Former Man United keeper Ben Foster believes the decision to sign Senne Lammens on deadline day was a “panic buy”.
The Red Devils paid Royal Antwerp £18m for the Belgian, but Foster is not convinced that he will be the solution to the club’s problems in goal:
“Being a goalkeeper for United is the hardest goalkeeping position to play in world football. You need someone with broad shoulders.”
“I’ve watched a lot of videos of him on YouTube… and he looks on the eye test like he’s a competent goalkeeper. I’m yet to see what he’s like with the ball at his feet, though, and I think he’s a panic buy.”
“United have probably always got some sort of list of goalkeepers that they look at and they keep tabs on. There will be scouts all over the world, but I don’t think they’ve done an in-depth analysis. A deadline day goalkeeper signing tells me that your club is desperate.”
Have Man United made a panic buy?
A new keeper was badly needed, but from the outside looking in, recruiting a new number one from a club in Belgium does seem like a massive gamble.
The recruitment department seem to have put their faith in Lammens, but supporters would have undoubtedly preferred the club to pursue the likes of Emi Martinez or Gianluigi Donnarumma instead.
Lammens is untested at the highest level
The 23-year-old is really going to get a baptism of fire. Neither Altay Bayindir nor Andre Onana have impressed at the start of this season, so head coach Ruben Amorim will be forced into starting him sooner than he would have liked.
It would be a massive call if Lammens is selected to start against City in the derby next weekend but you can’t completely rule that out.
Read more about the Manchester United First Team Squad for 2025/26 here
David Tully
David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World’s Football News Network.
