PSV director of football Marcel Brands has hit out at Manchester United’s “madness” transfer deal that saw them splash huge sums of money on the signing of Antony from Ajax in the summer.
Brands believes Antony’s fellow Brazilian winger Raphinha is a better player, but notes that he moved for less money when he left Leeds United for a move to Barcelona in the same transfer window.
“If you compare it with transfers that were realistic, such as that of Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City to Arsenal: that was also around that rate,” he said, as quoted by Voetbal Primeur.
“Those are normal amounts. I think everyone in football knows that Antony was a madness.
“I think Raphinha (Leeds United to Barcelona) is an even better player than Antony, but he left for much less.”
Man Utd fans will surely be pretty pleased with how Antony is getting on, as he remains a relatively young player who is still adjusting to a new league and a new country, but who clearly has bags of ability and potential to improve.
United may well have over-paid for Antony on this occasion, but the circumstances were perhaps a bit challenging for the Red Devils, who had already raided Ajax for manager Erik ten Hag and defender Lisandro Martinez.
This surely factored in Ajax’s desire to get as much money as possible for Antony, so we’ll just have to see as time passes if this really proves to be a “madness” deal by MUFC.