Manchester United Sign New Keeper In €5 Million Deal As Ten Hag Bolsters Backup Planning

Man­ches­ter Unit­ed have strength­ened their goal­keep­ing stocks with the €5 mil­lion cap­ture of Altay Bayindir from Turk­ish giants Fenerbahce. 

The 25-year-old Turkey inter­na­tion­al becomes the first play­er from his coun­try to rep­re­sent the Red Dev­ils, with Erik ten Hag pri­or­i­tiz­ing the sign­ing as back­up for new­ly installed No. 1 Andre Onana.

With Dean Hen­der­son depart­ing for Crys­tal Palace, Unit­ed need­ed a reli­able under­study to Onana ahead of the Cameroo­ni­an’s poten­tial month-long absence at the Africa Cup of Nations in Jan­u­ary. Ten Hag act­ed deci­sive­ly to bring in the expe­ri­enced Bayindir, who impressed with over 40 appear­ances for Fener­bahce last term.

Bayindir has signed terms run­ning until 2027 after pass­ing a med­ical this week to assess a back issue. He expressed delight at join­ing “this incred­i­ble club” and pledged to dri­ve high stan­dards as com­pe­ti­tion with­in the goal­keep­ing quartet.

Ten Hag clear­ly wants depth between the sticks as he aims to improve Unit­ed’s per­for­mances. With Onana’s inter­na­tion­al com­mit­ments loom­ing, Bayindir could have ample oppor­tu­ni­ty to stake a claim for fur­ther roles if impress­ing the demand­ing Dutch man­ag­er. His cut-price €5 mil­lion acqui­si­tion pro­vides anoth­er option in the hunt for sta­bil­i­ty between the posts.