Manchester United's £35m Tielemans Signing Praised as Smart Move
Manchester United have spent years overpaying for promise. According to Shay Given, they’ve finally paid smart money for the finished article.
The former Premier League goalkeeper believes United’s £35 million move for Youri Tielemans is one of the standout deals of the window, a signing that undercuts some of the eye-watering midfield fees elsewhere.
Tielemans over Tonali and Guimaraes
Given, speaking to BOYLE Sports, didn’t bother dressing it up. In his eyes, United have landed better value than those shelling out £100m for Sandro Tonali or £75m for Bruno Guimaraes.
“Have Manchester United weakened their midfield by not trying to sign Sandro Tonali or Bruno Guimaraes?” he asked, before answering his own question. Tielemans, he argued, is “a really good signing” and the context matters: Aston Villa were forced into a sale not because of talent, but because of the balance sheet.
Villa had picked Tielemans up on a free. Financial rules then pushed them into a corner. Two billionaire owners, yet still a player sacrificed to stay compliant. That, Given says, is Villa’s frustration and United’s opportunity.
To pay £35m in that landscape – when Tonali costs almost three times as much – looks, in his words, “a really good piece of business”. United are not buying potential. They are buying a 27-year-old with a heavy catalogue of games for club and country, a midfielder who knows the Premier League, knows international football, and does not need a bedding-in period.
For a club that has so often paid a premium for the unknown, it feels like a rare case of the market working in their favour.
Lammens: the calm after De Gea
Given’s praise did not stop in midfield. His voice sharpened when the conversation turned to Senne Lammens.
At Old Trafford, the goalkeeping position has been a recurring headache since David De Gea’s departure. Andre Onana arrived to fanfare, Altay Bayındır to provide depth, yet neither truly settled the anxiety behind United’s back four.
Lammens, Given insists, has changed the mood.
“I think Senne Lammens has got the lot,” he said. A “breath of fresh air” was his phrase for the Belgian, and he went further: the most complete goalkeeper United have had since De Gea left.
Given admitted surprise that Ruben Amorim did not throw Lammens straight in as soon as he signed him. The comparison he reached for was blunt. City trusted Gianluigi Donnarumma immediately in a derby. United, he felt, hesitated.
Amorim’s caution was understandable. Lammens is younger, less seasoned in the white heat of the biggest fixtures. Yet Given would have “chucked him in” regardless. Why? Because of the way he carries himself. Because of that rare quality in a goalkeeper: genuine calm.
Nothing seems to rattle him. Not the occasion. Not the scrutiny. Not even the one moment that might have broken another young keeper.
From World Cup trauma to Old Trafford anchor
That moment came at the World Cup. Lammens, sent on from the bench, misjudged a shot he would usually gather “99 times out of 100”, as Given put it. The ball slipped, the net bulged, and his country went out.
It was a brutal way to leave a tournament and an unforgiving stage on which to make a mistake. Given, who lived the life of a goalkeeper at the highest level, was quick to defend him.
For a substitute keeper, he argued, the task is “10 times harder” than for an outfield player. A midfielder can ease into the game with simple passes, feel the tempo, settle the nerves. A goalkeeper often has no such luxury. The first real involvement might be decisive.
Yes, Lammens warmed up on the touchline. No, that is not the same as facing a live, pressured shot after two hours without a proper feel of the ball. He fumbled, his team went out, and the images went around the world.
“There will be mental scars from that,” Given admitted. But scars can harden a player. Since returning to Manchester, Lammens has been given space to process the error and, crucially, time to play his way through it.
Trust restored between the posts
United’s support have long craved one thing in goal: reliability. Not the spectacular save once a month, but the seven or eight out of ten every week. The keeper who makes defenders stand a yard taller.
Given is convinced they finally have that again.
He sees Lammens as the antidote to years of uncertainty, a goalkeeper who “walks onto the pitch and makes everyone feel more secure”. That trust, he says, has been missing. Too many false starts. Too many experiments that never quite worked.
With Lammens, he sees a different pattern: a long-term solution, not a stop-gap.
United, in his view, have got two big calls right this summer. A midfielder signed for value, not vanity. A goalkeeper who settles the whole stadium every time he pulls on the shirt.
For a club trying to claw its way back to the top, those are the foundations that matter.
