Antony dos Santos (Out)

Some blame needs to lie with EtH I agree but it’s not his fault how badly the board botched that transfer. We could’ve got him for pretty much half the fee earlier in the window but they fecked about all summer and then finally caved right near the deadline, by which point Ajax desperately couldn’t sell

Ajax kept kept turning down our offers all summer. It was known early doors how much they wanted for him, and it became tougher as the window went on, Ajax sold more players, and their new manager was kicking off about them selling everyone.
 
i still cant get my head around how ETH could have seen something in him that made him an 80 million player, ie a world beater, when its clear that he is so limited as a player.
 
i still cant get my head around how ETH could have seen something in him that made him an 80 million player, ie a world beater, when its clear that he is so limited as a player.

Everyone panicked at the end of the transfer window because we lost the first few matches at the start of the season. Fans were protesting and singing Glazers/Woodward out. Hence, the 80m.
 
i still cant get my head around how ETH could have seen something in him that made him an 80 million player, ie a world beater, when its clear that he is so limited as a player.

This has been clarified time and again, at this point suggesting ETH paid that amount is wilful ignorance.

We could have had him for literally tens of millions less earlier in the summer, but Murtough baulked at that already high fee and moved on, but the list of alternative targets he'd come up with was very small, and none worked out. ETH insisted that we needed a forward, so Murtough panicked and threw money at Ajax who were asking even more as they'd already sold a bunch of players that summer.
 
i still cant get my head around how ETH could have seen something in him that made him an 80 million player, ie a world beater, when its clear that he is so limited as a player.
ETH is just stubborn, he would have paid 200 million for him. He don’t give a f.

When he wants something or believes in something he won’t let it go. We seen this with his suicide midfield tactics all season. Outplayed every game yet he persisted, game after game.

Best thing for everyone is to get him off transfers for good.
 
Sanchez was a swap deal for Mkhitaryan. He collected massive wages but at least he read the room and knew to leave when he wasn't wanted.
He wasn't a one trick poney with no hope of ever coming good. He also had good history to ride on. Nothing like this charlatan.
 
ETH is just stubborn, he would have paid 200 million for him. He don’t give a f.

When he wants something or believes in something he won’t let it go. We seen this with his suicide midfield tactics all season. Outplayed every game yet he persisted, game after game.

Best thing for everyone is to get him off transfers for good.
I actually have it on good authority that Ten Hag insisted on us paying £200m for him, because he was certain Antony would play better if he felt more valued!

And he very nearly got his way, since he had kidnapped Richard Arnold and John Murtough shortly before he officially started work at Carrington, and spent two weeks brainwashing them so that they forgot all of their world class expertise at navigating the transfer market at a top level football club!

He even burned specific files marked "All the next Messis" and "LuckyScout's guide to signing Adam Wharton for peanuts" along with Matt Hargreaves' copy of "Negotiating for Dummies"!

If you thought that was bad, have you noticed how whenever he wears that flat cap, he never adjusts it or removes it? That's because he knows about a hostile species of aliens known as the Eredivisians, and he knows exactly when they turn on their brain-scramblers to resequence us all into wombats. Injuries, schminjuries - that's what really happened to our defence last season, and the nightmare is set to continue!

#JusticeForWombatMalacia
 
As much as I’d like to believe any of this is true, there’s no chance he goes this season IMO. Every team knows he’s been an epic failure, they aren’t gonna take a punt on him and if they do it’s going to be for far lower than we’d be willing to take but more so it’d be a team with which currently he will think he’s far better than (he’s not).

It’s basically Nicholas Pepe all over only Antony isn’t even as good. Pepe went to Trabzonspor on a free btw
 
As much as I’d like to believe any of this is true, there’s no chance he goes this season IMO. Every team knows he’s been an epic failure, they aren’t gonna take a punt on him and if they do it’s going to be for far lower than we’d be willing to take but more so it’d be a team with which currently he will think he’s far better than (he’s not).

