Sport

Antony is just another victim of the toxicity surrounding Manchester United.

During his time at Manchester United, nobody quite embodied the perennial crisis at Old Trafford like Antony. The Brazilian winger followed Erik ten Hag to the club from Ajax in the summer of 2022 for a stunning £90m. It was an incredibly overinflated transfer fee, one the player had shown no indication he could justify, and it set him up for failure from the start.

The truth was, that deal represented so much more: the lack of business acumen which had accelerated the Red Devils’ decline over the previous decade, and the sheer desperation there was for Ten Hag to succeed. No manager since Sir Alex Ferguson had been backed like him; money seemed to be no object at times. Though his predecessors also benefitted from that lavish, sometimes reckless spending, nobody was able to build a team in their image like him. Antony was joined by Lisandro Martinez in arriving from Ajax, while Tyrell Malacia signed from domestic rivals Feyenoord in that first summer.

When Sir Jim Ratcliffe bought 25% of the club and took control of football operations, it appeared for a long time as though Ten Hag’s days were numbered. But he won the FA Cup last season, signed a new contract and saw another £200m spent on players he wanted and had previously worked with, like Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui. That decision has had long-term consequences; since sacking him, they’ve brought in Ruben Amorim, a man with a completely different philosophy and in turn given him an incompatible squad.

By this point, Antony was very much on the periphery. The price tag was an anchor for him, weighing him down at every turn. He rarely did himself justice with his performance and attitude, either, but he was never going to thrive in the environment he was thrust into. He had shown signs of growing into a good player in Holland, but he needed to perform like a great one immediately for Manchester United to even begin to get a return on their investment. In January, he moved on loan to Real Betis in a bid to restart his career, and he has started brilliantly with two goals in two matches and man of the match performances.

Yes, he is out of the shadow of that price tag and free to play with less expectation, but there is a wider trend around other players in his situation. Manchester United have become known for signing good players and seeing them regress in a red shirt, and players who flatter to deceive at the club are then leaving and soaring. Jadon Sancho went back to Borussia Dortmund last season on loan and reached the Champions League final, and is now impressing at Chelsea. Scott McTominay is in the form of his life, hoping to help Napoli to another Serie A title.

Lots has been said about what Manchester United need to get themselves back on top, but this trend is a really bad indictment on how far they really have to go. The players themselves are evidently aware of the easing pressure after departing; after Marcus Rashford celebrated his debut for Aston Villa following his loan move last month, Sancho commented on his Instagram post, simply saying “freedom”. When asked to explain his fine start in Spain, Antony summed it up with: “Things happen naturally when you are happy.”

The pressure is too much at Manchester United. Sure, those players all failed to impress and must take responsibility for that, but for all the talk of better recruitment and different systems, strong morale is the basic requirement for any successful team. There are plenty of other struggling members of that squad who must be looking enviously at their former teammates, hoping to get out and play with a smile on their faces again.

Everything around the club is negative. Redundancies, sackings, poor results and players unable to express themselves. The fanbase has long made it their mission to support the team and manager, but there needs to be a much less toxic culture internally before anything gets better. Antony’s sudden upturn is evidence of that.