Sir Alex Ferguson words are timely reminder for Manchester United amid Andre Onana struggles

It is still far too early to say whether or not Andre Onana will be a good or bad Manchester United signing.

There can be no ignoring his poor performances in the first months of the job or the hefty £47.2 million price tag that saw him swap Milan for Manchester in the summer, but such a fee was always going to be required to replace someone like David de Gea.

The Spaniard departed the club as their best player of the last decade, and while recent revisionism has reflected well on De Gea, it was a change that had to happen if Erik ten Hag was to take the next step in his rebuild.

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United might well need to take one step backwards before they can take two forwards in the goalkeeping department, with Onana a worse shot-stopper than his predecessor but a more modern 'keeper with an entirely different skillset.

Time will tell whether Onana ends up being more like De Gea or Massimo Taibi, but what is crucial is that he is given that time to settle into his new environment, just as two of the club's greatest goalkeepers were.

Anyone who dons the United goalkeeper kit will be ranked against the greatness of both Peter Schmeichel and De Gea, two of the club's greatest ever, who both achieved success under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

It is easy to look back at their respective careers and falsely pretend they were perfect throughout and never experienced the same lows as Onana, but that simply isn't the case.

In fact, both Schmeichel and De Gea experienced similar poor starts to their Old Trafford careers but came good after a combination of their manager's backing, some good fortune, and