Antony | Here we go! €100mill, contract until June 2027, option 'til 2028.

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Malone_Post

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We’ve really got ourselves in a right mess this window. 100 million is insane money that we shouldn’t even go close to matching. But at the same time we’re absolutely desperate for attacking reinforcements. Like seriously desperate. Our depth beyond the current starting three (presuming Ronaldo is going) is absolutely tragic. There just isn’t enough goals in this squad compared to our rivals. We’ll struggle for too 4 without attacking reinforcements.
 

Rozay

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We scored more as a team before Ronaldo came back, and we´ll score more when he leaves.
He demands every attack ends with him and he is simply not good enough anymore to be that guy.

And no, noone can predict anything but I´d put money on Martial (or a new striker) doing at least as good if given the chance in Ten Hags system. Pre season means shit, but it does look like Martials is giving a shit again.
This is one of many theories in football that, if not for the fact that the reality is different, would make perfect sense and seem factual. I can see why people would say this, but it’s just not true. Ronaldo himself created many very good chances for others last season, many of them squandered. He spent too much time dropping deep or drifting wide if anything.

He is a striker, and naturally would be on the end of more chances than Luke Shaw.
 

mitchmouse

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Don’t know mate. Personal problems, depression, just immature perhaps.
Just saying that if he's finally found the form we all were waiting for then it's great for us and fecking good timing.
It would indeed. I'm just a bit doubtful
 

Suedesi

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No I didn't.
But if you want to use that angle, then one club had its manager already in the club and were able to plan ahead, and the other had to wait for its new manager to sign on and look at targets.


Which is why many people keep asking for that DOF structure, so that the club (i.e. not the manager) can identify gaping holes and address them independent of the manager. We've been through this scenario before where we gave Moyes time to get to know the players and then once he did, we ended up buying Fellaini at a price higher than his release clause. Then we gave LVG time to know the players and then panic bought a bunch of players on transfer deadline. We then installed Mourinho who had a completely different philosophy to LVG and brought a different type of player. Ignored Mourinho's pleas for Maguire only to go back and get Maguire for 10M quid more a year later for Ole and Bissaka who the new manager (and most armchair fans) thinks he's not good enough and free to go. End result - a hugely imbalanced squad.

What we need is a DOF and underlying structure to bring in United quality players, independent of the manager. Said structure would have identified in Jan-Feb that we are a midfielder short, and with Pogba and Matic leaving in the summer, we would be three midfielders short for the upcoming season. Ideally that would have been addressed early to set up EtH for success instead of scrambling for FDJ in late August.
 

AjaxCunian

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However you very much do fire someone for sending unsolicited sexually explicit texts to his subordinates. That's not being woke, that's being professional. Sending sexual texts isn't a criminal offence for the most part, but pretty much every company in the world would fire someone for that.
He wasnt fired right, he resigned.
 

Daslogisch

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I do think we will sell him mate. We need to make a good net profit as weve spent a shitload and I think Antony is actively pushing for the transfer behind the scenes. Plus with Conceiçao we have a good new RW.

We will be in a transition year anyhow.
We've already made a good net profit. We don't need to sell Antony.

Antony may or may not be pushing, but so far there have not been any real offers anyway. So far it's not been more than rumours. I don't see United offering anything close to €80m and as long as that doesn't happen it doesn't matter what Antony does or not.

Martinez alledgedly started pushing behind the scenes when United €45m. It did nothing, except Ajax eventually accepted €67m. I foresee the same scenario with Antony. Ajax won't take any bid below €70m seriously and Antony's will be (made) aware of that. At €70m-80m Ajax may be pushed to negatiate as Ajax was pushed to negotiate when €45m was bid for Martinez. That however not mean Ajax will give in a lot. Based on experience in the Martinez saga, I don't think Ajax will be selling for much less than €80m fixed + bonusses taking it to €90-100m.

Conceicao was bought to adjust behind Antony for one year. Ajax has evolved now. We don't want to sell our star player and then take a gamble on Conceicao. We're past that stage. We're now bringing in a talent a year before so he cab prove he's up for it. If he's not convincing enough we can bring someone else in next year when Antony is sold.

If Ihattaren didn't have this bad situation again, I could've seen us selling Antony. He was doing very well in pre-season. If he had been able to show that progress in the rest of pre-season I could've imagined Ajax to sell Antony in order to make room for Ihattaren. However we now can't count on him anymore, at least not in the short term. This will also be another reason why the pricetag on Antony has risen. If Antony will be sold, we're going to have to bring in another player. This will be very hard and expensive in august.

