Edwin van der Sar, who is a former Manchester United goalie and is now the current chief exec of Ajax said that Antony should have stayed with Ajax. Furthermore, he elaborated that it would be better for Antony to spend some more time with them before joining Manchester United.
The transfer happened after Antony went on strike in Amsterdam to force his initial team to allow the transfer to Manchester United. Ten Hag managed to seal the £86 million deal for him to move to Old Trafford and start playing in the Premier League.
Ajax was adamant to hold onto one of its key players after previously losing Lisandro Martinez to the Red Devils earlier in the transfer window, and Van der Sar has acknowledged that the decision was difficult to make there.
Edwin said: “It was our opinion they should stay for another year. We gave a firm ‘no’ to Arsenal when they came first for Lisandro; we fought hard to keep him.
“It was [an] economic [decision] but it was a hard one to take. We knew there was interest but not at that level and it was too late to find a good replacement.
“I don’t think the way [Antony] handled it was the correct one, but it’s important all the players who leave Ajax have success because it reflects well on us.”
Social media comments about Edwin’s remarks
Edwin van der Sar on Lisandro Martínez and Antony: "It was our opinion they should stay for another year. We gave a firm ‘no’ to Arsenal when they came first for Lisandro; we fought hard to keep him." [@TimesSport]
— utdreport (@utdreport) October 24, 2022
When he stated that Arsenal received a firm “no” from the players, the whole game changed when United came knocking on the player’s doorstep, said a netizen. Arsenal fans claimed they wanted Martinez but were not willing to pay the high price for a young player.
Most of the comments on Twitter were skewed towards Martinez. Some claimed that Martinez did not fight to join Arsenal, however, he did fight to join Manchester United. Netizens were jokingly asking Edwin to join United as well.
🚨 BREAKING: Manchester United made an approach for Edwin van der Sar to become their director of football last week. The Dutchman is interested in the role.
(Source: @cwoconsultancy) pic.twitter.com/exVA4m5QRO
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) October 20, 2022
Just a week ago, Edwin was approached to join Manchester United as the director of football, and he appeared to be interested in the role. For this, Ajax fans claimed that United had a field day taking their manager and best players, and that’s still not enough for the giant football club.
English fans started calling the club “Dutchester United” in relation to the number of Dutch players/key people joining the club. It is weird for him to criticise his players for joining the team when he himself is considering joining United.
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