Edwin van der Sar believes Manchester United are selling a player with ‘tremendous quality’ in Andre Onana.
Old Trafford legend Van der Sar knows Onana well having worked with him in his previous role as chief executive at Ajax.
Onana spent six years at the Dutch club before joining Inter Milan and it was at the Serie A giants that he attracted interest from Manchester United.
Much was expected of Onana following his £47m move to United as he had just helped Inter reach the final of the Champions League, which they lost narrowly to Manchester City.
But Onana proved to be a largely frustrating figure in the Red Devils team, making a string of mistakes before being replaced at the start of the season.
Manchester United loaned Onana to Trabzonspor after signing new No. 1 Senne Lammens and the Turkish club are believed to have an option to sign him permanently in the summer.
Even if Trabzonspor reject the chance to make the move permanent, Onana will still be moved on at the end of the season, with reports claiming Manchester United have already decided to sell the Cameroon international.
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Van der Sar ‘still thinks’ Onana has ‘tremendous qualities’ but understands why his former club have decided to move him on given some of the ‘crazy’ mistakes he made in a United shirt.
‘I worked with Andre Onana for three or four years at Ajax,’ Van der Sar told Sky Bet. ‘He came in as a third-choice goalkeeper and was very eager to step up and become the first choice.
‘I thought, and I still think, that he has tremendous qualities – reflections and his feet – but somehow, he has the odd mistake in him that makes you think “That’s crazy, how can he do that.”
‘A team wants stability, to know what your goalkeeper is doing so the back four can relate and I think that’s what happened [the issue] with Andre.
‘Manchester United haven’t had stability for the last six or seven years – the back four changing, the centre-halves and midfielders changing, coaches changing – so, it’s difficult for new players to come into an environment where the expectations are high, not only for goalkeepers but also for a winger or midfielder.
‘A lot of players who have come here in the last eight or nine years have not reached the level that people expected them to reach.
‘I absolutely thought that he would succeed when he first came here to United. As I said, I worked with him and saw him at Ajax, he did well in Italy and played in a Champions League final, so I thought it was a match made in heaven.’
Van der Sar, who won four Premier League titles and the Champions League at Manchester United, has been impressed by Ruben Amorim’s £18m summer signing Lammens.
‘He’s doing well,’ he said of Lammens, who attracted praise from legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson earlier in the season.
‘Of course, it’s only been seven or eight months, but it certainly looks like he knows the physicality of the Premier League – I see him coming for balls in the penalty spot and he claims them with confidence, makes saves when needed, not looking to make saves when not necessary.
‘I’m not here day-to-day and I don’t see all of the games, but he looks like he has a good package with him to be here [at Manchester United] for a long time.’
Manchester United return to Premier League action on Monday night, facing Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
United travel to Merseyside sitting fifth in the table, level on points with top-four rivals Chelsea and Liverpool, while Everton are ninth.
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