Antony may be cementing his place as one of the worst – if not the worst – pound-for-pound signing in Manchester United’s modern Premier League history, but the former Ajax winger alone should be used as justification to avoid the Eredivisie.
Lest we forget, the Red Devils also picked up Ruud van Nistelrooy from PSV Eindhoven. And he is arguably the finest pure goalscorer to represent Manchester United since the Milennium.
Lisandro Martinez, meanwhile, was a revelation after following Erik ten Hag over from Ajax in 2022.
Arjen Robben, Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie, Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin van der Sar and more, all made their name in the Eredivisie too, with Antony’s Old Trafford struggles perhaps more a reflection on Man United’s Glazer-era recruitment than the talent plying their trade in the Dutch top-flight.
Manchester United need better than Antony
Johan Bakayoko, his numbers far superior to those Antony stumped up at Ajax, certainly seems like a better use of such an eye-watering transfer fee.
One of the many wingers on Man United’s radar, per Sport1, Bakayoko has 14 goals and 14 assists for a PSV Eindhoven side who ended their six-year wait for Eredivisie glory on Sunday.
Compare that to Antony, who did not even reach double figures for goals or assists in his final season in the Dutch league, and you can certainly make a greater case for stumping up an eye-watering fee for Bakayoko than for Man United’s eternally-ineffective Brazilian.
“Bakayoko will immediately leave for 75 million euros,” predicts former PSV coach Aad De Mos, speaking to ESPN. “We are going towards amounts (such as this)
“In the Premier League, that can simply be paid. 100 per cent.”
Bakayoko may not be Man United’s first-choice target – that honour appears to belong to Michael Olise – but his swaggering footwork, his devastating abilities in one-v-one situations and his explosive shooting appears to make the Belgium international better suited to English football than the more unpredictable, one-paced Antony.
PSV Eindhoven want over £30 million
It appears unlikely in the extreme that PSV will hold out for the sort of fee De Mos is discussing. But CEO Marcel Brands insists that anyone looking to sign the academy graduate – who made his breakthrough under Van Nistelrooy alongside another United-linked starlet in Jarrad Branrthwaite – must be willing to stump up in excess of £30 million.
“It depends on whether he is going to make a step (forwards). The question is also which club will come?,” Marcel Brands, PSV’s chief executive, tells ESPN.
“We have just talked about very big clubs. If such a club comes, will you say no? We will no longer (sell Bakayoko) for 35 million euros.”
