Manchester United’s signing of Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp was accelerated after a moment the club’s officials witnessed at Old Trafford.
Manchester United concluded their 2025 summer transfer window with the £18 million signing of Royal Antwerp goalkeeper Senne Lammens, widely seen as one of Europe’s brightest young goalkeeping talents.
Their total spend has reached roughly £215 million, potentially exceeding £240 million once all agreed bonuses are activated.
In addition to Lammens, United strengthened their forward line by bringing in Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, and Benjamin Šeško, while 18-year-old left-back Diego Leon arrived in July.
Departures included Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Antony, among other outcasts, with the most notable sale being Alejandro Garnacho’s £40 million move to Chelsea.
Disaster moment led to Lammens transfer
Amid United winning just one of their first four fixtures this season, with two losses against Arsenal and Grimsby Town, as well as a draw against Fulham, much has been made of what the club needed in the final weeks of the window.
Altay Bayındır has started United’s three Premier League fixtures in goal, while André Onana played in the Carabao Cup, with all four fixtures seeing major questions asked of the pair.
With Lammens joining as their fourth first-team goalkeeper, it has been posed that the Belgian could automatically become the club’s new first-choice, despite goalkeeper not being a priority when the window initially opened.
According to The Athletic, United’s 1-0 loss against Arsenal on the opening weekend of the season was seen as a tipping point that led United to opt for a new goalkeeper over a midfielder.
Although United played well in the tie, Bayındır’s disastrous error and failure to dominate his box, and therefore failing to clear the ball with a punch just moments before Riccardo Califiori opened the scoring, was an exact moment that the club chose to pivot toward signing Lammens.
Lammens is inexperienced, but suits the Premier League
United’s summer transfers have been a mixed set of profiles. Cunha and Mbeumo are bona fide and proven Premier League players. At the same time, Šeško is a striker with considerable potential and experience on the continent, but is younger and still developing his game.
Lammens falls into the Šeško category, although his vastly insignificant price tag and need to compete with Bayındır and Onana will give him breathing space to develop.
At 23, the Belgian is seen as the eventual heir to Thibaut Courtois for the Belgian national side, with the former Chelsea goalkeeper stating that he feels Lammens is well-suited to the Premier League.
“That voice note was Thibaut Courtois, by the way, just letting me know about Lammens because he’s a Belgian player,” United legend Rio Ferdinand recently revealed on his YouTube channel.
“So he was just giving me the heads up as to what he’s like. He said he’s a huge talent, obviously not experienced yet, but he said he thinks his style will be suited to the Premier League big as well.
“That recommendation from probably one of the best three goalkeepers in the world, Thibaut Courtois, I’m taking that.”
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