Manchester United have had their fair share of players who have struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League, with the club offloading numerous big names this summer.
Antony has been told that “no one cared if he played or not” at Manchester United.
The Brazilian winger endured a disappointing three-year spell with the Reds, between 2022 and 2025, with the final six months spent on loan at Real Betis. Despite struggling to make an impact at Old Trafford, the 25-year-old flourished in Spain during the latter stages of 2024/25, notching nine goals and five assists in all competitions for the club.
Following those impressive performances, Betis then made his move permanent this summer, signing Antony for approximately £21.5million. So far this campaign, Antony has contributed another six goals and three assists for his new side in 13 appearances across La Liga and the Europa League.
While he’s enjoyed a remarkable resurgence at the Estadio Benito Villamarin, a Spanish football expert has now revealed where he reckons that things went awry for Antony at United. Speaking to Mirror Football, Terry Gibson said: “I think a bit of suitability to the league.
“And I think the minute he stepped off the plane at Betis to join them on loan and was adored, welcomed by the supporters, by [Manuel] Pellegrini, by the players. It was an obvious case of a player who was down in the dumps at Man United, wasn’t popular with the fan-base.
“No one cared if he played or not, if they were a Man Utd fan. Most of them preferred he didn’t play. The manager didn’t have any faith in him. So when he gets off the plane at Betis and there’s a whole host of supporters there waiting to greet him, and the manager picked him and told him how important he was, I just think his self-esteem was back.
“And he can play. It can be a bit of a joke; ‘Oh, Anthony, the league can’t be very good if he’s scoring goals, blah, blah, blah’. But he’s a really good player. He’s the second most popular player at Betis, though he’s never going to overtake Isco.”
Gibson had the opportunity to watch Real Betis in person this weekend, providing co-commentary for Premier Sport 1 as they secured a 2-0 victory against Sevilla. Pablo Fornals broke the deadlock for the home side, before Sergi Altimira confirmed the result with approximately 20 minutes remaining.
Nevertheless, Antony was absent from Pellegrini’s matchday squad for the derby, having received a red card against Girona on November 23. During that contest, Antony attempted an overhead kick late on, completely missing the ball and inadvertently striking Joel Roca in the head.
While he was originally issued a yellow card for the challenge, the official in turn upgraded it to a straight red following a VAR review. Consequently, he was unavailable for the all-Seville clash at the weekend.
This follows Gibson’s observation regarding potential obstacles facing Marcus Rashford’s permanent transfer to Barcelona next summer. The 28-year-old is currently spending a season-long loan spell under Hansi Flick, having dropped down the pecking order under Ruben Amorim.
As the Catalan club possess an option to make the arrangement permanent at the end of the campaign, Rashford’s long-term future could be settled at the Camp Nou. However, Gibson has pointed out that Barca may find it difficult to generate the necessary finances, considering their well-documented challenges in that department.
He said: “It’s not as easy to find £30m for Barcelona as it is normally. But back in the new stadium now, charging a fortune for tickets at the moment, 45,000 at the weekend, it’s going to keep creeping up.
“And then Barcelona, before too long, will be back on a familiar financial footing. And they’ll be setting their sights very high to bring back in superstars at Barcelona.”
Rashford will be hoping to make his mark in Barcelona’s fixture vs Atletico Madrid on Tuesday evening, following his appearance as a second-half substitute against Alaves at the weekend. Barca currently sit at the top of the La Liga standings, holding a three-point advantage over Diego Simeone’s outfit at present – and they will be looking to extend that margin when the two sides face off at the Camp Nou.
FC Barcelona vs Atletico de Madrid is available for fans in the UK to watch live on Premier Sports 1, from 7.55pm on Tuesday.
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