Manchester United seem to have made their choice with regard to their new goalkeeper.
Given the mistakes committed by Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir, the Red Devils decided to act, and Senne Lammens is the man walking through the doors at Carrington.
It was initially expected to be an easy deal to agree, but Royal Antwerp decided to play hardball right at the last minute. That prompted INEOS to try and procure an alternative in case the agreement fell through.
Talks started with Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa, a long-time target for the club, and personal terms were agreed quite quickly.
Emiliano Martinez was close to a move to United
With Unai Emery’s men interested in Jadon Sancho, the Old Trafford side decided to go in for a straight swap with the World Cup winner coming to Manchester.
But the Englishman, who has proven to be difficult to offload, refused to entertain the possibility of a permanent move to the Birmingham-based side.
And according to Fabrizio Romano, talks eventually broke down as a result, and Lammens was ultimately signed.
“The deal was on till the morning. The idea of Manchester United was to try and complete a straight swap between Jadon Sancho and Emiliano Martinez.
“The valuation around £25M for both players but at the moment from what I’m hearing this is going to be impossible because Sancho is going only on loan and Sancho is NOT accepting a permanent move.”
Sancho the reason for United missing out
The Argentine is Premier League-proven and would have been better equipped to deal with the pressure of being the No.1 at the Theatre of Dreams.
And once again, Sancho keeps proving why he is arguably the worst-ever signing in the club’s history. The sooner the club can get rid of him, the better.
Now, fans will be hoping INEOS did the right thing by signing the Belgian goalie, who has proven his worth in Antwerp.
But playing under the sticks for United is a whole different ball game, as Onana and Bayindir have found out to their detriment.
Feature image Richard Heathcote via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
