Of course not but it should be a big priority if we want to stand any chance in next summers window. You do realise that a player like Antony could actually go up in price, not decrease. Writing off the season does feck all for us either. Best case scenario he turns out a defining jigsaw piece for ETH.
Antony | Here we go! €100mill, contract until June 2027, option 'til 2028.
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Of course not but it should be a big priority if we want to stand any chance in next summers window. You do realise that a player like Antony could actually go up in price, not decrease. Writing off the season does feck all for us either. Best case scenario he turns out a defining jigsaw piece for ETH.
exactly. Pulisic, Grealish, fecking the likes of Cucurella and Gordon this summer. But no Antony is the one thatl break the market
I don't care how much we pay for him tbh. He fits ETH system.
We wasted so much money on Amad, Pellestri etc, even Pogba. We have had so many misses. Better to pay a premium on a guy who is a much higher probability to be relatively good since the manager knows how to utilise him, vs signing 3 relative punts for £40M and all of them are shit, or signing a player in their mid 30s who is past his best - both of which are what we have been doing. Antony is 22 and ETH knows the value. I back the club on this one. But people do love to be hysterical on here.
We wasted so much money on Amad, Pellestri etc, even Pogba. We have had so many misses. Better to pay a premium on a guy who is a much higher probability to be relatively good since the manager knows how to utilise him, vs signing 3 relative punts for £40M and all of them are shit, or signing a player in their mid 30s who is past his best - both of which are what we have been doing. Antony is 22 and ETH knows the value. I back the club on this one. But people do love to be hysterical on here.
He's not, he's absolutely nowhere near being right either. Two weeks ago it looked like we weren't signing anyone else, since then we've signed Casemiro and will probably sign Antony and one or two more. We should be grateful, it would've been a nice, big dividend for the Glazers to take otherwise.
IF we get Antony and FdJ, I'd say a title challenge isn't that far-fetched. We are light in the striker department, but we'd have an outrageously good midfield after having shored up our leaky defense. We get those players in, and we're nailed on for win place or show.
EDIT: we've already seen that Liverpool and Chelsea both are not as invulnerable as we had told ourselves going into this season. Only Spurs are really looking any good (2W 1D). The window is still open. We are within touching distance of reasserting ourselves in the league. View this outlay in context with the previous ones, as in, the final (few) piece(s) of the puzzle.
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It's insane money but if it improves us significantly we'll be less desperate next summer and can concentrate on a smaller number of key signings with the added leverage of looking at transfers from a position of strength rather than weakness and desperation.
Fact is, we need to improve in attack, he's exciting, highly-rated and Ten Hag wants him. That's enough for me.
Fact is, we need to improve in attack, he's exciting, highly-rated and Ten Hag wants him. That's enough for me.
This is definitely happening so anyone whining about the cost had better get ready to suck it up.
Antony in, ronaldo out, gakpo in, plus what we have already done with ericksen, casemiro and malacia plus ditching pogba, lingard will equal a very good window.
Antony in, ronaldo out, gakpo in, plus what we have already done with ericksen, casemiro and malacia plus ditching pogba, lingard will equal a very good window.
Ten Hag also wanted Arnautovic. So I wouldn't trust anything EtH want at this moment..
If coupled with FDJ and we get no injuries. That outlay he HAS to get top 4 for me. Lots of IFs here admittedly. On paper that squad/team has to be top 4 with a "good" manager surely.
I am all for being reasonable in the transfer market but we are crying out for pace in our attack and left-footed attackers are a rare find these days. I think we are paying 30-40M too much for him but the player fills a lot of holes in the squad. Let’s try to suck it up and get this over the line.
But nobody but you has said that. His inflated fee comes about for a myriad of reasons:
- Ajax genuinely don’t want to sell; if they are going to sell, they intend to make us pay for it literally and figuratively.
- There’s 8 days of the transfer window left. Unless you’re in a position of strength to make brinkmanship tangible, all sales now favour the seller and penalise the buyer.
- Our predicament ‘tax’. Every single club we negotiate with would be remiss not to take advantage of us.
- Manchester United tax. It’s a thing, and will remain so until we can enter the market from a position of strength.
- We want him. Ajax know this is ten Hag’s #1 target. It means they can push the envelope farther because we don’t intend to look elsewhere.
Him being a ten Hag product is invaluable to the manager. I’d like for you to explain how that is not a huge deal in the scheme of things.
This thing about being rinsed time and again: it’s up to us to examine why this window went absolutely tits up and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Re-establishing ourselves will take a number of windows and should gradually reduce to a mean if we’re shrewd enough.
