Inter’s chief executive Giuseppe Marotta has refused to rule out a future return for Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Onana has been under significant pressure after a shaky start to his Old Trafford career, with a mistake against Brentford in a narrow 2-1 win following errors against Bayern Munich and Galatasaray in the Champions League.
The 27-year-old joined United from Inter in a deal just shy of £50m, penning a five-year contract to succeed David de Gea as the Red Devils’ long-term number one, but he hasn’t been the assured figure between the sticks that supporters had hoped for.
The Onana deal represented tremendous business for cash-strapped Inter, who picked him up on a free transfer from Dutch giants Ajax just 12 months prior, and allowed the club to reinvest the money in signing Yann Sommer and Benjamin Pavard from Bayern Munich.
And with Onana’s form under the microscope, Inter CEO Marotta told Gazzetta dello Sport (via Daily Mail) of a potential return to San Siro: “‘I can’t predict the future, but in football anything can happen. For sure, it was a great chapter for Onana and for us.
“It was also a successful deal to sign him for free and sell for that money.”
Onana’s struggles have dominated headlines in the early weeks of the season, with his indifferent showings contributing to United’s overall poor form. Erik ten Hag’s side have already lost four Premier League games – and needed Scott McTominay’s stoppage-time brace to avoid disaster against Brentford – and have zero points to show from their two Champions League outings.
Legendary United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel recently revealed that he’s been talking to Onana, detailing the advice he’d given over how to move on from making errors.
“I’m trying to speak to him about what it’s like to be at Manchester United, what you have to take,” the Dane said.
“Whatever you’ve made, you have to put it in a box straight away and put it to the side. So you make a mistake in a game, it might be a mistake we see, it might be a mistake that we don’t see, but you wait to think about it and analyse it until after the game or at night or whatever. You have to be there for the next moment, if you’re not you’ll make the next mistake.
“And now he’s upset the whole team. Now they will even more not trust him, and my god, it’s not good.”
What we know
- Onana under scrutiny after shaky start to life at Manchester United
- Cameroon goalkeeper spent just one year at Inter after arriving on free transfer
- Manchester United struggling for early-season form.