It’s basically Nicholas Pepe all over only Antony isn’t even as good. Pepe went to Trabzonspor on a free btw
At least arsenal accepted they had cocked up and got rid of him..that's what we need to do with athony. Won't happen with ETH in charge though.
 
At least arsenal accepted they had cocked up and got rid of him..that's what we need to do with athony. Won't happen with ETH in charge though.
A different scenario. He only had one year left on his deal and just had a failed loan. Antony still has, what, 3 years left? I can see us loaning him out next year when he’s tired of being on the bench and then hopefully we can get SOME money for him.
The whole ETH thing is an agenda now. Antony was poor last year and he didn’t pick him, just like he won’t pick him this either (unless he improves drastically).
 
He has a contract that doesn't care about feelings we might give Antony.
Everybody Sir Alex kicked out throughtout his career had contracts and most were far better players than Antony

Difference is Sir Alex had balls, current owners/caretakers not so much, apparently
 
Everybody Sir Alex kicked out throughtout his career had contracts and most were far better players than Antony

Difference is Sir Alex had balls, current owners/caretakers not so much, apparently
Agree on everything, but we still need someone interested in the blokes services. We also need him to accept a transfer. Two things that seem unlikely this summer. Sadly.
 
ETH is just stubborn, he would have paid 200 million for him. He don’t give a f.

When he wants something or believes in something he won’t let it go. We seen this with his suicide midfield tactics all season. Outplayed every game yet he persisted, game after game.

Best thing for everyone is to get him off transfers for good.

This has been clarified time and again, at this point suggesting ETH paid that amount is wilful ignorance.

We could have had him for literally tens of millions less earlier in the summer, but Murtough baulked at that already high fee and moved on, but the list of alternative targets he'd come up with was very small, and none worked out. ETH insisted that we needed a forward, so Murtough panicked and threw money at Ajax who were asking even more as they'd already sold a bunch of players that summer.
Ok, which one of you is right?
 
Agree on everything, but we still need someone interested in the blokes services. We also need him to accept a transfer. Two things that seem unlikely this summer. Sadly.
100% true for the likes of Antony and Rashford. There is nobody who wants them for the wages/price

But I think Maguire and McT are very sellable but they need much stronger push than club seems to be currently putting on them
 
Ok, which one of you is right?

I'd suggest that's obvious given that one of the posts reads like a childish tantrum, but to be safe, here's a great article addressing the signing and why the cost was so high: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37635427/is-antony-100m-mistake-future-man-united.

A couple of key quotes:

Ajax initially quoted around €60 million, which was deemed too high, and by the time Ten Hag was pushing the issue later in the window, Ajax had already made deals to move on six players -- including Lisandro Martinez to United -- and were in no hurry to do a deal.

Firstly, there weren't many other options in that position, and while Martinez was one of five left-footed centre-backs they looked at, only three forwards -- including Antony -- made the shortlist.

Murtough approached Ajax for Antony and was quoted €60m, turned his nose up at that and tried to work a deal for one of the other two players on the shortlist his team had come up with (which was far too short for purpose), and then had to go back in for Antony at a ridiculously inflated cost because those alternatives didn't work out.
 
Slow, one footed, can't dribble, poor stats in assists/goals, poor link up play, slow down the team counter attack, dodgy character, throw a fuss when asked to play LB.

What is he good at?
He can spin round and round without getting dizzy.
 
Bit part player this season with ineos working overtime next summer to recruit a fraction of the losses on him. His level has been exposed in the PL.
 
This has been clarified time and again, at this point suggesting ETH paid that amount is wilful ignorance.

We could have had him for literally tens of millions less earlier in the summer, but Murtough baulked at that already high fee and moved on, but the list of alternative targets he'd come up with was very small, and none worked out. ETH insisted that we needed a forward, so Murtough panicked and threw money at Ajax who were asking even more as they'd already sold a bunch of players that summer.
Who were the other candidates that window before we left it too late and copped for the fake Brazilan?
 
