You can hardly blame Dean Henderson for ruining his luck. In a parallel universe, Manchester United allow him to join Ajax on loan, he trains and plays under Erik ten Hag for five months, Ten Hag is chosen as the next permanent United manager, and he installs Henderson as No.1.
With Ten Hag as his actual manager at United, Henderson’s chances of achieving No.1 status have gradually diminished. Now they are anything but over.
Ajax approached United twice about taking Henderson on loan while Ten Hag was in charge. Edwin van der Sar, then managing director of Ajax, was a vocal admirer of Henderson and first touched base at the start of the 2020-21 season.
Henderson’s representatives were sounded by Ajax again ahead of the January 2022 transfer window, with Andre Onana serving a nine-month doping suspension and running out of contract.
Read also: United move closer to the Onana deal
Eighteen months later, Onana arrives and Henderson goes to Ten Hags United. Ferris Bueller put it perfectly: “Life moves pretty fast.”
After Ajax was a no-go, United beat back inquiries from Newcastle and Watford to loan Henderson. Henderson played just once more under Ralf Rangnick – in the first game in February – and felt so opposed that he skipped the first training sessions under Ten Hag.
Newcastle called again for Henderson but lost their nerve against United for a second time, having tried to recruit Jesse Lingard earlier this year. Burnley were relegated and Nick Pope was available on a permanent basis, so Newcastle moved out for Pope.
Henderson’s exit route remains Nottingham Forest, hardly certain to stay at the top of the pyramid beyond another season. Henderson, once a budding United and England No.1, is reliant on injuries to Pope, Jordan Pickford or Aaron Ramsdale to earn a recall to Gareth Southgate’s squad.
Ten Hag is not the most emollient of managers and he spoke to Henderson once throughout last season, even as he monitored his performances for Forest. United goalkeeping coach Richard Hartis was more communicative with Henderson.
It was not out of the realm of possibility that Ten Hag would come into United and do what Ole Gunnar Solskjær had set out to do the previous year: replace David de Gea with Henderson. The restructuring of the defence, with its Latino core and the rapid demotion of Harry Maguire, worked against Henderson, whose supporters in the squad consisted largely of Anglophiles.
Henderson will curse the bout of Covid-19 he contracted two years ago, which laid him low for the better part of two months. He took part in the European Championship final and as a kick-off threatened dead time at Boxpark. He missed the entire pre-season and the first six games.
But the pressure also told during his short stint as United’s first choice at the end of the 2020-21 campaign. The contest with De Gea became so psychological that Henderson ended up on the edge of his area against Burnley and the ball ended up in the net, only for Chris Wood to be marginally offside.
One source said Henderson was so aware that De Gea had a reputation for being entrenched in his line that he would get out of it at every opportunity. Henderson was called upon by Mohamed Salah at the Scoreboard End in the FA Cup in January and Henderson was pitted against him at the same end in the Premier League in May. Henderson stayed in his six-yard perimeter to eliminate the dink. All it did was give Salah a wide gap to get the ball past him.
There were superb denials by Tom Lockyer and Leandro Trossard in League Cup wins over Brighton and Luton, an assured Premier League debut at Southampton and four clean sheets in six consecutive starts in March while De Gea was on paternity leave. But Henderson’s quietest run of form was before he was unofficially recognized as the domestic number one, and his performances subsequently were less consistent.
He and De Gea also lacked a decisive manager. Solskjær’s decision-making about No. 1 was dictated by pregnancy and the coronavirus.
With stadiums full again, Henderson braced in the FA Cup shoot-out defeat to Middlesbrough as he let Martín Payero’s unconvincing kick squirm under him. Henderson went the wrong way six out of eight times, undermining the argument that he should have replaced De Gea for the Europa League final the previous season.
Ten Hag has fended off the two legends from last season’s squad. De Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo posed with Sir Alex Ferguson on the Old Trafford pitch in October as several milestones were recognised. Ferguson shook De Gea’s hand when he stepped out for the last time as a United player in the fateful FA Cup final.
Ten Hag’s bid for De Gea last week was reverent. More relevant was his response to the final question of his post-match press conference at Wembley, which centered on De Gea’s distribution: “Put it this way: we are in the right direction. But there are occasions in the game, problems in the game. , we absolutely have to improve if we want to take the next step and win trophies.”
Onana will undeniably improve United’s formation at the back. As damaging as De Gea’s errors were against City, West Ham and Sevilla, the death blow was his performance in the otherwise comfortable 4-1 defeat to Real Betis in the Europa League in March.
De Gea couldn’t have hit the water if he fell out of a boat and a single kick resulted in Betis clipping his upright. “I can’t ignore it,” Ten Hag admitted.
He certainly has ignored Henderson.