Antony is a player who will be known more for other things other than his football during his time at Man Utd, which could be near it's ending this summer window.
Clearly, he wasn't cut out for life in the Premier League and United as his performances in the famous red shirt were average at the best of times and well, not, at others.
A promising enough first season was followed by a tumultuous second with issues off the field also affecting the Brazilian. In his two-and-a-half seasons at Old Trafford, the 25 year old has just 12 goals and 5 assists in 96 matches for the club.
That record fee (£85m) for him from Ajax was seen then as well over his value and unfortunately due to United's usual poor negotiating skills in the transfer window, this overpaid price lingered (and probably still will) over Antony's head throughout his time at the club which added unnecessary extra pressure onto a player who already had high expectations.
That price tag never helped his cause.
On top of it all, he has been subject to much ridicule over the past year for both United and Real Betis where he spent the second half of the 24/25 campaign after being sent on loan in January.
'Antony is the goat (greatest of all time)' was the main term associated with a player who is far from being the greatest. Sarcastic comparisons were made between him and the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi which added further fuel to this 'goat' debate.
What started off as jokes from troll accounts and random supporters of both United and football was quickly shared by official pages. Whether this was in a joking and sarcastic manner by the likes of La Liga and Real Betis' social media, I do not know but it was odd to see official accounts post something that was seen as a meme.
I found that to be a bit much from official accounts because we know that fans talk shite.
Antony did have a revival whilst in Spain as he scored 9 goals and had 5 assists in his six months. He also received five man of the match awards and netted multiple late winners that kept Betis' hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League alive.
But even still, I thought these posts from official accounts to be a little distasteful because again, from troll accounts and fans making fun of him is one thing, but from La Liga and Real Betis themselves was quite another.
However, the player himself stated that he "used it (memes) as fuel" and went on to prove another one of his quotes right when he told everyone that "rest assured, you'll hear the name Antony in relation to goals and assists this season" earlier in the campaign.
Fair play 👏.
Even I got in on the meme act. Although funny, it was not right. My apologies Antony. He's looked like the player we bought from Ajax and he was playing with a smile on his face. He may have found his level. Isco was so taken by his Brazilian teammate that he said “We need to crowdfund so he can stay at least another year!” This shows you how highly rated he was whilst in Spain.
But why I mention him being an example for others to follow and all of this talk about memes is because he has been ridiculed more than most and yet he's just got his head down and worked really hard to prove himself. Antony may not be the level required of a United player but he's certainly good enough to play in Spain or Germany (he's been linked with a move to Bayer Leverkusen and link up with ex-manager Erik ten Hag) or anywhere else.
All he appeared to want to do was to play football and do it to the best of his ability. That was his sole purpose. "I fell in love with football again at Betis" was what he told Marca in an interview in January not long after being loaned out to the Spanish side.
He's also reported to be willing to take a 30% wage cut in order to help move him away from Old Trafford.
Antony is going to the extremes.
This isn't something that can be said for a few of our other players.
Marcus Rashford is a player who's had his fair share of off-field antics and social media activity that sparked controversay. Some of his latest includes saying Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was his idol with there being much backlash towards this statement given Rashford's poor form and manager fallout with Ruben Amorin, things that one wouldn't associate with a player like Henry who if he was your idol, you would do pretty much everything he did include stay professional.
The fact that it's widely reported MR10 wants to join Barcelona who are also seriously interested in him and that he wants to play Champions League football and earn a high wage has caused people to question his mentality to a point where you ask the question of 'who do you think you are?'
This goes back to Rashford's form which after a brilliant 22/23 campaign in which he had 40+ goals and assists and won United's player of the season, where once he won that award, his performances took a complete 180 as he became someone else entirely.
He looked disinterested in his football and had issues off the field particularly with his late-night/early morning in Belfast in January last year. The behavious was seen as unprofessional and in contrast to the man who was given an MBE for his services to children by providing them with free school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Current manager also had a problem with Rashford as he omitted United's no 10 entirely from the matchday squad for the first Manchester Derby meeting back in December last year. Amorim also stated that Rashford "He has to be the first one to want it" in regards to finding his best place in the team and getting the best performances out of him after the new manager's first game in charge which was the 1-1 draw at Ipswich in which Rashford scored the opening goal of the Amorim era just 2 minutes in.
Quite ironic, isn't it?
Since that Derby omission, Rashford hasn't played under the Portuguese which resulted in his loan to Villa in January. The 27 year old said that he was "ready for a new challenge" which led to him leaving.
