Of all the players you would expect to have an issue with Erik ten Hag’s management at Manchester United, this is about the last on the list.
Talk about oweing a debt of gratitude to your head coach.
If it wasn’t for Erik ten Hag, the closest one of the most overpriced players in Manchester United‘s entire history would have got to Old Trafford is if he’d have paid the entrance fee for a stadium tour.
It was Ten Hag who turned Antony into an Eredivisie winner at Ajax. It was Ten Hag who championed his arrival at Man United in the summer of 2022, for an eye-watering fee of £82 million no less. And it was Ten Hag who stood by the much-maligned Brazilian at a time where many managers would have tossed him onto the nearest scrapheap without a second thought.
Erik ten Hag ‘ripped into’ Manchester United man
So who can blame Ten Hag for losing his rag after Antony very publicly undermined his manager on a number of occasions during the second half of last season? A season in which Antony – the £82 million Antony, lest we forget – managed only one goal and one assist in Premier League action.
According to The Athletic, Ten Hag ‘ripped into’ the former Sao Paulo man after the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal at Old Trafford, Antony responding to the manager’s instruction to play the dying embers at left-back with the same reaction a furious toddler would give you if you’d taken away his pic ‘n’ mix.
Antony displayed the same disobedience during that topsy-turvy 4-3 FA Cup quarter-final victory over Liverpool. The same game in which Bruno Fernandes played the final stretch at centre-half, one-legged and hobbling around the pitch, without even a whimper or a shred of discontent.
“I do what’s needed to win games,” Fernandes said shortly after Amad Diallo’s stoppage-time heroics, displaying the sort of professonalism and attitude that has not been seen often enough in the United dressing room post-Sir Alex Ferguson (Daily Mail).
“I don’t mind (playing at centre-back if the manager asks). It wasn’t in the plan. It was trying to go man-marking on the pitch, but I felt at moments I could jump on their midfielders. And, at moments, I could drop a little bit to help H (Harry Maguire) because obviously, Liverpool have a lot of pace up front.
“(Cody) Gakpo came on and he was fresh. H hasn’t played for a long time, so I was there to help him and the defenders to get a result. I don’t mind, but when I’m far away from the goal, I can’t get my goals and assists! But they can’t score anyway because I was a centre-half in my early career.
“So I still got something from that!”
Antony’s future uncertain at Old Trafford
If United’s modern-day Captain Marvel was to leave this summer – and it cannot be entirely ruled out with those Saudi Arabian millions in the conversation – fans would line the street to applaud Bruno off into the sunset.
Antony, in contrast, would have to be content with a chorus of crickets if his Man United career winds to a close over the coming months, with maybe not even Ten Hag minded to protect him this time.