I just can't see it happening. It will take an outrageous fee for Ajax to sell and I don't see why United would do that. To be honest, United has other priorities in my opinion. Antony is great, but spending this amount on a RW would be quite stupid when the same amount can land United a starting player in CM and RB.
 

GreatDane

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Which is why many people keep asking for that DOF structure, so that the club (i.e. not the manager) can identify gaping holes and address them independent of the manager. We've been through this scenario before where we gave Moyes time to get to know the players and then once he did, we ended up buying Fellaini at a price higher than his release clause. Then we gave LVG time to know the players and then panic bought a bunch of players on transfer deadline. We then installed Mourinho who had a completely different philosophy to LVG and brought a different type of player. Ignored Mourinho's pleas for Maguire only to go back and get Maguire for 10M quid more a year later for Ole and Bissaka who the new manager (and most armchair fans) thinks he's not good enough and free to go. End result - a hugely imbalanced squad.

What we need is a DOF and underlying structure to bring in United quality players, independent of the manager. Said structure would have identified in Jan-Feb that we are a midfielder short, and with Pogba and Matic leaving in the summer, we would be three midfielders short for the upcoming season. Ideally that would have been addressed early to set up EtH for success instead of scrambling for FDJ in late August.
Well written.
I'm not at all against a DOF, but it would also require we hire managers from the same mold who would fit the players we have to an extent, something we haven't done.

My hope and what it sounds like we're finally doing is that, taking the club into modern times and Ten Hag has been brought in to do exactly that - so in that regard, if it's true, it made perfect sense to wait for his arrival before targeting players.
 

AjaxCunian

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Well, if you jointly agree that someone's contract is suddenly terminated after a news article was published that same evening, that's just PR talk for being fired.
I dont think it was jointly, Overmars was full of shame and immediately resigned.
 

Wing Attack Plan R

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This is one of many theories in football that, if not for the fact that the reality is different, would make perfect sense and seem factual. I can see why people would say this, but it’s just not true. Ronaldo himself created many very good chances for others last season, many of them squandered. He spent too much time dropping deep or drifting wide if anything.

He is a striker, and naturally would be on the end of more chances than Luke Shaw.
It's less of a theory and more of an identified fact, at least if you trust The Athletic's reporting on this. They showed that while Ronaldo's goals output remains fairly steady, the teams he is in have to adjust to accommodate him, which results in fewer goals from other players. They mentioned Dybala as an example, whose output dropped from like 9 goals to 2, as he was now essentially enthralled to Ronaldo's demands for the ball.
 

AjaxCunian

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The same ajax who sell twice the number to the likes of bayern and dortmund every other summer for half the price ?
They only sold Gravenberch to Bayern, who had a one year contract.

Haller had to be sold for that price, I don't think he'd able be able to replicate his tally and he didnt make the team a lot better. His general play was often terrible but he was great in the air.
 

mu4c_20le

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Antony watching Haller and Martinez while waiting for his own dream move

 

Rozay

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It's less of a theory and more of an identified fact, at least if you trust The Athletic's reporting on this. They showed that while Ronaldo's goals output remains fairly steady, the teams he is in have to adjust to accommodate him, which results in fewer goals from other players. They mentioned Dybala as an example, whose output dropped from like 9 goals to 2, as he was now essentially enthralled to Ronaldo's demands for the ball.
A player’s goals can drop which is fair enough, it is the ‘why’ that is more a topic of debate. Simplistically, it is more an assumption than a reality that it is because ‘everyone has to pass the ball to Ronaldo’ - but they don’t pass the ball to him anymore than a winger/midfielder should pass to their striker. And he also passes the ball to them a lot. Bruno’s goals dropped last season, mainly because he couldn’t take all the penalties and they accounted for a big portion of his goals. But he also missed some of the penalties he did take, as well as several sitters, a number of which were made by Ronaldo, for example. Simplistically, people will just do 1+1 and say well since Ronaldo came, he scored less, so it’s Ronaldo’s fault. But that’s nonsense. He, and the others need to take accountability. Ronaldo didn’t stop Bruno from scoring more goals than he did, except for taking some penalties, which we scored anyway so it is no loss for the team.

