Manchester United Focused On Signing Antony Next Week

Manchester United are focused on finally signing the 22-year-old Brazilian winger Antony from Ajax in the final week of the transfer window.

United have been monitoring Antony for several months and are now increasingly confident they can conclude a deal to bring him to Old Trafford.

The United manager Erik ten Hag had Antony on his original list of targets at the start of the summer after working with him for two seasons in the Netherlands.

During that time Antony emerged as one of European football’s most exciting young players, winning two Eredivisie titles and nine international caps for Brazil.

United’s initial enquires for the player back in June were politely rebuffed by the Dutch champions who were under no pressure to sell.

Since then Ajax have consistently quoted United a high price for Antony, which they ultimately want to push to as much as €100 million with a series of add-on clauses.

United believed this was an excessive amount and had paused their interest in him until recent events forced them to return to Ajax.

The opening rounds of the season, which has seen United lose two of their first three games, highlighted again the desperate need for United to bring in attacking reinforcements.

The future of Cristiano Ronaldo also remains unresolved; the player is determined to leave and that could still happen before the window closes.

Meanwhile Anthony Martial, who missed the first two games of the season with a hamstring injury, before returning to play in the victory against Liverpool this week, will now miss Saturday’s game at Southampton with a new achilles injury.

Over the course of the last week United have come to accept that any move for Frenkie de Jong will almost certainly not happen in this window.

United had agreed a deal with Barcelona in July to sign the Dutch international for €85 million, but the player’s desire to stay in Spain has ultimately seen the move stall.

This has meant the transfer fee originally reserved for De Jong can now be used to sign Antony instead.

After the signing of Casemiro from Real Madrid for £60 million last week, United now only have the budget to sign one more major player.

The prospect of signing Casemiro, Antony and De Jong in one transfer window was dismissed by sources at United as always unrealistic.

Ten Hag has constantly stressed the importance of signing Antony and United are now in a position to begin seriously negotiating with Ajax.

Antony himself has consistently made it known that his intention was to leave Ajax and be reunited with Ten Hag at Old Trafford.

United have retained an interest in the PSV Eindhoven winger Cody Gakpo, but he was always only a fall-back option for Antony.