Why Antony would have been a Liverpool STAR

Liverpool nearly signed Antony - as revealed by the player himself. He would have been a star.

Jurgen Klopp wanted to sign Antony as a replacement for Mo Salah. On the face of it, that's absolutely insane.

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But as we've said before, he was right to want it. The idea came in 2022 during Salah's last contract drama.

It appeared back then that Salah wouldn't re-sign with Liverpool and would instead leave the club. Klopp wanted Antony to come in as a replacement.

Things went very differently, of course. Salah did sign a new contract at Anfield and Antony instead joined Manchester United.

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They paid an enormous £82m to sign him from Ajax, well above the figures quoted in Liverpool's interest. Though Antony has now confirmed that Liverpool did try to get him.

"It's true," he said, per Kooora. "I was very close to signing for Liverpool, but nobody knows what would have happened."

We think we know.

Antony at Liverpool

There is no real doubt that Antony would have done better at Liverpool than he did at Man United. He almost certainly would have done far better.

For one, Liverpool's record of developing talent in recent years is lightyears ahead of United's. It's not even close.

Nearly every player who has arrived at Anfield since Jurgen Klopp took over has improved, some dramatically. You can count on one hand those who didn't.

The inverse is true at United. In fact, you can probably use your thumbs to count the number of signings they've improved.

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That on its own suggests Antony would have shone at Liverpool far more brightly than he did at Old Trafford. But you can go deeper than that.

Liverpool have two players in their best XI right now who were in the Eredivisie with Antony. Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo were two of the biggest talents in the Netherlands alongside the Brazilian.

Gakpo was frequently compared, despite being slightly older.

But the Liverpool pair were given far, far more patience at Anfield to develop. They were given the freedom to find themselves and each blossomed this season into something special.

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Antony, in contrast, is more like Donny van der Beek - another Ajax graduate who went to United and failed miserably.

Liverpool have proven themselves to be much more adept at developing such talent. If they'd have picked up Antony (though, for a price far under £82m) we have no doubt that Klopp and Co would have developed him into something special.

You'd have got a much more decisive, confident player who knew how to use his talents to win matches. Because that's what you get at Liverpool.

You don't get that at United.

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