If do sack this week, it'll be some time until they can shift some of the £617million worth of talent brought in during his crumbling tenure.

Of all the accusations levelled at Ten Hag since his arrival in May 2022 - indiscernible style of play, loyalty to out-of-form players, his supposed lack of charisma - recruitment has without doubt the biggest criticism. For Sunday's away to , potentially his, Ten Hag named a bench worth a total of £436m - the majority of which he spent.

United legend was baffled by the decision to snub the likes of , and Manuel Ugarte, going on a fervent rant and Ten Hag's signings. "They're relying more on hope than actual proven quality... It's ridiculous," Scholes bemoaned.

arrival as co-owner earlier this year was supposed to mark a turnaround in fortunes when it came to the transfer market, with sporting director expected to bring his elite-level expertise to Old Trafford. But 11 games into the new season, United have won just three, seeing the same old questions resurface.

With those costly mistakes in mind, we asked the Mirror Football team their thoughts and to name Ten Hag's worst signing.

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If you need a snapshot of everything that has been wrong with Manchester United's recruitment policy - and Manchester United in general - over the last decade or so, look back to April of this year when Antony scored his only goal in the last 18 months.

He stuffed a ball up the front of his shirt, got hold of a Sonic the Hedgehog toy and celebrated in front of a 'personal photographer'. Honestly. Oh, and the goal was against the mighty .

You could not have made it up. So many of United’s recent signings are oblivious to the responsibility and expectations that come with playing for such an iconic institution. For the worst piece of business, Antony has stiff competition at Old Trafford but at a cost of £82m and with a £200,000-a-week contract running until 2026, the Brazilian still stands out as an emblem of all that has gone wrong at Old Trafford.

Erik ten Hag's worst signing for United is unquestionably Antony who, at £86m, is also in the running to be the most expensive flop in Premier League history.

In fairness to Ten Hag though, he is not wholly responsible for United paying way over the odds for a winger who cannot even get in the first-team, but is the second most expensive signing in the club's history, behind , another flop at £89m.

When Ten Hag identified Antony as a player he wanted to sign from his former club Ajax, at the start of the summer in 2022, he was available for around £35m. But United delayed making a decision and, when they returned to Ajax late in the window, the Dutch club had already sold a host of players - including Lisandro Martinez to United - and did not need the money from the sale of Antony, meaning they could demand what they wanted for him.

United caved in and eventually paid more than double what they could originally have paid for the Brazilian, who has scored just 12 goals from 86 appearances. He has not started a Premier League game for United this season and even Ten Hag, who has stood by his signing through some difficult moments, seems to have finally lost faith in the 24-year-old.

Get involved! Who is Erik ten Hag's worst Manchester United signing? Tell us your pick in the .

Regrettably, the cast of contenders for Ten Hag's worst signing at Old Trafford is extensive and expensive.

Recruitment has been United's weakest suit for years, going back to Marouane Fellaini - honest commitment, but never a match for United's traditions of free-flowing football - and Bastian Schweinsteiger, a terrific player in his prime who had crested the summit long before he pulled on the shirt.

Ten Hag's main criteria for signing players seem to have been (a) players he had worked with at Ajax or (b) Dutchmen... and £600m later, United are further away from challenging for the title than ever since Sir Alex Ferguson's farewell triumph in 2013.

Worst signing? He started well enough with a goal to end Arsenal's 100 per cent record two years ago, but at £86m Antony has been value for money on a par with Del Boy's consignment of executive mobile phones on Only Fools and Horses: Top of the range model at face value, but not really up to scratch.

For similar money you could have bought Gareth Bale 11 years ago. Bale pocketed five winner's medals with - Antony, sadly, has promised more than he's delivered.

I don't think there can be any debate over who is Erik ten Hag's worst signing and it is undoubtedly Antony. At £86m, Antony has been a monumental waste of money for Manchester United. He has just 12 goals from his 86 appearances and his only start this season has been against League One Barnsley in the Carabao Cup when he scored.

In total, he has made seven starts in 2024 and even Ten Hag, who had him at Ajax, has lost patience with the Brazilian. He has hired a photographer to capture his best moments for United and it’s fair to say the snapper has been very inactive this year.

Antony has been an embarrassment when United have been desperate for goalscorers to take some of the burden off Rasmus Hojlund's shoulders. has faded in and out while Joshua Zirkzee needs time. has stepped up, but United really needed Antony to deliver on his pricetag. In many ways, the South American sums up everything that is wrong in the Ten Hag era.

The obvious one is Antony but you really could make a case for every signing in the Ten Hag era.

Have any of them actually been that good? Andre Onana has recovered from a poor start to become one of United's leaders on the pitch and bringing Jonny Evans back was a masterstroke.

The rest of them? They've had their moments, with Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen having brief spells of good form. But they're all too inconsistent - and the worst of the bunch has to be .

He signed for £60m, on a five-year contract, and inherited the iconic No.7 shirt. I can't recall one good game he has had. You can point to unfortunate injuries, but when he has played, he's looked out of place, unfit and short of ideas.

It feels a lifetime ago that he was pulling the strings in Chelsea's midfield, form that ultimately made him a regular in the England line-up under . It's hard to see how he ever gets back in the national team set-up now. He's still only 25 years old, so there's plenty of time for him to return to form. But it's unlikely that'll be at United.

There aren't many Erik ten Hag signings who can claim to have done themselves justice at Manchester United, but Antony is comfortably the worst investment of the bunch.

United’s manager has pointed to a lack of balance in his squad, most notably in his complaints about being unable to sign a striker in January, but that’s on him. More specifically, that’s down to him spending big in positions where the club was already stocked and not even improving the first-team in the process.

Since Ten Hag took over, Antony has scored fewer Premier League goals for the club than Jadon Sancho. Sancho has been sent out on loan twice in that time, and last played a league game for his parent club in August 2023.

That would be bad enough for a player brought in for a fee in the £20-30m range, but Antony set United back around £86m - the second most expensive signing in the club’s history. No player chooses his transfer fee, and Antony can't take all the blame. This is a failure of player and manager, and if Ten Hag doesn't survive the international break it will rightly be thrown in his face.

Antony is without doubt the worst bit of transfer business Manchester United have signed off on since Erik ten Hag took over. Nothing summed up the ineptitude of the Red Devils' previous hierarchy like refusing to pay Ajax's outlandish asking price until Ten Hag lost his first two games and panic set in.

But another deal stands out for me as a massive blunder which Ten Hag will actually pay for. United's signings under INEOS were apparently less Ten Hag-orientated, but one who certainly was in 2023 was Andre Onana. Although £47m doesn't seem like much compared to other large outlays, this was supposed to be the signing who could transform United into Ajax 2.0.

Club legend David de Gea, despite initially being offered a new contract, was ruthlessly axed - sudden events which reportedly upset a number of senior players in the dressing room - and Onana got off to a nightmare start. The 28-year-old has done well to recover and is a solid shot-stopper, but United still can't play out from the back and he's far too easy to beat.

I'm not saying that the decision to let De Gea go when his contract expired was the wrong one or that Cameroon's No.1 (at least for now) won't come good, but Onana hasn't proven to be the transformational goalkeeper signing that Ten Hag was after - and time is running out. Had Ten Hag chosen a better goalkeeper, United could've avoided the slump which set the tone at the beginning of last season.

Antony is the move that will define the Erik ten Hag era - and not in a good way. Unlike the Eric Cantona signing by , which was almost the catalyst for their dominance, this move serves to show the misguided and underwhelming feeling that has existed for much of the Dutchman's tenure.

Ten Hag pushed and pushed to sign the winger from Ajax, eventually getting his man for more than £80m. A staggering fee when you consider what he's returned. A goal on Antony's debut to help see off was not a sign of things to come.

Instead the Brazilian has become a squad player at best. He's scored once in more than a year and every time he takes to the pitch he seems to provide a moment that shows exactly what he's been arguably the biggest flop in the Premier League era.

The poor attitude, the strops, the tantrums, the lack of end product. It has been reported that during the reign United did a report on Antony, valuing him at £25m. That perhaps says it all.

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