One of Manchester United’s most prominent players could be heading to Saudi Arabia following recent reported interest.
With the Europa League being the only competition that Manchester United are still challenging in, the clubs’ attention has started to turn towards the summer transfer window.
Ruben Amorim will look to bring in players to fit his system in his first summer transfer window at the club. In Amorim’s first transfer window in the club, he quickly addressed the club’s left-back crisis and signed Patrick Dorgu. This summer he is likely to amend a number of other problem positions.
Amorim looks likely to offload a number of players that he has not favoured during his tenure such as those he loaned out in January – Marcus Rashford, Tyrell Malacia and Antony.
As well as these outgoings, a former member of the United backroom staff has indicated that Saudi Arabian clubs are interested in one of United’s most used players.
United decide Onana isn’t good enough amid Saudi interest
Former United assistant manager and chief scout, Mick Brown, has told Football Insider that Saudi clubs are interested in Andre Onana.
Brown said: “The decision has been made that he’s not good enough for where United really want to be. He makes too many mistakes and he’s too inconsistent – what you need in goal is consistency”.
Onana has had a mixed time while at United. In his first season, he performed admirably in the Premier League making 149 saves for a United side that faced their most-ever shots in a league season. However, big blunders in the Champions League saw United fail to make it out of the group.
This season has been an even more difficult one for the Cameroonian goalkeeper as he has registered his lowest save percentage since leaving Ajax and has had five errors leading to goals.
This is likely why no top European clubs have been heavily linked with Onana. However, Saudi Arabia have a different approach to their transfers and are often looking for big names to bring attention to the league rather than players who can build successful title-winning sides.
Difficulties in selling Onana
Selling Onana could cause more problems than it solves as United will then have to replace him on top of the other positions that they already need.
Mick Brown previously reported that United are interested in Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen. There have also been reports linking United to Torino’s Vanja Milinković-Savić and Parma’s Zion Suzuki. Although Verbruggen is Premier League proven, the other two aren’t and there is no guarantee any of them would succeed at United.
Brown also highlighted that there are issues with trying to move Onana on. “The problem then is how are you going to replace him, because straight away they’d have to go out and get a replacement with the money coming in for Onana.”
It currently looks like if Onana is to go it would be to Saudi as he hasn’t proved himself reliable enough for the top European clubs. However, United will likely only consider it if they make a significant amount of his fee back and if they are able to bring in a replacement for a portion of that.
Despite Onana not being an Amorim signing, the manager may prioritise other positions this window or bring in another goalkeeper while Onana’s still there so that there is a competition for the position, much like Mikel Arteta did with Aaron Ramsdale and David Raya.
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