Manchester United fans told: Club getting transfer deal done for player with ‘tremendous quality’

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has publicly urged caution over his old club’s apparent plans to move on from André Onana, insisting the Cameroon international still possesses “tremendous quality” despite a difficult spell at Old Trafford.

Van der Sar, who enjoyed a decorated career with Manchester United — winning four Premier League titles and numerous trophies — spoke this week on United’s goalkeeping situation while reflecting on Onana’s career trajectory. The legendary Dutch stopper, who also knew Onana during his time at Ajax, where the goalkeeper developed into a top talent, expressed surprise at how things have unfolded at United

‘I worked with Andre Onana for three or four years at Ajax,’ Van der Sar told Sky Bet. ‘He came in as a third-choice goalkeeper and was very eager to step up and become the first choice.

‘I thought, and I still think, that he has tremendous qualities – reflections and his feet – but somehow, he has the odd mistake in him that makes you think “That’s crazy, how can he do that.

‘A team wants stability, to know what your goalkeeper is doing so the back four can relate and I think that’s what happened [the issue] with Andre.

‘Manchester United haven’t had stability for the last six or seven years – the back four changing, the centre-halves and midfielders changing, coaches changing – so, it’s difficult for new players to come into an environment where the expectations are high, not only for goalkeepers but also for a winger or midfielder.

‘A lot of players who have come here in the last eight or nine years have not reached the level that people expected them to reach.

‘I absolutely thought that he would succeed when he first came here to United. As I said, I worked with him and saw him at Ajax, he did well in Italy and played in a Champions League final, so I thought it was a match made in heaven.’

United initially signed Onana in 2023 for a reported fee around £47m after impressive spells in Serie A and the Champions League. Expectations were high for the 29-year-old to bring stability between the sticks at Old Trafford. However, the Cameroon international struggled for consistency, committing a string of high-profile errors that saw him slip down the pecking order.

That downturn eventually led to Onana being loaned out to Trabzonspor in the Turkish Süper Lig, with the Turkish club understood to hold an option to make the deal permanent this summer.

Van der Sar’s remarks come amid fresh speculation that United are willing to sell Onana rather than reintegrate him, a stance backed by recent transfer chatter suggesting the club wants to offload him as part of a squad overhaul.

Despite the setbacks during his United tenure, Van der Sar remained supportive of Onana’s core abilities, emphasising that every player can go through difficult patches, especially at a club under intense scrutiny like Manchester United.

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