Erik ten Hag has privately accepted he got £85m Manchester United transfer decision wrong

Following the departures of Facundo Pellistri and Jadon Sancho over the summer, Manchester United's pool of wide options now has a much healthier look about itself.

United went into the summer transfer window with six wingers on their books that each would have been knocking on Erik ten Hag's door in pursuit of regular game time. Despite the prospect of facing a more congested fixture list than ever before, it would have been impossible for the United manager to have kept Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Pellistri, Sancho, Antony and Amad happy. It was a list that needed scaling back.

By managing to offload Pellistri, who joined Panathinaikos, and Sancho, who sealed an 11th-hour switch to Chelsea on deadline day, United now have a manageable number of wingers at their disposal. It should be enough to see them through the season without too many problems.

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Rashford and Amad started each of United's opening three games, occupying the left and right wing slots respectively, before Garnacho made his first start of the season against Liverpool at Old Trafford last Sunday, coming into the team at Amad's expense.

Antony, however, has not had so much as a look in thus far, being restricted to just one minute of football. You have to go back to the 4-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on May 6 for the last time he started. Including pre-season friendlies, he has now been left out of Ten Hag's last 13 starting line ups.

When you consider it was Ten Hag who championed for Antony's move to Old Trafford from Ajax throughout the 2022 summer transfer window, the former's