Man Utd ‘very interested’ in signing €30m star who could replace ‘really poor’ Ten Hag signing

Manchester United are reportedly ‘very interested’ in signing Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon who could replace Andre Onana.

The Red Devils spent around £180m in the summer transfer window on the likes of Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee and Noussair Mazraoui. While the club strengthened the spine of their XI, they already have one eye on the next transfer window.

One position they could look to strengthen in the upcoming window is their goalkeeping department, as Onana still has plenty of doubters to win around.

It’s fair to say that the former Inter star has had his ups and downs since arriving in Manchester and now according to reports in Spain, the Red Devils have their eye on a new goalkeeper.

According to Fichajes , Man Utd are ‘very interested’ in signing Athletic Bilbao star Simon who has proven himself to be an ‘elite goalkeeper’ over the last few years.

As per Transfermarkt , Simon currently has a market value of €30m, although it’s thought that Man Utd would have to pay a ‘considerable sum’ to get him out of Spain.

The 27-year-old is under contract with Athletic Bilbao until 2029 which does give the Spanish club a decent amount of bargaining power when dictating his price tag.

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Jamie Carragher isn’t convinced by Onana

It’s fair to say that Onana’s first season at Old Trafford was a mixed bag. While he did seem to grow in confidence as the season went on, he made a number of undeniable clangers – especially in the Champions League.

When recently discussing the Man Utd shot-stopper on The Overlap , Carragher made his thoughts clear as he described the 28-year-old as ‘really poor goalkeeper’.

“I think in the goalkeeper, with the ball at his feet I think he’s quite good,” Carragher said. “I don’t think he’s a good goalie, he’s a really poor goalkeeper but in terms of with his feet, he’s okay.”

To be fair to Onana, he was the sixth-best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season based on his post-shot expected goals. However, that wasn’t the case in the Champions League, where he did rank among the worst goalkeepers in the competition.

Unai Simon is currently out injured

While the Red Devils are reportedly keen on signing Simon, the club’s scouts won’t be learning a great deal about him right now as the Spanish star is currently nursing a wrist injury.

The 27-year-old had an operation for the injury back in July and he’s had to miss the start of the 2024/25 campaign as a consequence.

“The first two days post-operation were tough and painful, but things are improving,” Simon shared in an interview carried by MARCA.

“I will have to keep the wrist immobilised for six to eight weeks, followed by rehabilitation. Typically, these injuries take four to five months to heal, but if I recover sooner, that would be a bonus.”

In total, Simon has made 195 appearances for Athletic Bilbao since making his debut back in 2018. While he continues to recover, Julen Agirrezabala and Alex Padilla have shared the starting spot for Bilbao.

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How does Simon compare to Onana?

We’ve taken a closer look at Simon’s La Liga stats from last season and have compared them with Onana’s from the Premier League.

In terms of shot-stopping, there wasn’t much to separate the two goalkeepers last season. Simon had a save percentage of 73.8% whereas Onana boasted a slightly superior save percentage at 74.9%.

As a result of how exposed Onana was at times, he ended up making 146 saves last season which was more than any other Premier League goalkeeper. In contrast, Simon made just 90 saves last season as he faced considerably fewer shots.

While Onana did make more saves and had a slightly better save percentage, he did end up conceding more goals than his Spanish counterpart. The Man Utd goalkeeper conceded 1.53 goals per 90, compared to Simon who conceded 0.93 goals per 90.

Along with boasting a better clean sheet percentage, Simon is also statically better at claiming crosses than Onana with the Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper stopping 7.1% of crosses, compared to Onana who stops 6.7% of crosses.

In truth, there isn’t a great deal between the two goalkeepers when comparing the stats. Simon made fewer high-profile errors than Onana last season, although the Spanish star was under considerably less pressure.