RUBEN AMORIM believes Andre Onana’s exit will clear the decks and finally give him the dressing room atmosphere he wants.
Cameroon keeper Onana’s loan move to Trabzonspor will see the unwanted African join most of the United “Bomb Squad” in leaving Old Trafford over the summer.
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Amorim had already ushered Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony out of the door, with left-back Tyrell Malacia linked with his own move to Turkey.
Onana’s relationship with Amorim is understood to have broken down irretrievably over the past few weeks.
And the manager feels that his exit has cleansed the last remaining negative training ground influence – allowing him to really kick on with the new squad at his disposal.
Amorim was deeply unimpressed with the hamstring injury his planned first choice picked up at the start of pre-season training, especially when it emerged he had been playing on a dangerously muddy pitch in his homeland before returning to England.
Onana was omitted from the starting side for the defeat by Arsenal and draw at Fulham, before giving another error-strewn display in the Carabao Cup humiliation at Grimsby.
That saw him dropped again for the win over Burnley, before United made a deadline day £18.2million swoop for Belgian Senne Lammens.
And it has emerged that insiders felt Onana was showing a lack of involvement and interest in working for the team in the final days before the international break.
That included the former Ajax and Inter Milan keeper – who copped the flak for the defeat by Cape Verde on Tuesday that virtually ended Cameroon’s hopes of automatic World Cup qualification – effectively refusing to even acknowledge his manager in training.
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Man Utd’s transfer deals
IN
- Bryan Mbeumo – from Brentford – £71m
- Matheus Cunha – from Wolves – £62.5m
- Diego Leon – from Cerro Porteno – £7m
- Benjamin Sesko – from RB Leipzig – £74m
- Senne Lammens – from Royal Antwerp – £18m
TOTAL – £232.5m
OUT
- Alejandro Garnacho – to Chelsea – £40m
- Marcus Rashford – to Barcelona – Loan
- Victor Lindelof – released
- Christian Eriksen – released
- Toby Collyer – to West Brom – Loan
TOTAL – £40m
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A club source told SunSport: “It felt like Andre was there to just show up but wasn’t there or showing any team mentality.”
That was why Amorim was happy to wave through Onana’s departure, leaving him with Lammens, struggling Turk Altay Bayindir and veteran Tom Heaton as his first-team goalkeeping trio.
The departures of Rashford, Sancho, Anthony and Garnacho – as well as Rasmus Hojlund’s loan move to Napoli – have not aided United’s financial position for PSR calculations.
But Amorim believes the positive effect on his squad cohesion will more than outweigh that impact.
The United boss is convinced he now has a squad that is ready to work for each other.
And he has genuine faith his dressing room policemen – the six-man leadership team of Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, Heaton and Noussair Mazraoui – now have real authority to ensure the “rules” are followed.
“It felt like Andre was there to just show up but wasn’t there or showing any team mentality.”
A club source
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Amorim has to decide whether to give Lammens a debut in Sunday’s Manchester derby or stick with Bayindir in the short term.
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By Sunday’s visit to the Etihad, City are set to hand their new keeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, his bow.
Malacia is likely to have sealed his loan move to Eyupspor, meaning Amorim will have got rid of all of his unwanted players over the course of the summer.
