Man Utd signed Senne Lammens from Antwerp last summer and the Belgian has made an immediate impact at Old Trafford.
Senne Lammens has had an excellent first season at United(Image: 2026 Manchester United FC)
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Manchester United goalkeeping scout Tony Coton has revealed that Senne Lammens had been on his radar for six years before the Belgian signed on at Old Trafford for £18.2million last summer.
Coton had first become aware of Lammens' potential in 2019, when he was working for Aston Villa, and although the Midlands outfit felt he wasn't ready to move to England at the time, Coton kept track of him and United made their move last year.
Lammens had just one season as a No.1 under his belt last year, but 64-year-old Coton was convinced he had the ability and the character to be a success, with United opting to sign him ahead of Aston Villa's experienced goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who was the preference of head coach Ruben Amorim.
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Coton had certainly done his homework on Lammens, tracking him through Belgium's youth ranks and from Club Brugge to Antwerp when he swapped clubs on a free transfer in 2023.
"In 2019, he first came onto my radar at Brugge. I'd seen him play for Belgium Under-17s and we didn't think it was the right time to do anything," Coton told United's Inside Carrington podcast.
"Obviously, he was very raw, so I just followed his progress. We didn't think he was ready to come to us but we'd just keep abreast of it. In fact, I think I was at Aston Villa, when I first found out about him. I was at Villa, as chief scout, and he got brought to my attention.
"Then, when I came back here, I followed him even more. I've seen his progress at Brugge and then, obviously, he went to Antwerp. When he breaks in, it was just a matter of how long do you leave it? I watched him in I don't know how many games over a year."
Lammens has proved unflappable at United despite the significant step up in standards and exposure, from the Belgian Jupiler League to the spotlight of Old Trafford.
United went into the final days of the transfer window still undecided between Lammens and Martinez, but Coton revealed an in-person meeting with the young goalkeeper earlier in the summer had been the final confirmation he needed of his suitability for the role.
"When we had to present to sign him, obviously, we'd done all the due diligence and everything," he said. "And we went to present to him why we think it's the right time to move, and he had got interest from a lot of clubs in Europe.
"I wanted to see his concentration levels if, when I'm talking, he is looking elsewhere. Is he looking at the video still and this, that and the other? And he was just locked. He was just locked onto me and I'm thinking: 'Yeah, he's got a real focus'. And I'd seen that in his game.
"Coming into the team, they asked me could he go straight into the team and I said: 'Yes, straight away'. I had to say that anyway because I'd recommended him!"
Lammens was on the bench for the first three games of his United career, but he was thrown in against Sunderland and hasn't looked back since.
The 23-year-old made his second start for Belgium in the latest international break and already looks like a United No.1 for years to come, and another feather in the cap for Coton.
"I saw somebody that loved to protect his goal, defend his goal," he said of his first assessment of a young Lammens. "I looked at somebody that... it hurt him when a goal went in, you know, it meant something because he conceded. He wasn't happy.
"Physically, he was good for that age and you're knowing there's more to come. So, the first thing was protecting the goal, and then what had come into the game was in-possession. Their in-possession game. Goalkeepers were more required to be playing out from the back and things like that.
"It was just the start of that. I will say, even from an early age, you really have to look at him and analyse him, to see which was his stronger foot."
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