On deadline day, Manchester United agreed to pay £18.2 million plus add-ons to sign Senne Lammens, resolving their goalkeeping issue. After Altay Bayindir and Andre Onana made costly errors at the beginning of the season, United decided to get a new number one, with Lammens being the favored candidate.
The 23-year-old Belgium youth international has agreed to a five-year contract with United after traveling to Manchester to finalize his transfer from Royal Antwerp. Because of Lammens’ younger profile, United chose him over Emiliano Martinez, the 32-year-old goalkeeper for Aston Villa.
Martinez would have sought pay of almost £200,000 per week and would have cost United twice as much as Lammens. Lammens was thought to be the ideal choice in light of the fact that United had already spent over £200 million this summer and would need to spend carefully in order to adhere to PSR regulations.
The agreement reached for Lammens, who United believes can develop into a first-choice goalkeeper and establish himself as a team fixture for several years, does not include a sell-on provision. A week on Sunday, Lammens will make his United debut in the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium.
Onana, Bayindir, and Tom Heaton are United’s four senior keepers now that Lammens has joined the team. According to people close to Onana, he plans to stay and compete for the top slot, thus Bayindir is either going to go out on loan for the remainder of the season or look for a permanent move.
Prior to the international break, the Turkish goalkeeper started all three of United’s league games, while Onana was assigned to the Carabao Cup encounter against Grimsby. Bayindir’s troubles away to Fulham and his mistakes against Arsenal and Burnley at home did not persuade Ruben Amorim that he was talented enough to stay at the top past the transfer window.
Onana, however, had a terrible time against Grimsby Town. The Cameroonian was weak in the penalty shootout and was responsible for the second goal scored by the League Two team.
Despite privately looking for a new goalie, Amorim launched an impassioned defense of his goalkeepers following United’s 3-2 victory over Burnley on Saturday, which was the team’s first victory of the season. “Guys, they are humans,” the manager of the Red Devils stated.
“Manchester United, everything is in use. Everybody talks about the goalkeeper. And you can see, I can change the goalkeeper in the situations that happen.
“We are in that moment. I think it is hard to be a Manchester United goalkeeper in this moment. But if you look at the first goal, we can defend it better. We suffered a quite similar goal against Fulham, because we don’t do the full rotation of the team when the ball is on the other side.
“All these small things have nothing to do with the goalkeeper. So, the players are struggling a little bit with all the things around the club. That is normal. So it’s not just the goalkeepers. I think everybody has to improve.”
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