Antony is on the radar of Real Betis, who are willing to agree a loan deal if Manchester United pay a significant portion of his salary.
As reported in this week’s The Pitch Prospect transfer notebook, Betis are interested in bringing the Brazilian striker to LaLiga.
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It is now understood that the Spanish club have intensified their pursuit and are actively trying to complete a deal for the ex-Ajax man – but will only consider a deal if United agree to more than half to pay his salary.
Antony’s contract at Old Trafford, which expires in 2027, currently reportedly pays him £200,000 a week.
This salary places him among the club’s top five earners – a nuisance for fans who continue to criticize his performances since his arrival in August 2022.
He followed Erik ten Hag from Ajax to the Red Devils for £86m and got off to a great start, scoring the winner against Arsenal at Old Trafford.
He hasn’t been able to demonstrate his value for money since then and once again caused fans frustration against Southampton on Thursday when he missed a glorious close-range opportunity to bring Ruben Amorim’s side level.
Luckily for United, Amad Diallo saved his team from a potentially embarrassing defeat to 20th-placed Saints with a late hat-trick, a hat-trick that ranks as the 11th fastest in Premier League history.
This season, Antony has played just 401 minutes, with most of his playing time coming in the Carabao Cup.
The 24-year-old has yet to play a league game this season and is not Amorim’s preferred choice at full-back or narrow forward.
The Portuguese head coach claimed Antony can play as a full-back and has “done a great job improving in that position”, but challenged him by insisting he “needs to defend more”.
Despite those words of encouragement in December, he hasn’t made much of an impression on Amorim.
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And with Antony taking up space on his profit and sustainability list, Man United want to remove him and others from the payroll.
“Football clubs view players as commodities,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told The Athletic.
“The way to display wages is similar to ongoing costs. For a low-performing player with high salaries, the running costs are considered prohibitively high. Whether it’s an annual salary of £15m or £18m, that’s a significant part of a club’s costs.
“For Manchester United, whose wage bill is around £330m, that is probably around four per cent of the total. You could spread that across two or three other players and if a player is in poor form then it is considered more beneficial to spread the cost.”
Loaning players is a good short-term solution, but at the same time offers the opportunity to loan them long-term with a commitment to purchase.
It is a plan Man United have followed with Jadon Sancho, who is reportedly still receiving £150,000 of his £250,000-a-week wages from his parent club despite currently playing on loan at Chelsea.
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Sancho was loaned back to his former club Borussia Dortmund last season after a dispute with Ten Hag, which included possible performance-related bonuses.
They then allowed Sancho to move to Chelsea this season with an obligation to buy him next summer for a transfer fee of around £25 million.
In this January transfer window, it appears Man United will explore the loan market again, with Marcus Rashford potentially leaving the club to go abroad.
And it seems very likely that Antony could join him as Betis are keen to progress, with the player having already turned down the chance to move to Greek club Olympiacos.