Manchester United have decided to pursue Senne Lammens rather than Emiliano Mart\u00ednez as their goalkeeper reinforcement. According to The Athletic, United have agreed an initial \u20ac21 million (\u00a318.2 million, $24.6 million) fee with Antwerp, with undisclosed add-ons to follow. Lammens is understood to have accepted a five-year contract, with only formalities remaining before his signature is completed.<\/p>\n
There had been brief speculation that Mart\u00ednez, unsettled at Aston Villa, could move to Old Trafford in a potential swap involving Jadon Sancho. Sancho now appears to be heading to Villa Park, but the World Cup winner is not expected to head the other way. Aston Villa were also reported to retain an interest in Lammens should Mart\u00ednez depart.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery refused to entertain any talk about the Argentine ahead of Sunday evening\u2019s clash with Crystal Palace, instead repeating the name of Marco Bizot, his goalkeeper for that match. The Dutchman promptly gave away a penalty to gift Palace the first goal in a 3\u20130 loss.<\/p>\n
Lammens, 23, is yet to win a senior cap for Belgium, with Real Madrid\u2019s Thibaut Courtois firmly established in the national team. The 6’4″ goalkeeper progressed through Club Brugge\u2019s academy before joining Antwerp on a free transfer two years ago. His size and background at domestic academy level were factors in United\u2019s decision to prioritise him over the more experienced Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n
The move marks a clear preference for youth and potential over immediate experience between the posts. With the transfer window now moving towards its conclusion, United appear to have settled on a long-term option in goal, while Villa continue to manage their own goalkeeping choices amid a difficult result against Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Man United opt for Senne Lammens – Antwerp agree \u20ac21m initial fee; Mart\u00ednez stays at Villa. complete<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,179,172],"tags":[647,59,196,182],"class_list":["post-2354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-emiliano-martinez","tag-featured","tag-jadon-sancho","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354","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=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2355,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions\/2355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}