Manchester United have completed the signing of veteran goalkeeper Karl Darlow on a free transfer after his contract with Leeds United expired. The move was confirmed by the club as part of a summer reshuffle overseen by newly appointed permanent manager Michael Carrick.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a really special opportunity; everyone can see what an exciting time it is for the club and I cannot wait to play my part in supporting my teammates and helping to drive the group forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darlow arrives having featured 22 times for Leeds last season, keeping five clean sheets as the Yorkshire side secured Premier League survival. United have made clear he is not intended as a new first choice but as experienced cover behind Senne Lammens, who retains Carrick\u2019s faith despite a tough error in the World Cup quarterfinals with Belgium.<\/p>\n
\u201cKarl has proven his ability to perform at the highest level, his work ethic and determined personality make him a really strong addition to our squad,\u201d director of football Jason Wilcox said. \u201cWe are delighted to add a player of his quality and experience to our excellent goalkeeping group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darlow\u2019s arrival increases competition among senior keepers and makes four senior goalkeepers part of Carrick\u2019s current squad, not counting Andr\u00e9 Onana after he rejoined Trabzonspor on loan. That situation leaves little room for all to remain and a departure appears likely.<\/p>\n
The player most widely expected to move on is T\u00fcrkiye international Altay Bay\u0131nd\u0131r. He left a starting role at Fenerbah\u00e7e in 2023 to take a reserve position at United and, at 28 years old, has managed just 17 appearances across three seasons. The lack of minutes is now believed to have left all parties in agreement that a departure is necessary.<\/p>\n
United present Darlow as a pragmatic addition: experienced, available and suited to a supporting role while Carrick continues to shape the squad for the season ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karl Darlow joins Man Utd as a backup goalkeeper, adding pressure to the club’s crowded keeper group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1513],"tags":[1001,436],"class_list":["post-17283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-man-utd-transfer-news","tag-altay-bayindir","tag-andre-onana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}