La Liga club identify Man Utd's Antony as January transfer target | OneFootball

Manchester United winger Antony has been identified as a January transfer target by La Liga side Real Betis, with the Red Devils unable to recruit without first shedding players.

Antony has only played 356 minutes in a United shirt at the halfway stage of this season, and is yet to start a single Premier League game after falling to the bottom of the winger pecking order under successive bosses Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim.

The Brazilian scored in each of his first three Premier League appearances back in the autumn of 2022, including during a win over Arsenal, but has famously struggled to justify a massively inflated £86m transfer fee ever since.

The Times notes that United will find it tough to generally offload in the January market, with only Marcus Rashford and Antony commanding any sort of interest. Betis want the latter on loan - as first revealed by ABC - but would have to contribute towards £150,000 weekly wages and lose existing winger Assane Diao.

Few clubs have shown interest in Man Utd players / Alex Pantling/GettyImages

"We don't have that possibility [to buy] in January if we don't take some players [out of the squad]. It is not that I am arriving here and can spend money changing the team," Amorim has said.

Antony, although reportedly identified as a £25m player by United scouts during the reign of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was billed as one of the brightest young talents in Europe during his Ajax days.

But even the familiarity of playing under Ten Hag couldn't get the best out of him, while off-field issues and allegations of assault from multiple women have also had an impact.

Former United coach Benni McCarthy recently revealed that it was Ten Hag's vested interest and loyalty towards Antony, having pushed for him to join the club, that limited Amad Diallo's first-team prospects. Since getting a consistent chance during the interim reign of Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Ivory Coast international has been the struggling team's best player.

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