Subsidised Loan, No Buy Option: What Onana’s Trabzonspor Deal Says About United | OneFootball

Manchester United have agreed to loan goalkeeper André Onana (30) back to Trabzonspor for the coming season on terms that expose precisely how limited the Reds’ leverage is in the current market – with The Athletic reporting that the deal contains no option to buy and that the Turkish club will cover only a portion of Onana’s £120,000-a-week wages, leaving United to absorb the remainder while the goalkeeper plays his football in the Super Lig for a second consecutive season. It is the clearest signal yet of where Michael Carrick’s overhaul stands: high earners are being moved on whatever terms can be secured.

INEOS had initially sought a clean exit – a permanent transfer at somewhere near United’s £30 million asking price, with Trabzonspor or another suitor covering the full wage bill. Neither condition has been met. The no-buy-option clause means United will enter next summer still owning a 30-year-old goalkeeper they cannot use, having generated zero transfer income from the arrangement, while also continuing to fund a portion of a contract that no longer serves the squad in any practical sense.

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What the terms actually reveal – United’s negotiating position is weaker than the asking price suggested

The absence of a buy option is the more telling detail. Trabzonspor have seen Onana for a full season – 33 appearances in all competitions, a Turkish Cup winners’ medal, and a contribution to a third-place Super Lig finish that delivered Europa League playoff qualification – and they have still declined to commit to a purchase. That is a meaningful data point. A club that wanted Onana permanently would have negotiated a buy option into the deal, even at a reduced figure. The fact that United accepted a structure without one suggests no alternative buyer was willing to engage on better terms.

The partial wage coverage compounds the problem. The Athletic’s reporting explicitly states Trabzonspor will not cover Onana’s full £120,000-a-week salary, which means United are effectively subsidising a loan – paying a portion of the wages of a goalkeeper who will be playing no part in Carrick’s squad. For a club operating under PSR constraints and urgently trying to reduce a bloated wage bill, that is a significant concession to make.

André Onana loan terms as reported by The Athletic, summer 2026.

Carrick’s broader approach to the Ten Hag-era signings United are looking to move on this summer

The United angle – Alas, the terms confirm what the goalkeeper market already knew about Onana’s value

Onana arrived from Inter Milan in the summer of 2023 for a reported £47 million, billed as a modern, ball-playing goalkeeper suited to the high defensive line United wanted to operate. That project did not survive contact with the Premier League, and by the time Senne Lammens emerged as the club’s clear first-choice option last season, the decision to move Onana on had effectively already been made. The question was never whether he would leave – it was on what terms.

Alas, those terms have turned out to be considerably worse than United’s public position implied. An £30 million asking price suggests confidence in the asset’s value; accepting a subsidised loan with no purchase pathway suggests the opposite. The arrangement does free up a squad place and reduces – though does not eliminate – the wage liability, which matters when Carrick is trying to bring in reinforcements before the window closes.

The goalkeeping situation beyond Lammens remains unresolved. Altay Bayindir is expected to return to Turkey this summer, and Radek Vítek’s future is unclear, with a loan exit considered the most likely outcome though a permanent sale has not been ruled out. United will need a credible backup for Lammens, and the wages partially freed by Onana’s departure should, in theory, provide room to act – though the word ‘partially’ is doing considerable heavy lifting there.

Edwin van der Sar on Onana’s decision-making and his situation as he prepares to return to Trabzonspor

The wider summer context – where the Onana deal sits in Carrick’s overhaul

Casemiro’s departure for Major League Soccer and Jadon Sancho’s exit have already begun to reshape United’s wage structure, and the Onana loan – however imperfect its terms – adds further movement to a squad that has been carrying too many high earners for too long. The pattern is consistent: United are accepting sub-optimal outcomes in order to generate momentum rather than waiting for ideal offers that have not materialised.

Trabzonspor’s position throughout has been instructive. The club’s president had previously signalled strong interest in making Onana’s arrangement permanent, yet the final structure contains no buy option – suggesting either that United’s £30 million valuation was never realistic in the Turkish market, or that Trabzonspor made a deliberate choice to retain flexibility. Either reading reflects poorly on United’s ability to extract value from a player they paid £47 million to sign three years ago.

Trabzonspor’s president on the club’s interest in making Onana’s loan permanent – and why the final terms fell short of that

What happens next

The immediate procedural steps are straightforward: formal registration with the Turkish Football Federation and confirmation of the exact wage-split arrangement once Trabzonspor announce the paperwork. United will then need to move quickly on a backup goalkeeper for Lammens, with Bayindir’s expected exit creating a secondary vacancy that cannot go unfilled heading into a competitive season.

The harder question is what United do with Onana next summer when the loan expires. He will be 31, still on a significant contract, and with no buy option in place, the same problem will resurface – potentially with even fewer suitors willing to engage at United’s valuation. The Reds have bought themselves a season of reduced liability, but not a solution.

It remains to be seen whether United can use the partial wage savings from Onana’s loan, combined with the Casemiro and Sancho exits, to fund a genuine improvement in the backup goalkeeper position – or whether the compromises accepted in this window simply defer the same structural problem into next summer.