Rio Ferdinand ‘pleased’ Man Utd agreed deal to let £47m star leave | Football

Rio Ferdinand says he is ‘pleased’ Manchester United have removed the risk of Andre Onana ‘hanging about’ like a ‘bad smell’ by securing a loan deal for the goalkeeper this summer.

Onana was dropped as Ruben Amorim’s number one after two error-strewn seasons in English football following a £47million move from Inter Milan, with Altay Bayindir given the nod for United’s three opening league matches.

The acquisition of young Belgian shot-stopper Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp – in the final few hours of deadline day – only cast further doubt over Onana’s future at the Theatre of Dreams.

With the Turkish transfer window open until Friday, Trabzonspor set their sights on securing a temporary agreement for Onana and talks advanced at a pace over the course of the weekend.

Trabzonspor now have an agreement in place with both Onana’s camp and the Red Devils – and the Cameroon international is expected to travel to Turkey to finalise the move on Thursday.

The Super Lig outfit have agreed to cover United’s salary in full and, remarkably, the former Inter and Ajax ‘keeper is reportedly set to rake in almost double what he earns at Old Trafford due to added bonuses.

On Onana’s future being a ‘subject of debate’ amongst United fans, Ferdinand said on Rio Ferdinand Presents: ‘Debate?! You think it’s been a debate?!

‘I think [Omar [Berrada], who is running the football operations at the club, I think he’s made the point that they’re not going to have players sitting around that are not worthy of being at the football club anymore.

‘They’re not going to have players that either aren’t good enough, haven’t performed well enough or are not the right people to be at the football club.

‘He’s not going to have them around like bad smells. I think, for far too long, we’ve had at that at the football club.

‘We’ve been forced to keep players because of bad financial situations that the club have put us in with players and we’ve had to keep them here, sit with them and had to suffer some of these players.’

Onana is set to follow Alejandro Garnacho, Antony, Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho out the exit door in what has been a summer of major upheaval in the north west.

‘I think this is a step in the right direction,’ former United and England centre-back Ferdinand added.

‘As happy as I am with the players that are coming in and providing a difference in terms of speed, dynamism, pace and goal threat, I’m as pleased, if not more, with the way they’ve got players out that the club deemed weren’t right to be there.

‘That side of it has been as important, if not more, than the incoming players because I think it sends out a fantastic message and a strong message to the players that are there: you ain’t hanging about here if you ain’t what we want.

‘That’s what it should be like at every club. If you’re not right for the football club, you’ve got to get out.

‘That’s why I’m so strong on it when a player wants to go, he should be able to force and go… I think it should work both ways.’

Throughout his tenure at United, Amorim has been reluctant to publicly criticise Onana.

The Portuguese even argued last season that he had made more mistakes than the Cameroonian during his time at the club.

‘It can happen,’ Amorim said after Onana’s dismal performance at home to Lyon in the Europa League.

‘If you play football, a lot of games, you can make mistakes.

‘If you look at the season, I’ve made more mistakes than them in these last games and during this last month.

‘The best thing is to look at the goals [that Onana conceded], the actions that Andre had in the game, and to talk to the [goalkeeping coaches].

‘That’s the best thing to do, to help every player to show what happened in the game and what we need to improve, and then put it to the player again.’

Amorim has repeatedly jumped to the defence of Bayindir, too, instead stressing that it was ‘hard to be a Manchester United goalkeeper’ after the Turk’s shaky start.

‘They are humans. At Manchester United, everything is analysed. Everybody talks about the goalkeeper,’ he said.

‘And you can see, I can change the goalkeeper and these situations keep happening. We are in that moment.

‘I think it is hard to be a Manchester United goalkeeper in this moment. But if you look at the first goal, we can defend it better.

‘We suffered a quite similar goal against Fulham, because we don’t do the full rotation of the team when the ball is on the other side.

‘All these small things have nothing to do with the goalkeeper.’

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