Probably not, at least not the goalkeeper we thought we were getting from Inter.
After that final against Man City in 2023, the Cameroonian sold us a lot of dreams as even I, a staunch admirer of David de Gea's, felt as though it might not be the worst decision ever to replace one hell of a goalkeepr, a well-liked and respected player of the dressing room, a club legend and one of my favourite players of recent years with this new modern GK.
It turned out to be one of the worst decisions ever.
What made it worse was how de Gea was let go.
Erik ten Hag let the Spaniard go for free and spent £42m on Onana. There was even the whole contract thing where de Gea was reportedly supposed to get a new deal in which he reduced his wages upon returning from holiday. That deal never arrived and neither did de Gea back to Old Trafford.
A salty end to what was a memorable 12 years at United in which de Gea won the Premier League, FA Cup x2, League Cup x2, Europa League and 4 POTY awards. He also ended his final campaign (22/23) with the PL's golden glove for keeping 18 clean sheets.
What was ten Hag thinking? He deserved to be sacked just for that!
We've all seen Fabrizio Romano's 'Here we go' on Onana to Turkish side Trabzonspor who happened to be my favourite Turkish club (now 😅).
The Italian says "All contracts are now signed on player side, waiting on counter approval from Trabzonspor and travel next week.
Deal done on loan from Manchester United as revealed on Saturday, no buy option or loan fee."
He's also added this morning that Onana will be earning more in Turkey than he did in Manchester. The goalkeeper was on a reported £120k-a-week at United with Fabrizio saying that "Same salary structure as he had at Man United covered by Trabzon plus bonuses and signing fee."
As you can see, it is just a loan with no buy option so we will be seeing Onana back at United next season. Whether he actually remains at the club beyond that is another matter. I would be surprised if he did.
When looking at some of the recent loans, none of those players returned. Rashford spent half of last season at Villa and is now on a season-long loan at Barcelona with an option to buy him next season; Antony went on loan to Real Betis in January and has now signed for them on a permanent deal; Sancho was loaned to Chelsea all of last season as well before returning. He is now at Villa on a season-long loan again. Malacia - the final member of the infamous 'bomb squad' - was in his native Netherlands at PSV for half the season. I doubt he'll be playing for Amorim this season with hopes of a move somewhere still on the cards.
These all indicate that it only ends one way for Onana now that he has gone on loan.
The 29-year-old has played 102 times for United in his 2 years at the club. During which, he conceded 150 goals and kept just 24 clean sheets. That is a clean sheet ratio of 0.24. A clean sheet pretty much every 24 games. A truly horrendous record. This isn't all down to him because the players ahead of the goalkeeper have played a part as well but the 354 goalkeeping gaffs are.
The best way to display just how many cock ups he's made in his two seasons is to watch the Mark Goldbridge's 'Pratman' video. Not only will you have a good laugh but you will see just how many mistakes Onana made. They aren't even repeated clips as each new clip is a new mistake.
I suppose his performance in the defeat to Grimsby was the perfect send off for Onana at United. A game in which he made two mistakes leading to Grimsby's 2 goals before managing to save just 1 of the 15 spot kicks taken by the home side in the now forgettable shootout against our League Two opponents. He even managed to get his hands on five of those penalties yet only saved one.
Final Thoughts
You know how they like to smoke in Turkey? That must be the reason as to why they thoguht signing Onana would be a good idea.
Jokes aside, I really don't know what happened to him, how it went so wrong at United. We've had other goalies who really struggled whilst between the sticks at Old Trafford: Fabian Barthez, Tim Howard, Roy Carroll, Mark Bosnich, and no doubt even more.
Other than Barthez, I can't think of many others who came in with such a reputation and ended up failing. Onana is the next one as those mentioned above were backup goalkeepers at best other than the Frenchman. Perhaps the Cameroonian was as well? Although, many would say that he isn't even that 😬.
I don't have anything against him as a person as Onana appeared to be well-liked in the dressing room. He came across as quite confident and professional which is more than we can say for the likes Garnacho, Antony and Sancho.
It's simply that he wasn't good enough to be United's goalkeeper.
I wish him the best and hope that it works out. Maybe he can now focus solely on his goalkeeping as at United, we know the cameras are on you all the time especially when you're someone who makes as many mistakes as he did.
This could be a good move for him as well. Onana can perhaps find the form that caused us to sign him two years ago. At 29, he also isn't the oldest and still has time to turn his career around.
It also makes sense for United because Onana is on £120k-a-week and with reports suggesting that he was going to be the 3rd choice 'keeper, this was too much to be paying for that. This would've also meant United having four goalkeepers which was unnecessary. The club can then save around half a million in wages per month with this loan deal which is another positive.
With Onana though, he is just another example of how difficult a position it is to wear the no 1 jersey at Old Trafford. We took such a long time and trialled so many different shot-stoppers before Peter Schmeichel's replacement was found in Edwin van der Sar, 6 years later. He was then replaced by a young buck named David de Gea.
We have a similar situation at the club now although Senne Lammens isn't taking over from one of our greatest-ever goalkeepers. Perhaps the worst.
The good thing for him is that he isn't coming in with that pressure of having to replace a top GK.
The bad news is that he kind of has to hit the ground running because United and specifically Ruben Amorim, cannot afford to have another liability in the team, especially in goal. There will also be a lot of scrutiny from the media towards Lammens every time he steps foot onto the pitch.
Hopefully he can do something that neither Onana and Bayindir have done and that is to handle the pressure. In fact, that is to handle anything 🤣.
But so ends a tumultuous time for a player who has caused more problems than not. From being one of the better shot-stoppers in the last couple of years to one of the best memes in football, Andre Onana and Man United couldn't part ways quick enough.
I'm glad he's finally gotten the message that he isn't seen as the no 1 under Amorim and needs to pack his bags.
Let's hope it works out for him so that we do end up selling him and getting a decent price.
Andre Onana, sayonara 👋.
Andre Onana during Man Utd's penalty shootout loss to Grimsby | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal