Ajax sporting director Gerry Hamstra has hit out at Manchester United for leaving it so late in the transfer window to sign Brazil international Antony.
United secured Antony's signature on transfer deadline day, days after finally reaching an £85.1million agreement with Ajax. The Reds had been tracking the winger throughout the summer but were forced to cool their interest because of the Dutch giants' huge demands.
However, the Reds reignited their interest in the 22-year-old, who scored on his debut for the club against Arsenal on Sunday, towards the end of the window. After seeing a handful of bids knocked back, they reached an agreement with less than a week to go until the 11pm deadline last Thursday.
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Ajax were determined to keep hold of Antony but United eventually broke their resistance. And it was the timing of the Reds' move for the winger that angered Hamstra most, as it altered the plans they had made throughout the summer.
"Manchester United's timing was so bad," Hamstra told De Telegraaf. "The last few days [of the window] became even more hectic after Ajax had already gone through a major rebuild of the squad following the departure of lots of top-class players.
"It was so difficult to leave our manager with such a void. We all think we lost too many first-team players who always start. We had a summer with totally different expectations. We wanted to keep the group together as much as possible to be able to perform well in the Champions League and to carry on being successful.
"That's what we talked about with (manager) Alfred [Schreuder]. Of course we knew there were a few snags, but no one had foreseen that our players would be bought for such huge sums of money."
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