‘Mistake’ – Man Utd boss Ten Hag slammed for signing ‘clown’ in deal ‘that didn’t need to happen’
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster has slammed Erik ten Hag’s decision to replace David De Gea with Andre Onana.
Ten Hag made Onana one of his priorities in the summer transfer window after the club decided not to offer De Gea a new contract.
After an excellent campaign at Inter, many (including myself) expected the Cameroonian to come in and vastly improve the goalkeeper position at Old Trafford, with De Gea’s inability to play with the ball at his feet costing United on multiple occasions in 2022/23.
It has not gone the way I expected, however. Onana has already made several high-profile errors; both with his feet and his hands.
Ten Hag is expected to stick with the former Ajax shot-stopper (I use the term lightly) with Turkish ‘keeper Altay Bayindir warming the bench.
De Gea – who won the 22/23 Premier League Golden Glove – garnered his fair share of critics during his final year or two at Old Trafford and Onana’s disappointing performances appear to have brought him back into the spotlight, for positive reasons this time.
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Ex-Red Devils ‘keeper Foster is the latest to defend the Spaniard and criticise Ten Hag for getting rid of him for Onana, claiming the £47million summer signing “didn’t need to happen”.
“Yes, without doubt it’s a mistake that didn’t need to happen,” Foster said on his YouTube channel. “It’s like the Arsenal one with [David] Raya, it didn’t need to happen.
“It’s a position that was already set, already sorted, just leave it as it is.”
Foster added that clubs seem to have a distorted view of what a goalkeeper is required to do nowadays, which was part of the reason Ten Hag did not want to keep De Gea.
He added: “Do you reckon we are ever going to get back to that golden age of where goalies just stop the ball going in the back of the net, when that’s the most important thing that managers want? That would be incredible.”
Meanwhile, journalist Dean Jones has said Onana has found himself in a “really precarious situation” and is under pressure to turn things around.
Jones quite boldly called Onana a “clown figure in goal” after a poor start to life in England.
At least he thinks he has a long way to go to be regarded as the club’s worst goalkeeper of all time. Onana has Massimo Taibi to thank for that.
Jones told GIVEMESPORT: “This is a really, really precarious situation with Onana because, even as a Manchester United fanbase, you would be wanting to support him. But, at the same time, you can’t stand for the fact that there is mistake after mistake after mistake.
“At the moment, he is looking like a clown figure in goal. It has to be addressed and turned around.
“He is not quite at the stage where he is going to be considered Manchester United’s worst ever goalkeeper.
“But if you think of Massimo Taibi, who would be considered Manchester United’s worst ever goalkeeper, that was over a shorter period of games and he was a guy who probably didn’t have the same reputation in the game as Onana.”
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