Angel Di Maria labelled Louis van Gaal the 'WORST coach' of his career

Erik ten Hag may have come out in defence of Antony on Tuesday, insisting he can be 'unstoppable' on his day, but the struggles of the £86million winger have fingers pointed at the man who brought him to Old Trafford.

All of Ten Hag's predecessors have similar instances of players who are later held up as a poster boy for their failings.

Jose Mourinho and Paul Pogba was a notable example from 2018 after their relationship soured beyond repair. Louis van Gaal and Angel Di Maria have hardly thawed on each other in the years that followed their acrimonious time together.

For Antony there may well yet be a shot at redemption - but it is hard to escape the feeling that time is running out.

Mail Sport takes a look at the poster boys of failure for United managers post Sir Alex Ferguson...

MAROUANE FELLAINI

Manager: David Moyes

Of all the players on this list it is perhaps most cruel on Marouane Fellaini to include him.

But when it comes to poster boys of the failed David Moyes era, there is only one that comes to the mind of supporters.

Moyes was hand-picked by Sir Alex Ferguson to be his successor in July 2013 and, while it wasn't the original plan, Fellaini arrived on deadline day as United's only marquee signing.

It meant that pressure on Fellaini to perform was immense from the outset - and he struggled to meet the lofty expectations.

Fellaini went on to be useful for Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho in the years that followed but under Moyes at United it didn't quite click.

Moyes, writing in his 2014 column for the Mail, said: 'I felt it was unfair that he was having to carry that extra pressure and expectation, and deal with extra criticism, simply because David Moyes had signed him.'

The move to bring Fellaini to United totalled £27.5m and given his close relationship with Moyes, he became a scapegoat for United's failings under the Scot;.

'It was hard when I left, because we had a great relationship and I think he was upset,' Moyes added in that column.

'I did feel bad, responsible even. I'd convinced him to come across in the belief that was I going to be there for a long time, and now suddenly I was leaving.

'But in football everyone realises these things can happen, and Marouane knows his job is to deliver for United.'

Fellaini himself later confirmed that he cried when it was said to him that Moyes had been sacked.

He told the Athletic: 'I was sad for him when he was sacked because I know how much he wanted to succeed.

'I've said this since the beginning, if you give Moyes time, he will make a team. I've watched West Ham a few times this season. They've become a side that's difficult to beat.

'If I'm honest, I cried when I found out Moyes lost his job at Manchester United. I thought he was going to stay for a long time.

'It was a sad day. I went to his office to say goodbye, before he said bye to everyone. I told him, "Good luck". But it was a difficult time for me.'

Fellaini went on to show his value with subsequent regimes but he is, fairly or unfairly, held up as a symbol of failure when it comes to Moyes' tenure.

ANGEL DI MARIA

Manager: Louis van Gaal

This was one of the most bitter break-ups - and tensions rumbled for years later.

Di Maria only spent one season in Manchester and he clashed on more than one occasion with Van Gaal.

The Argentine winger arrived to great expectation in 2014 in a deal worth £59.7m.

But it quickly unravelled after a cordial first two months and soon Di Maria was unhappy on and off the pitch, with his wife also cutting in her comments about the city, the people and the food.

'I was at Manchester and everything was fine with Van Gaal during the first two months,' Di Maria said previously.

'After one fight, things weren't the same. The relationship wasn't the same. The fight with Van Gaal occurred because he was always showing me bad and negative things and all that held me back.

'One day I fought with him. I told him I didn't want to see those things anymore, that I was doing things well and asked him why he wasn't showing me good things.

'He did not like how I spoke to him and from there the whole problem started.'

Van Gaal is a disciplinarian and it is no surprise he did not take kindly to being challenged by one of his players in such a manner. Meanwhile, Di Maria had arrived from a winning culture at Real Madrid into a Manchester United side that had lost its way.

Even after leaving in 2015 for Paris Saint-Germain, the fume that clings to his time at Old Trafford, thanks to his handling from Van Gaal, continued to irk him.

He told TyC Sports in 2021, in what was a full blown attack on Van Gaal: 'My problem at Manchester was the coach.

'Van Gaal was the worst of my career. I would score, assist, and the next day he would show me my misplaced passes.

'He displaced me from one day to the other, he didn't like players being more than him.'

Van Gaal went on to have a trophyless season, the club's first since 2004-05, and it was Di Maria that was held up as the poster boy for failure.

PAUL POGBA

Manager: Jose Mourinho

In the end it is Paul Pogba people think of when it comes down to how Jose Mourinho lost the support of the dressing room.

And it is interesting that tensions between them did not exist from the outset.

In fact when Pogba was brought back to United by Mourinho in 2016 for £89m - making him the most expensive player in the world at the time - they couldn't wait to work together.

'I am really looking forward to working with Jose Mourinho,' Pogba said.

In response Mourinho called Pogba 'one of the best players in the world' and emphatically said that the Frenchman 'will be a key part of the United team I want to build here for the future'.

Glowing praise, unquestionably.

Fast forward to January 2017 and Mourinho was talking Pogba up as a future Manchester United captain. In that 2016-17 season they won the League Cup and Europa League together, too.

It was in 2018 when relations explosively fell apart.

In January of that year seeds of discontent grew when Pogba was hauled off after an hour by Mourinho in a match against Tottenham.

The pair spoke animatedly on the touchline before Pogba carried on to the bench. At the time there were reports of a relationship that was at an 'all-time low'.

By March one newspaper had claimed the pair were barely even on speaking terms and communicated to each other via assistant Rui Faria.

Amid talk of a summer exit for Pogba, he looked to diffuse the idea of a rift: 'The relationship with Mourinho is good, very good. He's the coach, I'm the player. He does the coaching, I do the playing. I'm here and very happy.'

