Onana’s exit shortly, with the 29-year-old poised to join Turkish side Trabzonspor on a season-long loan.
Although the Premier League transfer window closed on Monday at 7pm, Turkey’s market remains open until Friday, giving Trabzonspor time to finalize the move.
Onana, who arrived at Old Trafford in 2023 for £47 million from Inter Milan, has struggled to meet expectations and now seeks a fresh start in the Super Lig — where he’s reportedly set to earn nearly double his current wages thanks to performance-related bonuses.
Initially, United were open to retaining Onana, but the last-minute signing of Senne Lammens shifted the club’s stance, prompting a decision to let him go.
Footage of Onana energetically participating in a muddy, makeshift football match back home sparked debate among fans online.
His subsequent injury ruled him out of United’s season opener against Arsenal, allowing Altay Bayindir to step in and retain the starting spot.
Sources suggest Amorim grew concerned that Onana’s situation might distract Lammens, and alongside director of football Jason Wilcox, opted to move the Cameroonian shot-stopper out of the squad.
Minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe reportedly backed the decision, having previously voiced strong opinions about Onana in a fiery BBC interview earlier this year.
‘If you look at the players we are buying this summer, that we didn’t buy, we’re buying Antony, we’re buying Casemiro, we’re buying Onana, we’re buying [Rasmus] Hojlund, we’re buying [Jadon] Sancho,’ Ratcliffe said at the time.
‘These are all things from the past, whether we like it or not, we’ve inherited those things and have to sort that out.
‘For Sancho, who now plays for Chelsea and we pay half his wages, we’re paying £17m to buy him in the summer.’
Casemiro will be the only surviving player of those mentioned by Ratcliffe once Onana leaves, with the club going through a period of major upheaval on the back of their worst-ever campaign in the Premier League.
Speaking on his YouTube channel earlier this week, Rio Ferdinand said he was ‘pleased’ players like Onana, Antony and Sancho had been shown the door.
‘I think [Omar [Berrada], who is running the football operations at the club, I think he’s made the point that they’re not going to have players sitting around that are not worthy of being at the football club anymore,’ the legendary ex-United and England centre-back said.
‘They’re not going to have players that either aren’t good enough, haven’t performed well enough or are not the right people to be at the football club.
‘He’s not going to have them around like bad smells. I think, for far too long, we’ve had at that at the football club.
‘We’ve been forced to keep players because of bad financial situations that the club have put us in with players and we’ve had to keep them here, sit with them and had to suffer some of these players.’
Ferdinand added: ‘I think this is a step in the right direction,’ former United and England centre-back Ferdinand added.
‘As happy as I am with the players that are coming in and providing a difference in terms of speed, dynamism, pace and goal threat, I’m as pleased, if not more, with the way they’ve got players out that the club deemed weren’t right to be there.
‘That side of it has been as important, if not more, than the incoming players because I think it sends out a fantastic message and a strong message to the players that are there: you ain’t hanging about here if you ain’t what we want.
‘That’s what it should be like at every club. If you’re not right for the football club, you’ve got to get out.
‘That’s why I’m so strong on it when a player wants to go, he should be able to force and go… I think it should work both ways.’
