Manchester United could've saved themselves from a headache.
Everton v Manchester United - Premier League 2026/27
Man Utd have made their fair share of transfer mistakes (Image: Getty)
For once, Manchester United’s goalkeeper position is in safe hands. Senne Lammens, who arrived from Royal Antwerp last summer, has established himself as one of the most assured shot-stoppers in the Premier League. But rewind just a few months and that wasn’t always the case. Replacing David De Gea was always going to be a thankless task, but it’s difficult to imagine the Andre Onana experiment going as badly as it did.
Having joined from Inter Milan for a fee worth £47million in the summer of 2023, Onana began racking up a catalogue of errors. But things might’ve been much different for the Red Devils, had Aston Villa newbie Zion Suzuki penned a move to Old Trafford in the same summer.
Suzuki had been on United’s radar for some time, but the three-time European champions were snubbed as Suzuki didn’t want to play second fiddle.
Speaking after his move to the West Midlands outfit, he remarked: “It was my priority to play games so that is why I made the decision and I played in Belgium for one year, in Parma for two years. It was very important to play in Serie A for two years and now I am confident.”
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Onana was the ready-made option at the time, at least that’s what the United hierarchy thought, with the Cameroon international’s time at the club remembered as nothing more than a failure.
Granted, United have fallen on their feet with the signing of Lammens, but on the back of Suzuki’s stellar showing for Villa against Club Brugge in the Champions League, it’s evident that the decision to prioritise Onana ahead of the Japanese international back in 2023 was a mistake.
Club Brugge KV v Aston Villa FC - UEFA Champions League 2026/27 Le
Zion Suzuki has settled in well at Aston Villa (Image: Getty)
While Villa did concede two away to the Belgian outfit, one of those was a penalty, and Suzuki can’t exactly be blamed for Brugge’s first of the night. Instead, the 24-year-old made five saves throughout the evening and once again caught the eye with his distribution.
Suzuki looks like the archetypal modern-day goalkeeper, and a player who might’ve been able to serve the record English champions for the next decade or so. Instead, United rolled the dice with Lammens, and while it’s working for now, Suzuki’s emergence is a case of ‘here’s what you could’ve won’.
And it might just add a bit of extra pressure to United’s Champions League campaign this season, especially if cracks start to appear in Lammes’ armour. Which is a concern that could be levelled at a lot of the United squad, given it's the club’s first Champions League campaign since the 2023/24 season.
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