by Manchester United midfielder Donny van de Beek has joined Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt on loan until the end of the season.
The 26-year-old has been a disappointment for United and has made just six Premier League starts since his £40million move from Ajax in 2020.
Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krosche told his club’s website: “Donny van de Beek fits our game idea perfectly and is an important piece of the puzzle for our team.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe must convince years of symbolic recruitment
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Sport group finally take over football operations at Manchester United, and begin the process of years of shambolic recruitment, they could do worse than adopt the mantra: ‘No more Donny van de Beeks’.
In fact, there are a number of players who could be used as symbols of the incoherent, scattered, wasteful, negligent transfer policy of the past decade and more.
But Van de Beek – a £40million signing from Ajax who would make just six Premier League starts over three-and-a-half years in Manchester – is as good an example as any of the aimless hires. sentiment and hope rooted at Old Trafford.
The Dutch midfielder has completed a loan move to Eintracht Frankfurt until the end of the season; yet another flop that United can’t sell.
There is a permanent transfer option at the end that would earn United an initial £9.5 million plus a further £2.6 million in add-ons and, to that end, the club can only hope Van de Beek does more than that. who was on loan at Everton.
Too many players have gone out on loan only to underperform and return more unwanted than ever. With tight wallets and another big summer of rebuilding ahead of us – when did we not say that last night? – United could do with Van de Beek giving Frankfurt plenty of reason to want to turn that loan into a permanent deal.
Ratcliffe and his sporting director at Ineos, Sir Dave Brailsford, know that United will not rest until the club starts buying and selling with much greater success. It is the No. 1 priority. 1 for the new minority shareholder and his staff.
Total lack of fit
Failed buybacks over a long period of time have a very detrimental cumulative effect on and off the field. Taken alone, for example, United’s £40 million for Van de Beek and the £30 million they paid above their original valuation for another Ajax player, Antony, two years later and the you have more or less cash. on what could be an offer for Harry Kane in the summer.
One senior person on the transition side of things at United told this correspondent that “sometimes you don’t know what they’re going to be like until they’re in the building”. That has the ring of truth. Some clubs are very thorough in their due diligence, tick all the boxes and still a signing may not go through.
But if you’re not doing that homework well enough, you’re more likely to fail, especially if you happen to be identifying the wrong players.
And Van de Beek was another of those injustices, a player who didn’t address any of United’s pressing midfield needs at the time, especially without a first-class anchor, and that’s before with you its complete lack of suitability. with the intensity and attack of the Premier League.
It is interesting whether Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ever wanted Van de Beek in the first place but his interim replacement, Ralf Rangnick, had discovered after one session that the Dutchman was not cut out to play for United in the Premier League.
Perhaps even more damning was the stance taken by Erik ten Hag, who heavily recruited players with Eredivisie connections. Van de Beek was a key part of the Ajax side under Ten Hag that reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2019 and won the Eredivisie title that season, but it quickly became clear that the manager did not have the player at United.
His only two starts in the league under Ten Hag ended after 66 minutes and 47 minutes respectively and he was omitted from United’s Champions League squad this season after the summer when the club could not even to borrow.
Van de Beek wore a fearful expression that was almost permanently painted and that was reflected on the pitch where he regularly seemed lost and overwhelmed by the pace and physicality of what was going on around him.
There can be no more Donny van de Beek signings now that Ineos is in the building.
A version of this article was first published on 19 December 2023
