Manchester United’s Antony is backed to succeed by the player he replaced at Old Trafford, who hails the Brazilian as a ‘great player’ and ‘beautiful person’

Antony has been backed to eventually come good at Manchester United due – in part – to his ‘great’ ability and ‘beautiful’ personality by Anthony Elanga. 

The Nottingham Forest winger saw his game time at Old Trafford limited before being shipped out of the club last season following the Brazilian’s arrival. 

Antony endured a lacklustre maiden campaign before sinking to even greater depths this term, providing just two goal contributions that both came during an FA Cup win against League Two Newport County. 

Despite his former Ajax manager Erik ten Hag shelling out £86million to bring him to Manchester in 2022, it appears even the Dutchman has lost faith in the tricky winger, now opting to deploy Alejandro Garnacho in his place on the right. 

However, that has not altered Elanga’s perspective on his former team-mate, who he believes will someday succeed for the Red Devils. 

Anthony Elanga scored his fifth Premier League goal of the season in the 3-2 defeat to Newcastle last week

‘Antony is a great player and a beautiful person.’ The Swedish forward told SoccerNews.nl. ‘We had a lot of contact when I was at United, and we still talk sometimes now.

‘I am confident that he will score a lot of goals there. I could already see that during the training sessions.

‘I believe in God, and he told me to go to Nottingham, and Antony is still at United. But he will really be successful there.’

Elanga’s divinely-inspired decision to move to the east Midlands has borne fruit, with the 21-year-old establishing himself as a key player in Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad. 

In the Premier League, he has five goals and six assists from 23 appearances for a side battling to avoid to the drop. 

Elanga revealed that his relationship with Erik ten Hag was not the reason behind his decision to leave the club last summer 

Elanga also opened up on his decision to leave United and insisted that he holds no ill feeling toward Ten Hag amid reports at the time that the manager forced him out of the club. 

‘Was Ten Hag the reason I left United? No, I wouldn’t say that.’ He added. ‘I just wanted to play, that was especially important to me. 

‘I’m young and I don’t want to sit on the bench all season, you know? When you’re young you want to play, you want to make mistakes, you want to take risks.

‘But he wasn’t the reason for my leaving. There I mainly focused on myself, not on others.’