Manchester United loaned out right winger Antony to Real Betis this winter in the hopes that a move to Spain would get something out of their mercurial forward. And Antony has quickly made Seville his new home, playing at a higher level than most players in LaLiga so far this season.
In seven matches, Antony has scored two goals with two assists while averaging three key passes per game and more than two combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per match.
After offering no real end product or creativity at Old Trafford, Antony has been one of the best creators in Europe since his move to Real Betis, giving him hope for the future, whether that is with Real Betis, Manchester United, or even some other club in European football.
But while Antony has broken out in his new surroundings, the 90 million euro Manchester United signing’s success only serves to highlight the struggles of another high-profile Manchester United attacking flop.
A year before signing Antony, Manchester United spent 85 million euros to sign Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund in a move that seemed both necessary and shrewd at the time.
It was a reasonable fee for a player valued at 100 million euros in most rumors, as Sancho was one of the best overall players in the Bundesliga between 2018 and 2021.
Sancho, however, was an unmitigated disaster at Old Trafford, earning more headlines for his feud with Erik ten Hag than anything else. The uber-talented winger flashed his world-class talent while back at Dortmund in the second half of the 2023/24 season, but even though he reached the Champions League Final, he still faded as the season wore on.
It was a bit of an indictment on Sancho that Dortmund weren’t willing to pony up to make the Sancho reunion a permanent transfer, and so Sancho was left searching for another club to join on loan on 2024/25.
He found that club in Chelsea. Even though the Blues are back in the Champions League conversation this season, that has nothing to do with Sancho, who has been dreary for his new employers after, again, initially flashing his quality in the first few games of his loan spell.
Maybe Antony will fade, but he’s already having more pronounced and even a more sustained period of success than Sancho had at Dortmund, and especially than what Sancho has been doing at Stamford Bridge.
Sancho has two goals and four assists in 23 Premier League appearances with 1.3 key passes and 2.2 combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game. Those aren’t actually bad numbers, especially not in the Premier League, and surpass what he did at Manchester United.
But watching how Antony has taken LaLiga by storm and put his team in the Champions League conversation, it really highlights how fall Sancho has fallen since his days at Dortmund and underscores how difficult it will be to find a permanent home for the former England international.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.