Your last sentence is nice in theory, but if those players aren’t ready or good enough, they could be difference between an attack coherent enough to have us back in the CL, or not. I’m concerned about our entire right flank at the moment, not just the wing position. We cannot have obvious weak links and then be mortified come the end of the season when things don’t work out.
About spending the money elsewhere: if it’s not FDJ, I cannot see that being entertained, nor do I think it would be prudent given we need that inverted winger on the right.
re. Productivity. I think you have to look at balance to the forward line and benefit to others through that just as much as individual contributions. A winger who can occupy two defenders by himself opens the field up majestically for others, particularly the forward and the overlapping fullback, as well as the attacking midfielder, so it’s not just his direct goals and assists that matter here, it’s how much everything around him is affected.
Personally, I think you’re being binary in how you look at these things, which means you’re not even trying to be objective. The price is not agreeable; find a single person saying it is, but taking in the whys and wherefores is paramount, especially so when our alternatives in house are so few and far between.
There was a time when many on this forum were so frustrated with Ronaldo that they were open to selling him to Valencia and replacing him with Aaron Lennon. It was a good job Fergie was the manager at the time because Ronaldo was being written off by many as a show pony.
Bonkers money.
The only possible justification is that left footed wingers are really hard to find of the required quality, and he's young.
The only possible justification is that left footed wingers are really hard to find of the required quality, and he's young.
I wonder if Chelsea forums are like this with the value of Fofana being €100m
The thing is - Antony is a perfect profile for our RW. He provides everything we lack, left footed and a natural RW, has absolutely elite potential, and has a great relationship with the manager already. Who out there has his level of potential while being a left footed RW?
And then you balance what will Ajax set the price next summer. 80m? So you wait a year and save €20m euros at best and live with a massive weakness all year?
Its not about goals or assists this season. He is 22. He would be purchased for now and for the future. Has Joao Felix lived up to 120m yet? You think Atletico regret spending that on him though?
Its the same as Liverpool spending 100m on Darwin, City 100m on Grealish... United have only 2 wingers, you need a 3rd guy in there to rotate properly and challenge each other, push each other. With Antony, Rashford, Sancho, we'd have a perfect group if 3 versatile wingers all with different profiles who compliment each other and go a long way to helping us this season. As it is, we have no cover. No depth. No competition for the front 2, but more importantly nobody to rest players either. Nobody knows who will be the main starter out of them, but we don't need that. We need 3 top players competing for 2 winger spots every game. That's the requirement for a big side.
You weren't saying that when we were chasing the guy who hasn't lived up to expectation at a cash strapped and desperate Barcelona.
To be fair, Arnautovic wasn't going to cost 60M+ and I can actually see him being useful for us.
Darwin Nunez was a 100m deal right?
And he's quite shit from what I've seen.
And he's quite shit from what I've seen.
Antony at £80 million when he’s got a couple of seasons of Champions League football under him whilst Chelsea are bidding £60 million for Gordon, unfortunately this is simply how it is but for me the important thing is that ETH wants him and trusts him in his system so if we are backing ETH we need to trust his judgement player wise too.
My point was we were supposedly able to sign him earlier on as Ajax were asking for 80m and we walked away. I don’t know how true that is, but reports went dead silent on him for a while and now suddenly we’re back in paying 20m more. My point was we should have just paid the fee the first time round.
I do however understand politics come into it. Maybe Ten Hag was only allowed a guaranteed 70m, and wanted to secure a midfielder first. Maybe the defeats to Brighton and Brentford loosened the purse strings a little, I don’t know. But if you believe what all the reports from reputable sources are saying, we could have had this done previously and for less money.
I dunno, if it was up to me, I'd write this one off, see how the season progresses under EtH, hire some guys to replace our sacked scouts and really push next year. We will have a much clearer vision of what exactly is wrong in our side. We might be confident about our needs now but I think the season will throw more surprises at us.
I don't really mind if we finish 6th again and basically have Klopp's first season at Pool. I think we're too good to finish below 6th. The only thing I care about this season is getting closer to the top sides in underlying metrics (PPDA, xG, xGA etc.) and winning / really pushing for the EL win - to the point that we prioritize the EL over the league.
I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the new regime. In my book they hired the right guy which is the biggest decision to get right - the rest will eventually fall in place.
We didn't really write off the past 8+ seasons because every year we go buy some superstar name without a real long-term plan hoping that will fix our issues. That's just how we operate. Sancho, Pogba, Di Maria, Lukaku, Maguire. Everyone single one came in because the manager wanted them and with huge expectations and every single one flopped so far.
