Man Utd can't repeat Dean Henderson mistake with James Garner
Karan Tejwani
- 15 Aug 2022 13:45 BST
- 4 min read
Manchester United are considering selling midfielder James Garner, following a summer where they planned to either keep him with the first-team group or loaning him out once again.
Garner spent the last season on loan at Nottingham Forest, helping them gain promotion to the Premier League, and the club were interested in bringing him back to the City Ground in this campaign as well.
The Red Devils want a fee between £15 million and £20 million for the academy graduate, with Forest and Tottenham interested in buying him.
Should United sell Garner, they’d be making a worse mistake than they did this season with goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who is also spending time away on loan with Nottingham Forest.
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Man Utd can't make the same mistake twice in one summer
Manchester United loaned the goalkeeper out to five different clubs for six separate loan spells, with the sixth spell – the one at Forest – already proving to be on too many.
Their current first-choice, David de Gea, is struggling for form, and his mistakes against Brentford proved costly at the weekend as his side lost 4-0 to the Bees.
It didn’t help that the following day, Henderson put in a fine performance for Forest in their 1-0 win over West Ham, including a penalty save from Declan Rice.
Henderson was clearly the better goalkeeping fit – his desire to drive the team forward, help the team press higher, come off his line to claim crosses and take risks would’ve been handy under Erik ten Hag.
Luckily for United, he’s still contracted to them and will return to Old Trafford at the end of the season once his loan spell is over, which may not be the case for Garner if he’s sold permanently.
Although Garner’s shown his best qualities away from United and hasn’t proven himself for the Red Devils, there’s a belief he could be up to the mark, as he’s impressed in his last few loan spells away from the club.
Dean Henderson 🆚 David De Gea:
11 Saves 5
5 Crosses Claimed 0
2/2 Keeper Sweepers 1/1
1 Penalty Saves 0
0 Errors leading to goals 1
2.3 xG Prevented -1.0
Hmmmm... 🤔 pic.twitter.com/8g29rgu4qq— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) August 14, 2022
Add in the fact that Manchester United are massively depleted in midfield and the deal makes little sense, with the only saving grace being that there could be a buyback clause in the deal.
It’s clear that Ten Hag’s side have a problem in midfield, with the likes of Scott McTominay and Fred struggling to come to grips with Ten Hag’s style of football, forcing Christian Eriksen to drop deeper.
United are interested in a deal for Adrien Rabiot and there may still be hope for Frenkie de Jong, but those still aren’t set in stone, and letting a player go before others come in seems to be another transfer blunder.
It would be very symbolic this summer that Manchester United make the same mistake twice – Henderson is already proving the wrong goalkeeper is away from the club; letting Garner go without back-up would be silly.
