The David De Gea replacement at last: Man Utd could sign 'world-class' 37-time international for bargain fee
Manchester United still face a huge decision regarding the long-term future of their goalkeeping department
Manchester United made a lot of exciting changes over the summer. They brought in attacking duo Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha from Premier League sides Brentford and Wolves to enhance the team’s front line and give them a greater sense of pace, flair and creativity.
Both have shown signs of improving the team and making United a much more entertaining and front-footed outfit. Mbeumo has six goals and one assist from six league matches while Cunha is slowly kicking into gear in recent weeks with three goals and one assist from 14 appearances.
Ruben Amorim also signed Benjamin Sesko for £73.7m from RB Leipzig. His start has been inconsistent but he looks like an upgrade on Joshua Zirkzee and should have all the tools to eventually score goals on a regular basis. However, the one decision which raised many eyebrows was the club’s failure to sign an experienced goalkeeper after offloading the out-of-form Andre Onana to Turkish side Trabzonspor on loan after a catalogue of high-profile errors towards the end of last season.
The Old Trafford outfit were heavily linked with Aston Villa and Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez throughout most of the summer, with the saga dragging on all the way until transfer deadline day, but instead opted to make the £18.2m move to sign Belgium youngster Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp.
Lammens, 23, had never played outside of Belgium and had fewer than 100 games under his belt at this stage, of which only 68 had been in the top division. Martinez was a World Cup winner, a two-time winner of the Yashin Trophy for the world's best goalkeeper and had 250 Premier League games under his belt.
The Belgian arrived as United's most inexperienced first-choice goalkeeper for the first time in over a decade since David de Gea’s high profile arrival from Atletico Madrid. He made a promising start by keeping a clean sheet on his debut against Sunderland while making a series of impressive saves, but that’s so far been his only clean sheet of the campaign for the Red Devils, with the youngster conceding 17 times in the next 10 matches, including four times in a single match against Bournemouth.
Should Lammens be Man Utd’s long-term goalkeeper?
It's far too early to judge the success or otherwise of Lammens, who is clearly a goalkeeper still learning his trade. This was almost always going to be the case for Lammens, particularly while playing for a United team in transition and a manager that even 13 months after joining still looks as if he’s adapting to the English game after his success in Portugal.
Overall, Lammens has a save percentage of 59.5% which is the second lowest in the division of Lucas Perri. Martinez, at the other end of the scale has 79.6% which is the best in the entire division.
Lammens also has a clean sheet percentage of just 9.1% which is the lowest in the division, with the exception of Alphonse Areola, Sam Johnstone and Altay Bayindir who are all yet to keep a clean sheet. So far he’s not quite hit the heights expected of a United goalkeeper but he has looked like an improvement on Onana towards the end of last season and Bayindir. His sample size is still relatively small and he’s not made any standout errors that have drawn attention to him just yet.
The ‘world class’ 37-time international Man Utd could turn their attention to - opinion
Chelsea were heavily linked with 37-time French international Mike Maignan throughout the summer window. The 30-year-old has been AC Milan’s first choice goalkeeper since the summer of 2021 when he replaced academy graduate Gianluigi Donnarumma after his high-profile switch for PSG.
Maignan was a league champion during his final year in French football with Lille and kept 21 clean sheets in his final campaign in Ligue 1, just one short of equalling the all-time record at the time. He went on to win the league title in his debut campaign at the San Siro to end an 11-year-wait for a league title, and has remained a top goalkeeper ever since - helping the team to reach a Champions League semi-final in 2023 while winning the 2024 Supercoppa Italiana.
He’s currently in the final year of his contract at AC Milan and is still yet to agree a new-long term contract with the club he currently captains. Chelsea as aforementioned were heavily linked over the summer, but were unwilling to pay the Italian side’s reported £21m valuation due to their desire to focus solely on recruiting young talent.
Maignan has since remained an AC Milan regular under new boss Massimo Allegri, who has ambitions of leading the team back to the summit. He’s kept six clean sheets in 14 matches so far for a team sitting 2nd in the table - and boasts one of the best save percentages in the league at 74.5%.
"He is physical, quick, he has clean technique. He is very strong. He is one of the best in the world,” said Liverpool’s Alisson Becker earlier this year.