Ronaldo is always likely to be the highest scorer in the team because he is the centre forward. He’s also a pretty good centre forward. But it’s factually incorrect this narrative that he demands every attack ends with a pass to him instead of a pass to a better placed guy, or a shot. I remember him creating sitters for Bruno last season. I remember him brilliantly setting up a goal for Cavani against Spurs. He will pass the ball to you if the pass is on because most of all, he’s determined to win.
 

SAF is the GOAT

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Let them keep him

Fast forward a year from now he'll be worth 20m Euros, won't perform the same as he did with ETH and mad that they didn't let him go
 

Mr Pigeon

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If the world wouldn't be in a woke-mob stranglehold he wouldn't have been fired.
Oh my god shut up.

I swear we're only weeks away from someone stepping in dogshit and blaming it on "wokeness". Or intentionally driving their car off a cliff, despite being warned repeatedly by everyone around them that it's not a good idea, and with their last breaths muttering out "bloody woke bastards did this innit".
 

JuriM

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We could get Jonathan David, Sesko and Olise for almost the cost of one Antony. It’s absurd money.
Sesko was quoted 55m£, Olise with English tax would be like 70 and David not less than 50, so can we really?
 

VanDeBank

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Why are Schick and Osimhen being discussed in the Antony thread? They play different positions and will only be considered if Ronaldo leaves.

Can't really fault Ajax for setting the price so high. We've shown incapable of targeting players that ETH isn't familiar with, which means we don't have any alternatives...
 

Mickeza

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Sesko was quoted 55m£, Olise with English tax would be like 70 and David not less than 50, so can we really?
Olise has a 35m buyout, David is rumoured to be 50m euros and Sesko hasn’t been linked at 55m outside of one daily Mail article - 20m euros was the rumoured fee which fits with other stars they’ve sold. So yes - but aside from that the point is the Antony fee is totally absurd. He isn’t a FDJ where we couldn’t get anyone for better value.
 

Crickus

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I want him at Utd but 100 million not a chance. I think we go back in for him in January unless someone else moves for him.
 

Rooney1987

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Calling that an exclusive. This has been the case for a while and then they up the price, we all could have guess this one probably isn't happening.
 

ThanksBoss26

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Said last night I thought this one would get done. I know bugger all clearly because it’s absolutely dead in the water at that price and rightly so.
 

Adnan

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Sesko, de Jong and a RB will do me for now. Hopefully we'll have someone like Lee Dykes in a head of scouting role come the beginning of the season, which will better prepare us for future transfers.
 

Alemar

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Winger is not a position where the supply of talent is scarce. There are many other options anyway
 

SparkedIntoLife

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Winger is not a position where the supply of talent is scarce. There are many other options anyway
I'd say it's fairly scarce in what ETH likes. He wants balance and usually utilises a right footer on the left (which we have plenty of - Sancho, Rashford, Garnacho, Elanga, Eriksen can play there etc.) and a left footer on the right (I can only think of Amad and he's super raw). There's very little quality, available left footed right wingers out there. If we're looking for a right footed left winger, I'd certainly agree with you but we aren't. If you look over ETH's transfer record from Go Ahead Eagles and on, a left footed right winger has been pretty much a constant feature of his sides.
 

Panfc

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Not an Ajax fan, but Dutch and I don’t like the guy. Next Neymar and I’m talking about his diving and rolling around qualities, not his football skills. And no, I don’t think he’s ready for a step up to the PL. Not now and not in the near future. We want players that are a direct strengthening of our team. What we have in Elenga, Rashford, Sancho is better then he is. Better keep the money and use some talents to come in late in the game.
 

Robertd0803

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Eh no. Not at that price Ajax are looking for. Best thing we could do is come to some sort of agreement about next year and use that money elsewhere.

That is assuming we had the 50/60 million we were willing to spend on Antony in addition to any fee we had earmarked for De Jong and it wasnt instead of.
 

Alemar

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I'd say it's fairly scarce in what ETH likes. He wants balance and usually utilises a right footer on the left (which we have plenty of - Sancho, Rashford, Garnacho, Elanga, Eriksen can play there etc.) and a left footer on the right (I can only think of Amad and he's super raw). There's very little quality, available left footed right wingers out there. If we're looking for a right footed left winger, I'd certainly agree with you but we aren't. If you look over ETH's transfer record from Go Ahead Eagles and on, a left footed right winger has been pretty much a constant feature of his sides.
Well, if it’s an absolute must for ETH to have a left footed right winger, it’s Amad then (or perhaps Greenwood will be cleared of charges). But even in such case, it’s still better not to spend 100m on Antony, he is not worth 100m with all due respect.
 
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