I think not having CL is a problem when you're trying to attract the absolute biggest names in football like FdJ etc. but I think you can get guys like Kulusevski, Partey, Diaz, Gravenberch, Timber etc. without having CL and I think those are the sort of deals we should be targeting.
No-one will care about the fee at the end of the season, if we finish comfortably in the top 4 or win the Europa League.
I'm happy with Martinez, Malacia, Casemiro and Eriksen, so I'm not sure we need to write off a season to pinpoint players.
Also if we empty the coffers doesn't that mean less for the Glazers to take out in dividends??!
A big Ballon d’Or clause will seal it 
Wouldn't it depend more on Antony's performance?
I don't think winning the Europa justifies a fee,
that could happen regardless. It's whether the player shows the quality and long term potential.
we seem to have a bigger budget since the Glazers announced a minority share to be sold. Perhaps its related. Fans claiming x is to much cash is just odd though. IF we are being run like Leeds United under Peter R back in the day and about to go bankrupt I'd get that (i mean our cash balance is tiny so where is all this cash coming from?) but apart from that scenario.....who cares if we can put a great team together, get back into the top 4 and then think about a quiet summer outlay wise due to necessity next year. Even then, fans will be pushing for the next phase of spending...RB maybe, goalkeeper, top Striker?
Exactly, much better it be a running expense. Less profits and those feckers might do one.
You are right but trophies are shiny and we could do with one.
I've never seen the lad play 90 mins but I do know that ETH knows more about both football and Antony than me so I'm happy to defer to that gulf in knowledge.
So are we at the monitoring situation stage, preparing new bid, or preparing to monitor a new bid stage?
This is where I'm at, right now.
Let's just get the man. I don't care whose first born we have to throw into the deal, or whose goat we have to sacrifice. I want a new player to lust after.
It's just a headline figure; the sponsors will love this.
Emptying the coffers when they're planning on selling a minority stake (divs being chicken feed)
We will have to just pay differently until able to bring in that progressive CM
The hope is with Casemiro at the base of the midfield that a combination of Bruno and Eriksen can do this. Sancho freque tly received the ball quite deep when he was at Dortmund.
This one is happening despite complaints from our resident Joel Glazer.
Yeah he is our best hope of a second marquee buy in this window
I agree, there's no doubt that if you put the fee to the back of your mind it's one of the most interesting forward options on the market. I think that's the only negative about the deal, that and perhaps Dutch football.
Young, flair, left footed - there just aren't many like this. Even Raphinha who I kind of see in the same mould but is older went for a substantial sum, there is a lot of value in rarity, plus it adds a huge amount of balance to our attack.
We just have to hope it pays off and he can handle that transfer fee if it happens.
Whoever wants to walk away because of fee, are you fine if the fee is say 50m?
I really want to understand what happens in grand scheme of things, if we buy him for 80m and he end up being a big failure. Less money for Glazers when they end up selling the club?
It is not like we buy him now and will figure out where to fit him in like it happened with Sanchez and Pogba.
I don't care if we spend 30m extra on a position which we really need to fill and the player in question fits the requirements to the T
I really want to understand what happens in grand scheme of things, if we buy him for 80m and he end up being a big failure. Less money for Glazers when they end up selling the club?
It is not like we buy him now and will figure out where to fit him in like it happened with Sanchez and Pogba.
I don't care if we spend 30m extra on a position which we really need to fill and the player in question fits the requirements to the T
When you see Cucerella at £63m, Gordon at £60m and Fofana at £85m you have to wonder if the fee is that crazy..
Nunez was £85m.
That’s the market. If United are overpaying its not by much and its inline with what other big sides are doing.
Nunez was £85m.
That’s the market. If United are overpaying its not by much and its inline with what other big sides are doing.
I’m surprised people are so against this signing. We are in desperate need of a quality left footed attacker and Antony has all the attributes to be a success.
Looking at a 22 year olds stats is prettty pointless- Salah wasn’t able to get into Chelsea’s team at the same age for example.
If ETH wants to continue the pursuit in spite of the huge price tag, it tells me he sees a genuine world star of the future in Antony. I for one am really excited about what he will add to the team!
Looking at a 22 year olds stats is prettty pointless- Salah wasn’t able to get into Chelsea’s team at the same age for example.
If ETH wants to continue the pursuit in spite of the huge price tag, it tells me he sees a genuine world star of the future in Antony. I for one am really excited about what he will add to the team!
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