The Premier League legend made the comments to SunSport through Sky Bet. He suggested Martinez is “exactly the kind of goalkeeper” United should have in their team, while questioning if Lammens’ one season of top-flight football in Belgium would prepare him for the pressure of the No.1 shirt at Old Trafford.
The 23-year-old signed at the close of the summer transfer window, making the switch from Royal Antwerp to Manchester for an initial fee of €21m (£18m/$25m), as Andre Onana was shepherded out on loan to Trabzonspor. Despite a summer of speculation and a notable absence in Aston Villa‘s 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace, Martinez remained in Birmingham. Donnarumma made several key stops in last week’s Manchester derby for the Red Devils’ fierce inter-city rivals, Man City. The Champions League and Euros winner joined the Sky Blues for a reported €35m (£26m/$41m). With United now left with Lammens and Altay Bayindir as their goalkeeping options, the Dane thinks it’s unclear who Ruben Amorim’s number one keeper will be going forward.
Schmeichel said, “We should have signed Emi Martinez. In fact, we should have gone for Gianluigi Donnarumma when we had the chance. With Martinez, everything was lined up, and that felt like really good news, because he’s exactly the kind of goalkeeper Manchester United should have.”
On Martinez, the United legend added: “He’s proven at the very highest level. He does all the basics brilliantly, but beyond that, he provides real leadership. He’s the sort of goalkeeper who makes strikers think twice. That presence is vital. So it was hugely disappointing to hear the deal fell through for financial reasons.”
On Lammens, Schmeichel said: “As for Lammens, I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of him until the link came up. I know his stats are excellent across the top ten European leagues. But that was with Antwerp in Belgium, in a team that finished fifth. He saved four out of eight penalties, but recruitment based purely on stats is risky. Stats don’t show how you react after a mistake, or how you cope with the pressure of Manchester United. That pressure is unlike anywhere else in football. Lammens could turn out to be the best signing ever – but right now, it feels like a hopeful one, and that’s not what United need at this moment in time. If we’d signed him alongside Martinez, that would have made perfect sense: a proven World Cup winner as number one, with a talented young keeper developing behind him.”
The young Belgian can make a huge statement on Saturday. He is expected to be in goal for the Red Devils’ Premier League clash with Chelsea. If Lammens can lay down a marker, he could well put a nagging issue for Amorim to bed, and maybe make an admirer out of United’s greatest ever goalkeeper.
