Erik ten Hag ignores Edwin van der Sar's Man Utd advice on Antony at own peril

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Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has splashed the cash since taking over at Old Trafford in 2022, with £600million spent on 15 permanent signings.

However, winger Antony is the most expensive of those transfers and the second most expensive signing in club history. United spent around £85million to sign the Brazilian from Ten Hag’s former club Ajax and he has failed to make much of an impact at all.

Antony has scored just five goals and provided three assists in 56 Premier League appearances, with three of those coming in his first three league appearances. United legend Edwin van der Sar was Ajax’s CEO at the time they signed Antony and he did warn that they had vastly overpaid for the winger.

Although Van der Sar felt Antony was a “potential world star”, he believed he should have remained at Ajax for another year to continue his development. However, they were simply unable to refuse such a huge offer from United, the Daily Mirror reports.

Speaking to the Athletic after the move was completed, Van der Sar said: “We would have liked to keep him here one year longer — there was not a dire need to sell him, we had money in the bank — but the fee got so high. We challenged United to go as far as possible.”

However, Antony has so far failed to fulfil his potential at Old Trafford and his only start this season came in the 7-0 Carabao Cup victory over League One side Barnsley last month. Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo are all ahead of him in the pecking order.

“He is fighting, fighting for his position,” Ten Hag said when asked about Antony’s lack of game time last month. “That’s what we expect from every player in the squad at Manchester United, what they should do.

“Of course he’s impatient. He wants to play and he’s fighting to play. That is professional football, that is top football. Those are the laws. You pick the team that you think has the most chance to win a game.

“Now he has to bounce back and he has the abilities to do it. If he is doing the right thing, he can make competition with them.”