Rio Ferdinand is afraid that Antony will struggle with the pressure

Antony has become Manchester United's second most expensive signing in history

30/08/2022, 01:55 PM +00:00

Once Fabrizio Romano reported that Manchester United had reached an agreement with Ajax for the signing of Antony for a fee of €95 million plus €5 in add-ons, Man United and England legend Rio Ferdinand went on his Youtube channel and talked about his first thought on the transfer in the Vibe with Five podcast. Although he is very excited, he still has some doubts.

The ex-footballer compared him to Jack Grealish’s signing with Manchester City a year ago: “You hope he comes in at the levels he’s coming in at, 100 million or around that figure. You hope he comes in and it doesn’t weigh heavily around his neck. You look at Grealish last year, he wasn’t the same Grealish that played at Aston Villa, so it can weigh heavy”.

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The former England and Manchester United defender believes that there are three things that could make Antony struggle during his first season at the club: “The price tag weighing heavy and the pressure and the attention being under the spotlight. A new environment and culture they’re not used to and a team set up that they’re not used to”, he told Vibe with Five.

Rio Ferdinand might be right because these things have happened in the past. Paul Pogba always struggled to live up to the pressure of being the most expensive transfer in Manchester United’s history, and most recently, Jack Grealish spent a lot of time on the bench of Manchester City last season after becoming the most expensive English footballer in history.

A difficult task

Hopefully, Erik ten Hag can help Antony to ignore all social media talk about him being the second most expensive transfer in the club’s history because that could get in his head and have a negative impact on his performances. The 22-year-old Brazilian will have a tough first season but will have all the backing of the new manager, who has a lot of faith in him.