Man Utd ready to walk away from Antony talks – here’s why
Robin Bairner
- 28 Jul 2022 13:57 BST
- 3 min read
Manchester United are ready to end their pursuit of Ajax winger Antony after weeks of chasing the Brazil international.
Sky Sports reports that although there remains interest from the Old Trafford club in the 22-year-old, the prospect of a transfer being done in the current conditions is slim.
The reason is that Man Utd are not prepared to entertain negotiations around Ajax’s asking price for the player, which has steadily grown as the summer transfer window has progressed.
According to a report from De Telegraaf on Wednesday, Ajax are now asking for up to €100 million for the attacker, whose deal is up in 2025. At the start of the window, there was talk of a deal of around €60m being possible, only for this to be hiked up on a regular basis by the Amsterdam club.
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Antony's spiralling transfer fee
Ajax have not taken this approach as an anti-Man Utd stance. Although Ten Hag has, naturally, been interested in many of their players, the issue has been caused by the Eredivisie champions losing so many members of a team that they had carefully constructed for several years.
Over the course of the summer, Ajax have seen the likes of Ryan Gravenberch, Sebastien Haller and Lisandro Martinez, who has moved to Manchester United, leave for big money. On top of that, they have also lost the likes of Noussair Mazraoui and Nicolas Tagliafico, who were first-team regulars.
If Antony, another key figure, were to depart, it would leave head coach Alfred Schreuder with an even greater rebuild to be completed.
Ajax, though, have not ruled out selling Antony – it would just take a bid from Man Utd above market value for them to do it.
“As a coach, you never know for sure but internally we have expressed that we want to keep this team together. Nobody within Ajax wants to sell Antony at the moment,” Schreuder told De Telegraaf.
It seems this transfer deal is, therefore, in the hands of Man Utd, who have no interest currently at €100m.
