Manchester United have become a byword for profligacy because of the hundreds of millions they have wasted on players as they drifted further and further away from Premier League or Champions League success.
But even by their standards, Antony stands out as the Premier League's biggest waste of money. The Brazilian is football's equivalent of HS2 and he became United's second most expensive signing when they splashed out £82 million to sign him from Ajax on September 1, 2022.
Even considering today's crazy transfer market, his fee was well above expectations. Erik ten Hag's fingerprints were all over the transfer and he thought Antony would light up Old Trafford like he did at Ajax.
Antony's stats at Ajax were impressive and he scored 24 goals and 22 assists in just over two seasons at the Amsterdam club. The right winger was a regular for Brazil and it seemed he had the world at his feet. But like his failure to score an open goal against Southampton last night, he made a terrible misstep. He started well and scored on his debut against Arsenal to suggest United had a player.
He finished his first season with nine goals to show a glimpse of his talent. But when United nosedived after winning the Carabao Cup, so did he.
It says everything about him that he has more yellow cards than goals for United and that he has fourteen warnings compared to his twelve goals. He has also provided just five assists in his two and a half years at Old Trafford. He has no Premier League starts and just one goal this season. That was a penalty against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup, when their directors seemed most interested in taking pictures of themselves at Old Trafford.
United would have to sell Antony for £32.52 million to avoid losing out under the terms of the Premier League's PSR, and there seems no chance of that happening. Instead, he will be loaned out to La Liga club Real Betis for the remainder of the season and has two years left on his £200,000-a-week contract in the summer.
Antony, 24, didn't even look like a United player and he missed four weeks last season while battling domestic violence charges in his native Brazil. He vehemently denied all allegations and was acquitted of all charges.
When the goals dried up, he hired a personal photographer to capture him in action and when he scored his only Premier League goal since April 2023 against Burnley in April, he ran over to pose. He was caught with a Sonic The Hedgehog toy for his son, who loves the character, and he shoved the matchball down his shirt in tribute to his pregnant girlfriend. Such gestures would normally be touching, but not when your targets have become as rare as hen's teeth.
Ruben Amorim will part ways with Antony this month and the South American reminds us why his job at United is so difficult as he struggles to rebuild the team while disabled by PSR. United will have to pay a significant portion of his wages to facilitate the move to Betis and then they will face the same problem again in the summer.