if there were an award for being the worst $95 million signing of all time it would hands down be this guy when United made the deal in 2022 for Anthony with a fee of $95 million going to Ajax a lot was expected out of the transfer but it's safe to say it hasn't worked out so what went wrong with Anthony and how he's become so bad he's getting memd even when he doesn't play it gets even more confusing considering that he bagged on his debut in it could lead to Anthony on his debuts Manchester United into the for Manchester United Anthony's signing came with a lot of Promise in the Champions League for Ajax even though they got knocked out in the round of 16 stage he put in a more than decent performance two goals and four assists in seven Champions League games still only 22 at at the time he was already seen as a promising Prospect and one for the future too a couple of teams were looking at him as a possible signing in the upcoming window but it all changed when in Manchester the red half of the city made this major move the appointed Eric ten hog is the team's new head coach and he immediately wanted to implement his ideas and philosophies at United it's almost like ten hog was trying to create a mini Ajax replica at United he'd already signed lissandro Martinez from his former team but his next Target was Anthony and he got him it couldn't have gotten any better as we've shown in the earlier clip after he bagged on his debut it was like he had Old Trafford At His Feet fast forward to the present day and we're dealing with a guy who managed just one Premier League goal last season so what went wrong with Anthony then first off we've got to start with that price tag there's no way he's worth 95 million the dude is isn't even worth half of that and here's the crazy thing both he and his former team Ajax knew this as well see guys initially the deal between United and Ajax for Anthony stalled early on ten hog came and wanted the club to get Anthony by any means necessary and because of this the club did some crazy stuff they sold Anthony elanga to Nottingham forus just to make up space down the wings for Antony's potential signing for contexts elanga had 14 goal contributions in the league with Nottingham Forest last season Anthony one goal and one assist after freeing up the space United walked away from the deal only to come back later United reportedly wanted to pay 30 million and Ajax wanted to double that seeing how desperate United was they U the figure to 95 million and I don't know which is more surprising the fact that they U the figure and made it times three of what United valued the player on on or the fact that United actually paid yep they did pay 95 million for him and he became a United player so how has he done then after this in his first season we did see glimpses of why United paid that much to sign him FR tries his luck andon Manchester United the goal against Barcelona or scoring in his first three games of the season after bagging against Liverpool he scored against both Manchester City in Everton and at that point the move was promising signs of things to come but then what followed can simply be best described as inconsistency three goals in his first three games and after this it took him 15 League games to get to his next goal contribution in the league for United he's a Winger this just sounds off now at this point there was the benefit of the doubt for Anthony that he was only just settling into the Premier League and still getting War armed up meaning his next season which was the 2023 24 version was supposed to be the one where he had really taken off and shown why United paid all that money for him but it somehow got worse he played 29 Premier League games last season started 15 and came off the bench in 14 in total this added up to 1,324 minutes of action in the league his total one goal and one assist it feels so cringe reading this knowing he cost that much he was averaging a goal contribution every 662 minutes very very unsatisfactory the lack of end product was cosing the team United didn't exactly feel it in 20122 23 when Marcus rashford was in the form of his career scoring over 30 goals that season but in the last campaign when the output from the attacking Department was low a player with the amount paid on him would have been expected to deliver big and he came up with one goal and one assist in the league now you would to an extent be able to excuse this if he was contributing in other areas of the pitch like being creative or making key passes or anything within that category except he wasn't in the two seasons he's been at United the 2022 23 and the 2023 24 season he's averaged 1. 4 and 1 . 5 key passes per 90 this number is very very low for example his teammate Bruno Fernandez averaged 4.
3 key passes per 90 the problem with Anthony was now that he wasn't only just lacking the end product he couldn't contribute in other areas on the pitch heck it was like every time he played he was only doing cardio up against Ramen gave that big Bill build up all for what initially it felt like he only needed to build his confidence but trust me it only gets [Music] worse that Infamous face man yeah he acted like he was a Marvel main character coming to change the game and as soon as that face dropped he was getting memd to the end it still doesn't end there perhaps the biggest cringe moment with this guy was at Wembley United versus Coventry City in the semi-finals of the FA Cup United went three goals up but somehow managed to blow the three-goal lead and Force the game into penalties they did win it on the shootout but the embarrassment of losing a lead like that to Coventry City the players themselves knew there was nothing worth celebrating except Anthony cuing your ears after blowing a three-goal lead to a championship team is just down disgusting this is particularly worrying considering the Highlight clips that came out about him before the move to United skills tricks it felt like United was getting the complete package after signing Anthony and yet that hasn't been the case at all when it comes to dribbling despite doing stuff like this on a match day yeah Anthony doesn't even come close to the best dribblers in the Premier League or the top European leagues at Ajax he was averaging 2. 2 two dribbles per 90 at Manchester United 1. 5 in his first season 1.
