Manchester United Hunt For Japanese Stars Replace Antony

Real Sociedad winger Takefusa Kubo (X/@RealSociedad).

JAKARTA - Manchester United have run out of patience with winger Antony. Recently, MU is targeting the Japanese star, Takefusa Kubo, who is currently playing for Real Sociedad to replace Antony.

MU seems difficult to get the best players. In fact, even to recruit players with standard quality, MU has to spend deep money.

Compare it with city rivals Manchester City, who seem to rarely make mistakes in purchasing players. Finally, Man City brought in Jeremy Doku from Rennes.

The Belgian national team player is actually not familiar with the Premier League. However, Doku has immediately merged and contributed to The Citizens. The purchase of this 21-year-old player was not in vain.

What about Antony, who was bought by MU from Ajax Amsterdam at a very expensive price, which is 85.5 million, in 2022?

Securities are not much different from Harry Kane when he was bought by Bayern Munich, the Brazilian had a minimal impact on the Red Devils. Meanwhile, Kane became the top scorer and recently broke the goal record for Robert Lewandowski.

Antony was even barren. He was only able to score eight goals and made three assists during 62 plays for MU.

Antony is considered to have never achieved his maximum performance like in Ajax even though he was handled by the same figure, Erik ten Hag. This season, he has never even scored a goal in 18 appearances. MU also seems to have run out of patience with the 22-year-old player.

Therefore, the club immediately looked for a replacement. Ten Hag is eyeing Kubo, the Japanese national team star to replace Antony. Even the scouting MU, at the request of Ten Hag, has been monitoring Kubo's appearance seven times. Kubo, who is also 22 years old, is an alumni of the La Masia Academy. In fact, he received four years of football coaching at Barcelona's top academy.

Graduated from the academy, Kubo was contested by Barca and Real Madrid. Kubo finally joined Madrid in 2019.

However, Madrid squandered Kubo's talent and lent more players to Mallorca, Villarreal, and Getafe.

Finally, in the 2022 season, Sociedad, who made Kubo permanent after buying it from Madrid for a cheap price of 5.5 million. Sociedad was lucky to get this talented midfielder.

He used to play on the right wing, but Kubo also took on the number 10 role or behind the striker very well.

Evidently, Kubo has scored 15 goals and made 13 assists during 67 matches. Against Real Betis which ended in a 0-0 draw, Kubo was chosen as the man of the match.

This season, Kubo also led Sociedad to the last 16 of the 2023/2024 Champions League. Competing with Inter Milan, Benfica, and RB Salzburg, they can win the group.

In the La Liga competition, Sociedad broke the sixth rank and was still able to enter the top four.

Kubo's brilliant performance made him the target of many clubs. Napoli have already targeted him and offered a price of 26 million for the former Tokyo FC player.

However, Napoli's offer was rejected by Sociedad. The reason is, the club asked for a price of 43 million for Kubo. With that price, MU has the opportunity to attract the player. MU could also offer Sociedad a loan from Antony to replace Kubo.