Senne Lammens claims emphatically shot down as Man Utd put a stop to transfer 'chaos' - The Mirror

Senne Lammens joined Manchester United from Royal Antwerp on deadline day and Jason Wilcox has explained why the club signed the Belgian goalkeeper

Manchester United director of football Jason Wilcox has defended the club's summer transfer strategy and claimed the decision to sign Senne Lammens on deadline day was NOT a panic buy.

Lammens, 23, became United's fifth and final signing of the window when he arrived in a £18.5million plus add-ons deal from Royal Antwerp on September 1. The goalkeeper followed Matheus Cunha, Diego Leon, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko through the Old Trafford doors, with the club's spending reaching £220m.

They had centred their summer focus on the attack, with Cunha, Mbeumo and Sesko signed to strengthen that area of the pitch. But, following Altay Bayindir's shaky start and Andre Onana's horror performance against Grimsby in the Carabao Cup, United brought in Lammens and loaned Onana out to Trabzonspor for the season.

Lammens has made quite the impact since his move from Antwerp, conceding just five goals in four matches and keeping one clean sheet. He has made some impressive saves, and United look more solid with him in goal.

Speaking on MUTV's Inside Carrington podcast, Wilcox reflected on United's transfers from the summer but added that the decision to sign Lammens was not a reactionary move to the form of Onana amid suggestions from some that he was a panic buy.

"This year we looked at Premier League ready players," Wilcox said. "Certainly with Bryan [Mbeumo] and Matheus [Cunha], we couldn’t take too much risk in this area and we needed players we could plug in and play with little transition time.

"Senne we were always looking at goalkeepers who have huge potential and Senne was available so we decided to move. It wasn't a knee-jerk reaction.

"Tony Coton was putting this guy on my radar 12 months ago and he was relentless with it. He said he was going to be a top signing for us. He has started well but he has got to keep it going. He is very reflective, very professional in his approach."

United's 2025 summer transfer window is already proving to be a greater success compared to the 2024 one, with the club spending a similar amount, but the new arrivals have had a much more significant impact. Wilcox insisted United came into the summer with a clear plan and have improved their approach to transfers.

"Last year's summer window was a lot more chaotic than this one," Wilcox explained. "This one was really calm, we knew the plan, we knew which players we were going to target, we had our lists, we knew which areas of the pitch we needed to improve. These are continuous meetings between myself and Ruben [Amorim] with Chris Vivell and his team underneath.

"We are very clear on the profiles that we need. The brief will come from myself and Ruben, it goes into Chris. [There is] a lot of debate and discussion around the profiles of what we need and then the scouts will go into the market.

"We combine that with the data team and there will be constant dialogue. Right now, I am having weekly meetings with the recruitment team of the profiles, the age bracket, the cost, are they attainable with Ruben as well. It is a really joined up approach.

"When we sign a player, there is so many people involved in the process. The data team are involved and then we will focus all of our attention on certain players and it is really important that we do our background checks around whether they are clean living professionals - this is really important."

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