Let’s not forget that the SEG agency (run by ETH’s “very close friend” and agent) brokered the Antony deal and so took a percentage fee. If we’d signed him at £30 million early in the summer that fee would have been much, much less than at the £80 million eventually paid.

So it worked out very well for them that ETH pushed for him to be signed at such a high cost. Sure it was just coincidence though.
 
Let’s not forget that the SEG agency (run by ETH’s “very close friend” and agent) brokered the Antony deal and so took a percentage fee. If we’d signed him at £30 million early in the summer that fee would have been much, much less than at the £80 million eventually paid.

So it worked out very well for them that ETH pushed for him to be signed at such a high cost. Sure it was just coincidence though.
So you are just going to wilfully aignore the fact that we had the chance to buy him when EtH said, we didnt, failed to land our other targets and we went abck to buy him. The board could have selected any other suitable players, but they didnt
 
100% true for the likes of Antony and Rashford. There is nobody who wants them for the wages/price

But I think Maguire and McT are very sellable but they need much stronger push than club seems to be currently putting on them
Chelsea left out chalobah for their preseason tour. That shows he is not in their plans for the new season. Can’t we do the same to some of our players?
 
A different scenario. He only had one year left on his deal and just had a failed loan. Antony still has, what, 3 years left? I can see us loaning him out next year when he’s tired of being on the bench and then hopefully we can get SOME money for him.
The whole ETH thing is an agenda now. Antony was poor last year and he didn’t pick him, just like he won’t pick him this either (unless he improves drastically).

I still need to see more evidence he rates Amad more
 
My understanding is that because he still has 3 years left on his contract, his value for the club is around 50m+ as far as PSR is concerned. And since we're never gonna get anything near that, selling him at a lower amount would reduce our spending this summer. I also feel that ETH is too stubborn and still wants to prove that Antony isn't a bad buy, so I doubt he'll be going anywhere. By next summer he'll be worth next to nothing in the market imo.
 
I think he was found out very quickly as being a cut-in and shoot merchant. This makes him too easy to defend against. If he can start mixing up his game effectively and go the other side of the defender, maybe he has a chance to contribute positively.
 
I'd suggest that's obvious given that one of the posts reads like a childish tantrum, but to be safe, here's a great article addressing the signing and why the cost was so high: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37635427/is-antony-100m-mistake-future-man-united.

A couple of key quotes:





Murtough approached Ajax for Antony and was quoted €60m, turned his nose up at that and tried to work a deal for one of the other two players on the shortlist his team had come up with (which was far too short for purpose), and then had to go back in for Antony at a ridiculously inflated cost because those alternatives didn't work out.

He would have still been a horrible signing at €60m though.
 
Yeah, that was absolutely baffling. Giggs was lighting quick. Even at 39 he was probably faster than current Antony. Early twenties he was one of the fastest around. He was also excellent at going on thenoutside and on the inside. Brilliant and complete as they got.
I really don't know what these guys are watching :wenger:
 
I really don't know what these guys are watching :wenger:

No idea, tbh. Giggs is one of the most exciting players that I remember watching. He basically could do everything. He could dribble well beyond what Ronaldo could - he was faster, had immense close control, and he was a creator. What he lacked compared to say the very elite, such as Ronaldo and Messi, are goal scoring prowess and consistency both over time but also in a single season; that being said, his top level was extremely high. We also need to remember that his prime coinceded with great strikers, so Giggs was not expected to score lots of goals like modern inverted wingers. He also worked his socks off and had a pretty mean sliding tackle.
 
It was, I just wanted to make sure you saw it since it went in right after you’d just said your original point.

Ha, that's fair, sorry for being a little snappy it's just so tedious having to have the same argument again and again, sometimes even with the same posters who disregard the facts in order to retain a stick to beat Ten Hag with.