Man Utd flop is now fast becoming their biggest disaster since Antony

Since Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United back in 2013, the club have massively underachieved, both on and off the pitch.

One of those off-pitch areas has been in the transfer market, with the board sanctioning huge transfer fees for players who did not work out.

There have certainly been more poor signings than successful ones, with United splashing the cash on players who were simply not good enough to play for the club. A lot of those have now moved on, with a huge reshape of the squad happening since INEOS took charge. Even then, their regime has hardly got many additions spot on.

One of the worst pre-INEOS purchases was surely Antony.

Why Antony was such a poor signing for United

Erik ten Hag tended to rely a lot on signing players he knew, either from personal experience coaching them at Ajax or from managing against them. Brazilian winger Antony was a big-money addition from Ten Hag’s former club but failed to ever live up to the hype.

After splashing a whopping £81.3m on the Sao Paulo-born attacker, he never managed to prove his worth. Antony played 96 times for United, but only managed to find the back of the net 12 times, and assisted a further five goals.

One of the real issues with Antony was the fact that he was so one-dimensional. The 25-year-old was described as a “one-trick pony” by Paul Scholes. That one trick was to cut inside on his left foot from the right wing and look to get a shot at goal.

As his record shows, it proved largely ineffective for the Red Devils. They loaned him out to La Liga side Real Betis last season, and he joined permanently this summer, where he already has more goal involvements.

For the price and the quality of player, it was always going to be tough for Antony at Old Trafford. Now, they might be seeing a repeat in Ruben Amorim’s current squad.

Man United facing an Antony repeat

INEOS have definitely had a better success rate with their signings than the previous owners, with the likes of Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha already evidence of that. However, they haven’t got everything right in the market.

One of the players in that category would certainly be Manuel Ugarte. He cost the Red Devils £50m from Paris Saint-Germain, and has never really managed to establish himself as a first-team regular under either Ten Hag or Ruben Amorim.

His performances have certainly been below par for the price the 13-time Premier League champions paid for him. Journalist Samuel Luckhurst, who covers United, even went as far as calling him “scandalous” for his dire performance against Aston Villa last Sunday.

He’s played 57 games for the club, and whilst he has chipped in with six goals and assists, he has been underwhelming. United have lost seven out of the last seven Premier League games he’s started, which is certainly an unwanted record.

Whilst Ugarte is known as a ball winner, one of the biggest limitations to his game is his ability in possession. The stats from last season in the Premier League show there is no upside to his game on the ball, averaging just 3.08 progressive passes per game, placing him in the bottom 18% of midfielders.

With the emergence of Lisandro Martinez in defensive midfield against Villa, Amorim might well decide it is time to drop Ugarte from the starting lineup. The Uruguayan is simply not good enough on the ball, and is a habitual fouler, too, committing as many as four last weekend.

He has certainly been a signing, like Antony, that could be considered a disaster deal. For the same price, the Red Devils could have brought in a better midfielder last summer, with more quality on the ball and better intelligence off it.

It will be fascinating to see what the rest of his United career looks like, but one thing is for sure, Ugarte has been a disaster of a signing so far.

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