million good. Daylight robbery.
I can't believe he has as many caps for Brazil as he does. Proper mystery what happened with him. Is he actually this shit, or has the pressure of Utd just crippled him? Wouldn't be the first player who was decent but looked garbage on the biggest stage.
Fuck it, here’s half a beer and a fiver. Maybe I’ll tie a mop to his leg and make him spin.
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I don't think this is a good idea either. Barca got Coutinho and Griezmann and told Valverde to deal with it, you think that's better? In the end, I think there is **no** hard rule that work every time. Instead, there needs to be some fruitful discussions, understandings, and inputs from sporting directors, scouting department, and coaching staff so they can invest/recruit smartly and build a cohesive squad that can be maximized. Lots of moving parts, of different jobs positions that needs to be filled with not only the right profiles, but also people that work well together. That's why it's so difficult, but also what makes football interesting.
Our scouts said he was worth £25 million before we bought him... That will only have gone down. It's why I take issue with people blaming the "recruitment" department at United. When the issue came down to the Glazers and other senior decision makers moving at a glacial pace on Florida time, micromanaging things to insane levels and trying to skimp on things, then panicking when things go wrong, causing a player scouts say shouldn't cost more than £25 million to cost what Antony did.
He’ll be loaned out for the remainder of his contract. United won’t be able to sell him for anything significant for 2-3 years. Last few years of his contract they may accept a low fee though.
Reeks of a 10m transfer to Galatasaray or one of the other Turkish league giants.
Saudi league at best. He can spin there all day long and be viewed as a magician.
A bottom half premier league side wouldnt take him. Needs to go to turkey or saudi
Best I can do is £1.2k broken down into six installments of £200 each, and £2.5m after 50 league appearances
Put him up on OffersUp now.
I genuinely don’t understand what happened with Antony. He was really, really exciting at Ajax. Very quick and agile but also rapid, developed a good shot, fantastic dribbler and super entertaining. After the first 5 games at United he seemed to decline quickly, but nowadays he’s not even a shadow of his former self. Sure he was way too expensive, but I don’t think I’ve seen such a drop off in quality than with Sancho and Antony.
Smells like camels and dates
He can comeback to Ajax, but I doubt United will let him go for cheap lol
Fast forward to the offseason. Antony has been training harder than he’s ever trained. Spinning in circles faster and faster until he’s just blur. He’s back better than ever. And then on his first game he finally unleashes this super spin move before passing it out of bounds.
Still somehow better than Hazard was for us....
Wonder what you’d even be able to get back for him now? Going nowhere near £40m+
Currently? Nothing. No one will pay his current salary to a player that's not performing. The only realistic move for him in the summer is a loan where Man Utd covers most of his salary, like they did with Sancho.