David Tully Sep 30th 2025
TNT Sports pundit Peter Crouch has slammed Man United for their failure to sign a No.1 goalkeeper during the summer transfer window.
Senne Lammens was snapped up from Royal Antwerp on Deadline Day, but he has not made his debut for the Red Devils so far, and Crouch claims they would have been better off going after Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez:
“It feels to me that the situation with the goalkeeper just hasn’t been addressed. It feels like they’ve got three number twos now. It’s an issue that was obvious, Andre Onana wasn’t going to be the No. 1, we knew that at the start of the season but the situation still hasn’t been addressed.”
“I don’t know why when you’ve got Donnarumma or Martinez available, the situation wasn’t resolved.. With Martinez, it felt obvious for him to come in, he’s dominant and fits the stature and personnel that Manchester United need.”
Amorim clearly preferred Martinez over Lammens
It is believed that the recruitment department weighed up moves for both goalkeepers prior to the transfer deadline, with it ultimately being decided that the club should target the younger option.
Lammens was subsequently signed for an initial £18m, while Martinez (a World Cup winner) stayed at Villa Park.
Based on the fact that head coach Ruben Amorim has kept Altay Bayindir in goal since Lammens was purchased, it suggests he wasn’t fully behind the signing.
Goalkeeper has been a problem position for Man United
In hindsight, Director of Football Jason Wilcox should have been more proactive in seeking a new number one at the start of the summer. Amorim clearly didn’t rate Andre Onana, considering that he was allowed to leave on loan.
However, Wilcox seemingly didn’t get the message or simply disagreed with his head coach. All funds were devoted to signing forwards, with a tokenistic loan offer made for Martinez. Based on what’s happened since, it seems that it wasn’t the wisest of decisions.
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.
