Covid, kicking and a rejected loan – how Manchester United settled on Andre Onana as their new No.1

Erik ten Hag wanted to play Dean Henderson on at least two occasions, it was just never for Man United.

Onana started against United in the Europa League final in 2017

You can hardly blame Dean Henderson for ruing his luck. In a parallel universe, Manchester United allow him to join Ajax on loan, he trains and plays under Erik ten Hag for five months, Ten Hag is chosen as the next permanent United manager and he installs Henderson as the No.1.

With Ten Hag as his actual manager at United, Henderson’s chances of attaining No.1 status have gradually receded. Now they are all but over.

Ajax twice approached United about borrowing Henderson while Ten Hag was in charge. Edwin van der Sar, then the Ajax chief executive, was a vocal admirer of Henderson and first touched base at the start of the 2020-21 season.

Henderson’s representatives were sounded out by Ajax again prior to the January 2022 transfer window, when Andre Onana was serving a nine-month doping suspension and running down his contract.

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Eighteen months on, Onana is coming and Henderson is going at Ten Hag’s United. Ferris Bueller put it perfectly: “Life moves pretty fast.”

After Ajax was a no-go, United knocked back enquiries from Newcastle and Watford to sign Henderson on loan. Henderson only played once more under Ralf Rangnick – in the first game of February – and felt so antagonised he skipped the first training sessions under Ten Hag.

Newcastle came calling again for Henderson but lost their nerve dealing with United for a second time, having attempted to recruit Jesse Lingard earlier in the year. Burnley were relegated and Nick Pope was available on a permanent basis, so Newcastle plumped for Pope.

Henderson’s exit route remains Nottingham Forest, hardly certainties to stay at the top of the pyramid beyond a second season. Once a budding United and England No.1, Henderson is dependent on injury to Pope, Jordan Pickford or Aaron Ramsdale to earn a recall to Gareth Southgate’s squad.

Ten Hag is not the most emollient of coaches and he spoke to Henderson once throughout last season, although he did monitor his performances for Forest. The United goalkeeping coach, Richard Hartis, was more communicative with Henderson.

It was not beyond the realms of possibility that Ten Hag would come in at United and do what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had intended to do the previous year: swap David de Gea for Henderson. The rebranding of the defence, with its Latino core and the swift demotion of Harry Maguire, counted against Henderson, whose supporters in the squad largely consisted of the Anglophiles.

Henderson has had a frustrating couple of years at United

Henderson will curse the bout of Covid-19 he contracted two years ago that laid him low for the best part of two months. He attended the European Championship final and as kick-off loomed killed time at Boxpark. He missed the entirety of pre-season and the first six games.

Yet the pressure also told during his brief stint as United’s first choice at the tail-end of the 2020-21 campaign. The competition with De Gea became so psychological that Henderson ended up on the edge of his area against Burnley and the ball ended up in the net, only Chris Wood was marginally offside.

A source said Henderson was so conscious De Gea had a reputation for being rooted to his line he would come off it at any opportunity. Dinked by Mohamed Salah at the Scoreboard End in the FA Cup in January, Henderson was pitted against him at the same end in the Premier League in May. Henderson stayed in his six-yard perimeter to eliminate the dink. All it did was gift Salah a wide gap to slot the ball past him.

Henderson celebrates United’s 3-1 win at Tottenham in April 2021

There were superb denials of Tom Lockyer and Leandro Trossard in League Cup wins over Brighton and Luton, an assured Premier League debut at Southampton and four clean sheets in six successive starts in March while De Gea was on paternity leave. But Henderson’s calmest run of form was before he was unofficially recognised as the domestic number one and his performances were subsequently not as steady.

He and De Gea also lacked a decisive manager. Solskjaer’s decision-making on the No.1 was dictated by pregnancy and coronavirus.

With stadiums full again, Henderson buckled in the FA Cup shootout defeat to Middlesbrough when he let Martín Payero’s unconvincing kick squirm under him. Henderson went the wrong way six out of eight times, undermining the argument he ought to have replaced De Gea for the Europa League final shootout the previous season.

Ten Hag has seen off the two legends from last season’s squad. De Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo were posing alongside Sir Alex Ferguson on the Old Trafford pitch in October as more milestones were recognised. Ferguson shook De Gea’s hand as he strode out as a United player for the last time in the ill-fated FA Cup final.

Ferguson wishes De Gea good luck

Ten Hag’s encomium to De Gea last week was reverential. More relevant was his answer to the final question of his post-match press conference at Wembley that centred on De Gea’s distribution: “Say it like this: we are in the right direction. But there are occasions in the game, issues in the game, we have to improve, definitely, if we want to make the next step and win trophies.”

Onana will undeniably improve United’s build-up from the back. As damaging as De Gea’s errors were against City, West Ham and Sevilla, the death knell was his performance in the otherwise comfortable 4-1 defeat of Real Betis in the Europa League in March.

De Gea could not have hit water if he fell out of a boat and one kick resulted in Betis clipping his upright. “I can’t ignore it,” Ten Hag conceded.

He has certainly ignored Henderson.