Manchester United should learn from Arsenal and Arteta if they really want Antony ‘value’

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If Manchester United really reckon they can come close to getting half their money back on Antony then they are deluded. Arsenal have shown them the way.

It is rare for one transfer to encapsulate the embedded executive incompetence at two separate clubs, but the trade of Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan six years ago helped explain the respective falls of Arsenal and Manchester United.

One side undeniably and irrefutably got the better of that deal, and it wasn’t the one which announced their end of the apparent bargain through the medium of piano. Sanchez was a disastrous capture which has helped define a decade of hubristic excess at Old Trafford. Yet Mkhitaryan was not significantly better, with a third of his total combined goals and assists for the Gunners coming on his full debut.

It was reported at the time that Arsenal had initially asked for Anthony Martial in part-exchange, along with a further cash fee, to sanction Sanchez’s exit, but they were talked down into accepting Mkhitaryan and no extra money. Arsene Wenger’s reasoning at the time – “we were in the position where the player had no value in three to four months” – was driven by characteristic frugality, but it was damning.

Arsenal soon came to realise that as little “value” as those players have, it is sometimes worth even less time and effort trying to get anything in return for them to save face – and their true merit to the squad and club can be realised by cutting ties.

Mkhitaryan was released from his contract after two-and-a-half years. Mesut Ozil was gradually ostracised and ultimately made a free agent six months before his deal was to expire. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tested the fine print in those non-negotiables too often and left by mutual consent, in the same way a couple might agree to break up on the strong advice of one of the parties involved. Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, Sead Kolasinac, Willian and Hector Bellerin have all been allowed to leave Arsenal for nothing with time left on their contracts.

More than £150m was invested on those players in transfer fees alone, long before factoring in wages and the rest, yet even in recouping nothing the Gunners absorbed the financial hit to aid their evolution and rise back into the elite.

It is that bigger-picture focus Manchester United need to emulate. The apparent acceptance that things have not worked with Antony is a step in the right direction from a club that would have previously doubled down and triggered a one-year contract extension to preserve some pretence of value, but one newspaper line on the situation suggests a vital aspect of the lesson is yet to be learned.

United may struggle to recoup even half the £86million Antony cost from Ajax 18 months ago

That ‘may’ is doing some incredibly heavy lifting; Manchester United would genuinely be fortunate to find a buyer willing to give them a quarter of their money back. Antony’s only goals and assists in his last 28 games have come against Newport. His 99th-minute introduction against Fulham underlined just how willing Erik ten Hag is to put his pet project down.

The biggest transfer loss a Premier League club has ever incurred for a player whose contract didn’t simply expire was the £72m Arsenal sank on Nicolas Pepe, only for him to be swept up in Edu and Mikel Arteta’s relentless deep clean four years later. The forward had 12 months remaining on his contract when the Gunners realised that clawing back any sort of meaningful fee was a pointless, vain exercise.

“It is not his fault the amount of money that we paid at the time and that’s it,” Arteta said last year. “When things are not working out, you have to move on. There’s no point trying when something is not working and that decision has been made and I think it benefits all parties.”

That is the sort of clarity and ruthless decision-making Manchester United need, with the future prioritised ahead of avoiding embarrassment. A club that demands £40m for Antony, having held out for similar fees for countless duds in recent memory, will never progress if it fears looking a bit silly.

Arsenal had a few fingers pointed at them in mockery and derision for letting those expensive players leave as free agents; the fan focus on concepts such as re-sale value will never not baffle. But the impact those decisions had was transformative.

“This showed that now we can’t play around, now we have to be calm with the team,” Mo Elneny said specifically of Aubameyang’s exit. “Now everyone looked at themselves because Mikel did that to the captain of the team. I think it unified us because now everyone was scared. Everyone is scared with their position because this happened to Aubameyang.”

Manchester United players have many traits, but a healthy and competitive concern over their place in the side is not one, and nor seemingly is an unwavering respect for the manager and faith in his vision. Ten Hag has tried to exert his authority but the proper boardroom structure to support him is still missing and there remains doubt as to whether he can help lead this brave new regime.

There were times when Arteta looked just as externally unconvincing in the role at Arsenal but the backing behind the scenes never wavered in the same way it feels Ten Hag’s might. Manchester United themselves cited the ‘patience’ the Spaniard was shown by the Gunners when it was said they felt ‘vindicated’ in their decision not to change managers despite the building pressure this season.

But a club cannot be remodelled and reshaped through persistence alone; the right calls need to be made and sometimes the collective ego must take a hit on that journey.

Saudi Arabia rescued Manchester United when it came to Cristiano Ronaldo, but who will take Antony, Jadon Sancho, Casemiro, Raphael Varane, Donny van de Beek and many others off their hands for the fees they will inevitably demand, and on wages no-one else would have offered? Can Manchester United accept and even embrace losing face like Arsenal have? What use is it to keep unwanted players around when examples could be made for the greater good?

Barring a ludicrous decision that cannot be properly ruled out, Martial will leave Manchester United upon the expiration of his contract this summer after nine years, at least the last three of which the club have spent openly trying to sell him. Antony has three years left on his deal and any attempts to sell him for half of the £82m they spent to be lumbered with him will see the entirety of that time served for the sake of the club not being made to look foolish. It is a cycle of stupidity they must be brave enough to break.