I had the pleasure of spending most of yesterday at the Johan Cruyff Stadium and had the honour of meeting a few of the staff.
As a United fan this felt like you being at the United Academy and a I jokingly asked who are they going to be selling to United next? I also happened to ask one of the directors "would you consider giving United a refund for Antony?"
He managed see the funny side of my comments and said sorry no refunds but as we got more serious into the discussions he did say the following which I found interesting.
He said Ajax never wanted €100m for the player, but the fact United opened the bidding with 80 made the guys upstairs realise they could really get a huge amount! So they rejected it and almost right away United added another 10m on and they couldn't believe their luck!! Therefore ended up with the amount.
He wanted to assure United fans that Antony is a good player just not worth what was paid for him due to no fault of the player. He also mentioned if offered to take him back on loan and United can pay his wages they would gladly take him back as he is still rated highly at the club and the same for ETH that they would be happy to take him back.
What I found most interesting was him talking about the darker years of Ajax's history and how at a very low point Cruyff helped turn things around.
I hope the Cruyff moment isn't too far away for United to lift them out of this dark period!
No Refunds.....
posted on 27/8/24
Literally everyone involved should have been sacked for this deal.
posted on 27/8/24
It's never a players fault how much a club want to pay for him. Why the club were so determined to spend as much as they did when our own scouts valued him at £25m is a mystery.
I'm guesing the manager has no say at all on the money a club spend but surely EtH could have told Ed that maybe we shouldn't be spending that kind of money on the lad knowing it'll impact spending in other areas?
posted on 27/8/24
Just an example of a player who looks good in a decent but lower-level league, but isn't really made for the EPL. I guess what surprised me is that ETH seemed to lose faith in him very quickly, given that he had previously managed the player, but time to move on from him and just get as much as we can for him............
posted on 27/8/24
Tbf to him I think he perfomed pretty well for Ajax in the CL and he did have a couple stand out perfromances in his debut season for us, against Barca most notably.
I don't think he's good enough but I also think he can do a lot better than he has for us in the main.
posted on 27/8/24
I agree he can definitely up what he is showing us atm, but whether he can get to a level week in week out which is good enough is highly questionable for me and would take an amazing turnaround.
But honestly, I could say the same about Rashford - a few good months but nothing on a consistent basis. We really need to make a ruthless decision on him
posted on 27/8/24
comment by kinsang (U3346)
posted 1 hour, 34 minutes ago
Just an example of a player who looks good in a decent but lower-level league, but isn't really made for the EPL. I guess what surprised me is that ETH seemed to lose faith in him very quickly, given that he had previously managed the player, but time to move on from him and just get as much as we can for him............
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2 years straight he gave him chance after chance. Sancho barely got the same chance, may be why he got so angry about it.