Done deal: Fabrizio Romano reveals agreement to dump Man Utd player who’s not happy with Ten Hag
While Manchester United could take heart from last weekend’s goalless draw with arch-rivals Liverpool, given that the hosts had won every single home game this season up to that point, the reality is that they’re still enduring a very difficult season.
As Christmas approaches, United find themselves down in seventh place in the Premier League table, already five points adrift of the top four. The January transfer window offers Erik ten Hag an opportunity to strengthen, but it’s important that the club clear some space in their squad first, and they’ve already made some progress towards doing that.
Donny van de Beek’s miserable Man Utd spell
United agreed to pay Ajax up to £40m to sign Donny van de Beek in 2020 (BBC Sport), back when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was still the manager. Since then, he’s only played 62 games for the club in all competitions, with 35 of those coming in the Premier League, where he’s only started six games.
The player could point to limited game time as the reason for his struggles, but the Red Devils may argue that they have received a paltry return in the minutes he has played – just two goals and two assists (Transfermarkt).
Van de Beek spent the second half of the 2021/22 season on loan at Everton, and now it appears another temporary exit is in the works as he closes in on the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2025 (Transfermarkt).
Van de Beek seals loan move to Eintracht Frankfurt
Fabrizio Romano reports that Van de Beek’s six-month loan to Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt has now been “completed between all parties”. The player has undergone a successful medical and now the relevant documents are being exchanged, so the deal is effectively done.
Van de Beek will be eligible to join Frankfurt, who have reached the play-off round of the Europa Conference League, on 1 January, but he won’t be able to make his debut until 13 January when they face RB Leipzig after the German winter break.
While Van de Beek’s United career won’t be officially over, it’s hard to see any way back from here. If anything could have turned his fortunes around at Old Trafford, it would surely have been arrival of his former manager Erik ten Hag in 2022.
The midfielder had been a key part of the Ajax side that reached the semifinals of the Champions League in 2018/19, while also winning the Eredivisie and the Dutch Cup. He played a whopping 57 games that year and finished with a magnificent haul of 30 goal involvements – 17 goals, 13 assists (Transfermarkt).
But there hasn’t been any marked improvement in the player’s status. If anything, he’s regressed further, logging a grim tally of two minutes in the Premier League this season after returning from injury.
He didn’t feature at all in Europe either prior to United’s elimination as Ten Hag took the decision to leave him out of his Champions League squad. That move, according to Turkish outlet A Spor/Sport Witness, unsurprisingly left the Dutchman unhappy, and he was said to be “looking forward to leaving”.
He’s now going to get his wish, and it’s in the interests of all parties that he goes and plays his football elsewhere.
