Senne Lammens 'training request and late-night incident' sum up £18m Man Utd star

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Senne Lammens' confidence, technical ability and work ethic saw him arrive at Old Trafford instead of Emiliano Martinez . The Belgian goalkeeper was snapped up by Manchester United in an £18.2million deadline day transfer from Royal Antwerp.

Despite Ruben Amorim insisting that he was keen on sticking with Andre Onana , Altay Bayindir and Tom Heaton earlier in the summer, it appears as though his mind was changed as the window was about to slam shut. Of course, Bayindir was deployed as the manager's first-choice in the wake of Onana recovering from injury, but made a number of costly errors as the Premier League season kicked off.

Onana, meanwhile, returned to the fray for United's Carabao Cup clash with Grimsby Town , conceding two sloppy goals in the clash as the Red Devils were knocked out of the competition on penalties by the League Two side. While United were heavily linked with an unsettled Martinez as the transfer window came to a close, the board ultimately decided on a far younger Lammens.

And if Rik de Mil's assessment of the 23-year-old is anything to go by, then it's easy to see why United decided on a fresh-faced Lammens rather than a proven Martinez. The head coach of Club NXT during Lammens' breakthrough stint, the 44-year-old recently told the Athletic the moment he knew the goalkeeper was someone special.

Back in December 2019, Club Brugge's youth system were trailing 2-1 to Real Madrid in the UEFA Youth League deep into stoppage time, requiring a goal to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition for the first time in their history. With Brugge poised to take a corner and with nothing to lose in the game, De Mil told Lammens to go up to try to make a difference.

He then bounded across the box to meet Maxim De Cuyper's ball at the near post, heading back across goal to score the equaliser. And it was during that moment, that De Mil realised who technically gifted and confident Lammens was.

He told the publication: "It didn’t surprise me that he… OK, at that moment it surprised me a little bit. But it didn’t surprise me that technically, it was so good.

"It didn’t surprise me that he’s on the right timing there; that also the technique of his heading is good, because his mobility is good. He was sometimes better than some players with the ball."

De Mil also claimed that Lammens would often request to play outfield during training sessions to sharpen his skills with his feet - unusual for a goalkeeper. Elsewhere in his interview, De Mil explained how he soon noticed a second-to-none work ethic within Lammens.

The coach had worked late at the Brugge training ground one evening, working at a desk which overlooked the gym. It was around 10pm when the lights turned on, and De Mil saw Lammens returning to the club for a late-night training session alone.

He said: "He had been sitting at home, thinking I’m doing nothing here, so I’ll go back to the training ground and I'll be all alone there in the gym," adding: "We always talked about keeping that balance of pushing and being ambitious, but at the same time, sometimes giving yourself a break. He put a lot of pressure on himself."

It appears as though the long-lasting fruits of Lammens' labor are paying off at present. The youngster made his debut for Manchester United ahead of the international break, able to keep a clean sheet as the Red Devils secured a 2-0 win over a newly-promoted Sunderland as fans chanted: "Are you [Peter] Schmeichel in disguise?"

And it appears as though he will keep his place ahead of Bayindir when United travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in the Northwest derby come Sunday, October 19. Speaking about the goalkeeper during his pre-match press conference, Amorim said: "Nothing is impossible, you have to prove you can start every week.

"It is possible he can play. He is not Schmeichel yet, he is a young guy with talent and the fans liked it."

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