De Beek has dropped out of the national team in a year and a half of sitting out in Manchester, how has time gone with one of the most failed transfers?

If any player has suffered the most from a failed transfer in the last two years, it’s Donny van de Beek. He doesn’t play for Manchester United at all and he is no longer counted on for the Dutch national team. Now he can save his career at Everton.

Donny van de Beek started impressing the first big clubs in Ajax’s iconic 2018/19 season. The Dutch club reached the Champions League semi-finals, to which he contributed three goals and two assists. Let’s not forget that Ajax lost the final with a goal in the last minute of stoppage time.

After the season came a rather big sell-off, with Frenkie de Jong or Matthijs de Ligt leaving, while the similarly important de Beek stayed in the Netherlands. But he didn’t mind, he came on regularly, he was the busiest of all the midfielders, playing over three thousand minutes in total.

By the summer of 2020, Donny had already changed jerseys, being bought by Manchester United for £35 million. Red Devils fans were excited, but the pundits reined them in, asking, ” Where will he play?” And that question was indeed spot on.

Bruno Fernandes had an excellent first half of the year and in such a short time he had established himself as the team leader, with Paul Pogba at number eight. Moody, but extremely high quality and not to be missed given his salary.

De Beek has been coming off the bench since the start of the season. He scored in the very first round of the Premier League, yet only got a chance in the starting lineup in the eleventh round. He has only featured regularly in cups, and in the Champions League he has started every group stage match.

The low workload was understandable, at least in the first few weeks, but when thirty-two-year-old Juan Mata started to come on at de Beek’s expense, Manchester supporters went on a rampage. The expensive summer signing sat on the bench and came into the game for five or ten minutes.

At the end of the season, the blonde midfielder had played only 1,456 minutes, 511 of which were on the league stage. According to British sources, the player had mental problems and wanted to go somewhere to play. But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did not let him go.

The question is why? In the first ten rounds, he was always in the matchday squad, but he only got into the game once, for six minutes against Newcastle. The only proper workload he enjoyed again was in the Champions League, where he made three appearances in the starting eleven.

A second year without match practice was reflected in the national team nominations. In the autumn of 2021, he did not receive a single nomination in the intense competition and his participation in the World Cup in Qatar is in danger.

He will have the opportunity to get his national team coach back in the spring. He will be a guest at struggling Everton, where he should be playing regularly under Frank Lampard. There is no other classic number ten in the squad, will de Beek grab the chance by the scruff of the neck?

Source: Transfermarket