Manchester United spent nearly 100 million euros in order to sign right winger Antony from Ajax in the summer 2022 transfer window, doing so at the request of his former manager Erik ten Hag.
While Antony was a skillful player in the Eredivisie, he wasn’t known for his prolific goal-scoring or assist rates, topping out at 9 goals and 8 assists in the 2020/21 season.
So it wasn’t much of a surprise to the more cynical fans that Antony has failed to establish himself as a consistent source of end product for a Manchester United side that has since moved on from Antony.
Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo are both favored to Antony on the right wing, while Manchester United can also play a two-striker system after signing young Serie A standout strikers Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee in the last two transfer windows.
As even Erik ten Hag comes to grips with the fact that Antony is poorly-suited to the club – and likely the Premier League as a whole – Manchester United are beginning to put out feelers for any club interested in the Brazilian.
According to a report from the Daily Mail’s Chris Wheeler, Manchester United have set an asking price of 40 million pounds for Antony, and their current plan is, as with Jadon Sancho last season, to loan the winger out in January before securing a permanent transfer in June.
If Antony goes to a club in the Bundesliga, for example, he could shine but wouldn’t be signed for 40 million euros directly. Only Bayern Munich and Dortmund pay 40 million euros for players. Dortmund do so rarely, and then Bayern already have a much better right winger they just signed in Michael Olise.
So when it comes to clubs that would be interested in a player of Antony’s caliber and have the means to spend 40 million euros, it may come down to a Premier League team willing to take a gamble on Antony this January.
The 24-year-old’s price tag has dropped by less than half, yet that is still a price too rich when you realize that clubs like RB Leipzig, Real Betis, or Atalanta that could possibly benefit from rebounding Antony would all prefer to spend max 20 million euros on a player.
Selling Antony is not going to be an easy task for Manchester United, but, at this juncture, they have to explore the best ways to maximize their return on a 95 million euro player.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.