Whilst at Villa, he was showing signs of his former self as he scored 4 goals and had 6 assists in 17 matches before picking up an injury in April that ruled him out for the rest of the season.
This form was similar to that of Antony which saw a familiar question resurface of perhaps it's United itself is the problem in regards to players departing and then playing well.
But all of this especially speaking about moving to Barcelona, wanting to earn a reported €5.5m-a-year and play CL football has resulted in many thinking that maybe you should just focus on playing football first instead of looking to reach the stars. As he hasn't performed well in a while and has had his issues off the field, this shouldn't give him the right to have such high demands.
Follow Antony is what he should be doing.
Another player is Jadon Sancho. The 'freedom fighter' is one who also wants to continue to earn a high wage wherever he goes.
At United, he earns £250k-a-week which for a player who's not performed and caused as much trouble as he has, is obviously far too much.
He was sent on loan to Chelsea for this season where he picked up a weekly wage worth half of what he earned at United and did show signs of promise but those were few and far between with the 25 year old never truly cemented his place in the Chelsea side with manager Enzo Maresca instead preferring the likes of Pedro Neto and Noni Madueke.
The Blues had the option to buy Scamcho if they finished above 14th place in the league (which they did) for £20m-£25m. However, due to his inconsistencies and high wage demands, Chelsea then paid United the £5m penalty clause so as to opt out of this potential permanent transfer.
So much for freedom. Even the club who you were on loan with decided to pay for you to leave.
Sancho is asking for too much despite being shite and troublesome besides.
Follow Antony is what he should be doing.
And then there's the stuff about Garnacho, the most talented of them all.
I'm not going to go too in-depth on him because I've already done so here, but you know what I'm talking about.
His latest Instagram post features a picture of himself on holiday wearing a Rashford Aston Villa shirt.
He knew what he was doing and this isn't the same as Amad wearing a Brighton shirt and Patrick Dorgu wearing a Roma kit. I don't like them doing that but I don't believe that those were done with any intent to take a dig at the manager and club.
I believe Garnacho has done this with that intent. We know he and Amorim don't get along. The manager was reported to have told the 20 year old to find a new club after his "shit" comment made post the Europa League final loss.
That wasn't the first intance of Garnacho being petulant and is something he shares with his brother, Roberto.
This image caused a lot of backlash as more were against what he did rather than for it. It's going against the manager, the club and more importantly, the fans especially those who backed him.
He clearly doesn't care and all he's done is prove Amorim right. In fact, both he and Rashford have as MR10 commented 'My brother' underneath this post. What's more is that the Manchester Evening News has come out and said that "One of Rashford's inner circle also once dubbed him a "f*****g Ronaldo wannabe"" as they claim that the pair "have only ever socialised during United's team-bonding dinners."
So this sort of quashes Rashford and Garnacho being big mates.
It is quite fake of them two if this report can be believed.
Really immature and unprofessional from this player and all these players. You may have your issues with the manager and club but you can still depart amicably. There's no need for things like these as it just brings more dislike onto you and questions your attitude.
Follow Antony is what he should be doing.
Final Thoughts
All of the memes were/are funny, ngl, but we all know that it isn't right. The fact that Antony took that personally and used it as fuel to improve, all the better for him.
What he's shown since he moved to Betis is probably better than what Rashford, Sancho and Garnacho did in that same time.
One can never question his attitude and while his performances weren't great, he still gave his best which is more than we can say for most.
I'd rather keep Antony at this point over the other three.
I suppose it shouldn't be too surprising to see such antics from such players. We've seen it so many times before, it should almost be expected these days.
It's just really disappointing to see but it really goes back onto the club as they are the ones who allow these players to feel that they can get away with doing such things.
These type of antics gives the club the opportunity to come in and show that this won't be taken lightly and that these players will be punished. Or just come out with a statement at least as it will show that you care and you aren't condoning such behaviour.
Those like myself who are skeptical about INEOS and this ownership in general will look at this as a positive sign and might be more open to them as owners should they come out and say something against these posts and antics.
However, knowing our club, they'll probably do nothing. Hell, they'll probably announce some partnership-extending deal.
It's unacceptable from these players but the club have allowed for such a negative culture.
Antony is looking for a way out of Man Utd | Antony: Image credit: Getty Images via Goal
Antony at Real Betis had 14 goals and assists in six months | Antony for Real Betis: Creator: ANP | Credit: ANP via Getty Images Copyright: ANP via Goal