Onana, 30, joined United from Inter Milan for €50.2 million in the summer of 2023, replacing club legend David de Gea. His first six months in England were difficult as he adjusted to the demands of the Premier League, but his form steadied considerably, and he was one of United's most consistent performers through the opening months of the 2024-25 season under Erik ten Hag.
Ten Rouwelaar arrived in the summer of 2024 as part of a wholesale shake-up of Ten Hag's backroom staff, replacing Richard Hartis, who had rejoined United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019 and survived Solskjaer's own sacking in 2021.
According to sources cited by The Sun's Samuel Luckhurst, the Dutch coach was praised by United's goalkeeping staff for his innovative methods and quickly built a strong rapport with Onana at the club's pre-season tour base in Los Angeles.
That relationship lasted only four months. When Amorim replaced Ten Hag in November 2024, he brought in Jorge Vital, his goalkeeping coach from Sporting Lisbon, to replace Ten Rouwelaar. United staff noticed a near-immediate drop-off in Onana's performances following the change.
Onana's relationship with the broader coaching staff also shifted under the new regime. He had a close bond with Ten Hag, his former manager at Ajax, but found Amorim more distant — with the Portuguese head coach reported to be closer to compatriots Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot.
The numbers from Onana's time at Manchester United tell their own story. He has conceded 148 goals and kept 24 clean sheets in 101 appearances, helping the club win the FA Cup but otherwise presiding over one of the most turbulent goalkeeping spells in the club's recent history — including a Premier League campaign in which only Arijanet Muric, Robert Sánchez and Bart Verbruggen were responsible for more errors leading directly to goals.
United have already moved to address the position regardless of how Onana's situation resolves. The club has been in talks with Royal Antwerp over a move for Belgian goalkeeper Senne Lammens, while Ten Rouwelaar — whose United exit lasted just four months before he moved on — is now the goalkeeping coach at Brighton & Hove Albion, having most recently worked under Ruud van Nistelrooy during his troubled spell in charge of Leicester City.
For a player signed to be United's long-term solution between the posts, the diagnosis from those inside the club is almost poignant in its simplicity: it was never really about his goalkeeping at all.