November 19th 2024.
Three years ago, Liverpool and their manager Jurgen Klopp were faced with the possibility of losing their star player, Mohamed Salah. Rumor has it that Klopp even considered replacing Salah with Manchester United's Antony. At the time, Salah's contract with Liverpool was set to expire at the end of the season and negotiations for a new deal were not going smoothly.
According to The Times, talks with Salah were at one point deemed "unlikely" and Klopp was already exploring other options, with Antony being mentioned as a potential replacement. However, United swooped in and signed the Brazilian winger for a whopping £82 million just two months later.
Since joining United, Antony has failed to live up to his hefty price tag, only scoring 12 goals in 87 appearances so far. The 24-year-old has struggled for game time under former manager Erik ten Hag, starting just one game in the Carabao Cup and making four substitute appearances in the Premier League and Europa League combined.
There have been reports that United are open to selling Antony in the upcoming January transfer window, with former United player Gary Neville even dubbing him as one of the worst transfers in the club's history. Along with Casemiro, who joined in a £70 million deal from Real Madrid in 2022, Antony's signing was seen as a panicked response to United's losses against Brentford and Brighton.
Neville criticized the club's upper management for allowing these expensive and underwhelming signings to happen, stating that they are the reason why United had to go back into the transfer market to sign players like Manuel Ugarte. He expressed hope that both Casemiro and Antony can prove him wrong and become successful players for the club, but ultimately, their signings were a result of poor management. It is clear that these signings have not lived up to expectations and have cost the club both financially and in terms of their on-field performance.
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