Things nosedived when Pogba returned to United for the following season as a World Cup winner, with Mourinho somewhat dismissive of the player, suggesting he is better suited to tournament football so he doesn't get distracted.

By September tensions reached the apex when Pogba and Mourinho clashed at training.

Following an embarrassing cup defeat to Derby County - which Pogba watched from the stands - there was an awkward altercation in training.

Sky Sports cameras caught Mourinho and Pogba exchanging tense words, with press officer John Allen standing nearby.

Pogba was filmed running out to training, where he high-fives coach Michael Carrick before an awkward handshake with Mourinho.

Mourinho was seen making a comment to Pogba, who appeared to scowl in disbelief as he listened to his manager, before a puzzled look quickly spread on his face.

The pair were then seen exchanging words in a heated conversation, at which point Mourinho called over Allen.

Allen was then speaking with both men before Pogba marched off nodding his head, and was then seen shrugging his shoulders at his team-mates.

It was understood to have been triggered by Mourinho's annoyance with a Pogba Instagram story of him laughing in the stands at Old Trafford alongside Andreas Pereira and Luke Shaw.

Posted around 10.25pm, Pogba is in the stands with team-mates as United were knocked out by Derby County. It was a video taken an hour earlier than it was posted but optically Mourinho was furious.

Their relationship never recovered from then on and Pogba was stripped of a vice captaincy role and their relationship was completely broken by the time Mourinho was fired.

In 2021 Pogba attacked Mourinho's man-management style, accusing him of 'going against players' and making them feel like 'they don't exist any more'.

He told Sky Sports: 'Once I had a great relationship with Mourinho. Everybody sees that and the next day you don't know what happened.

'That's the strange thing I had with Mourinho. And I cannot explain to you because, even me, I don't know.'

JADON SANCHO

Manager: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

After a pursuit two years in the making, Manchester United were over the moon to get Jadon Sancho through the door.

'He's such a creative, positive winger and forward player. He can play wide, nip into the pockets and he excites the fans,' boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of his shint new £73m winger.

'He takes people on one-against-one, he creates chances, he works hard and he loves football.'

Solskjaer wasn't done there, adding: 'And there is some untapped talent there I am sure, and coming into this environment will help him improve as well.

'We've followed him and decided to go for him and finally we made the breakthrough and got the deal done.

'He's got that DNA of exciting fans and entertaining and he's also a winner. He wants to win and that's the next step for us.

'We need to take the next step, we want to take the next step and we feel that he can help us do that.'

At the time it was an apt description of a player who had transformed himself into one of the most exciting wingers in the world at Borussia Dortmund.

By the time Solskjaer was sacked around four months after Sancho's arrival, those quotes sound like they were for a different player entirely.

Solskjaer was routinely quizzed on why it wasn't clicking for Sancho and why there wasn't a clearer plan on United's side for how to maximise his potential. After all, they pursued him so clearly for two years.

After his first eight appearances - five starts and three substitute appearances - for United, Sancho failed to score or produce an assist. In addition, he completed 90 minutes just once.

'He will be a top player and performances are going to come. We've got players here he can learn from and help him adapt,' Solskjaer said.

'You've got Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani to learn from, in terms of their professionalism and how they conduct themselves.

'He also has his team mates – Marcus [Rashford], Jesse [Lingard] and Luke [Shaw] from the national team, so he'll come good, we've got absolutely no worries.'

And that is why he is the poster boy for where things unravelled for Solskjaer - potential that was ultimately never realised.

At Dortmund he was a player who scored 50 times and added 64 assists from 137 games. At United he looked shy of confidence and the ability to beat his man.

A public spat with Erik ten Hag more recently looks to have ended any hope of Sancho getting another crack at United, with the England international sent packing back to Dortmund on loan until the end of the season.

What ended with a very public exile after calling his manager a liar on social media started with a Solskjaer team that seemed to be dumbfounded on how to unlock the best out of him.

ANTONY

Manager: Erik ten Hag

Antony's Manchester United career reached its nadir at the weekend when, on his 24th birthday, he was sent on in the 99th minute by Erik ten Hag.

In less than 60 seconds the final whistle was blown and Antony was heading back off in the knowledge that he has fallen to fifth choice in his own position.

Signed for £86m as a Ten Hag disciple, he has become emblematic of the Dutchman's struggles in M16.

Without a goal or assist from 20 Premier League appearances this season - his only attacking returns came against League Two Newport County in the FA Cup when he bagged a goal and assist - Antony's stock has plummeted to new depths.

Mail Sport detailed on Monday how United will listen to offers for the Brazilian as early as this summer - and they are ready to make a sizeable loss should it come to it.

Unlike the others on this list, Antony does still at least have the opportunity to turn things around. He is not consigned to history quite yet.

And it should be stressed that sources have indicated Ten Hag himself has not yet given up on Antony proving his critics wrong.

Having enjoyed great success together at Ajax, speaking on Tuesday, Ten Hag defended Antony and declared that his Brazilian flop can be 'unstoppable' when he is back on form.

As United prepare to face Nottingham Forest in the fifth round of the FA Cup at the City Ground on Wednesday night, Ten Hag backed Antony to come good again.

'I backed him for a long time,' said the United boss. 'I know his abilities, great abilities. I know from the past he is unstoppable.

'No defender can stop him because he's one of the quickest in the first 10 yards. When he plays that game I'm sure he will perform.

'He is resilient, he is a character and he will fight back. I back him. He now has to wait for his chance and once he is there he has to pick up.'

But with question marks over Ten Hag's future beyond the end of this season - and the same going for Antony - he will be held up as the poster boy of Ten Hag's downfall should his tenure be cut short by Ineos.