Real Betis have pulled out of a deal to sign Manchester United winger Antony, talkSPORT understands.
The La Liga team had reached an agreement to pay £25 million to recruit the Brazilian, with the Red Devils receiving a 50% sell-on.
United, who acquired Antony from Ajax in 2022 for £85 million, would have suffered a significant loss of around £60 million as a result of the deal.
Even Antony’s trip to Spain for a medical examination had been approved by United.
However, Betis retracted their offer shortly after they had reached an agreement because they believed they could not meet Antony’s required salary.
Betis wants United to contribute to a departure package and for the forward to lower his pay demands.
It is United’s hope that Betis is just withdrawing as a negotiating strategy.
However, Betis wants a smaller total deal when United returns.
It is currently unknown if Antony will join Betis and if the player will agree to lesser conditions.
Betis told talkSPORT: “There is no agreement and we have withdrawn the transfer offer because Real Betis can’t afford the transfer fee and the amounts that Manchester United must [instead] pay the player before the transfer.”
The 25-year-old helped the Seville team advance to the Conference League final while on loan at Betis for the second half of the previous campaign.
Even though Chelsea defeated them 4-1 there, Antony won over the Betis supporters.
He made 26 appearances in all competitions, contributing five assists and nine goals.
Despite being highly regarded when he arrived at Old Trafford, Antony only scored 12 goals and five assists in 96 games.
After working well with Antony at Ajax, Erik ten Hag recruited him to the club.
Antony emerged as one of Europe’s most intriguing attackers for the Dutch powerhouses.
However, it never happened for Antony in the Premier League, and his United career ended with the arrival of Ruben Amorim.
Before going on loan to Betis, he made just nine appearances under the Portuguese head coach.
It seems that Antony was the most recent member of the United explosives squad to leave the Theatre of Dreams.
After Alejandro Garnacho was informed by Amorim that he was not in the manager’s plans, Chelsea agreed to pay £40 million to sign him.
Before the deadline, they also hope to move on Tyrell Malacia, Jadon Sancho, and Rasmus Hojlund.
What went wrong for Antony?
Considering the amount of money that was lavished on him, Antony’s Premier League debut was lackluster.
However, following a season in which he scored four goals, things deteriorated.
The winger scored one goal for Ten Hag’s team in 29 Premier League appearances.
His personal life was also the subject of off-field allegations, and Antony talked about his feelings in Manchester in an interview with TNT Brazil.
He said: “[Coming to Betis] changed a lot because I needed to find myself, because of everything I went through in my personal life.
“As I said, I wanted to do things, but they didn’t seem to work out because I wasn’t happy, I didn’t feel that desire to play football, and I needed to find myself and be happy again because playing football was always something I loved.
“I went through difficult times [at Manchester United ] when I no longer felt that pleasure. I even always told my brother, I told him that I couldn’t take it anymore.
“[My brother] told me to hold on a little longer, that things were going to change . It even made me emotional, because they were very hard days for me,’ Antony said, reduced to tears as he recounted the story.
“Only I know what it was like to be there at home, not having the strength to even play with my son, going days without eating, staying locked in my room.
“So, for me it was very complicated, but thank God, with the help of my family and mainly with the help of God, I managed to get ahead and today I am very happy here.”
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