Ajax coach Maurice Steijn reportedly wanted Donny van de Beek back this summer but the window closed without Premier League giants Manchester United managing to find a potential buyer.
While Sven Mislintat bought – and lost – the farm gambling on millions worth of unproven talent, Ajax’s head coach reportedly had a very different view of how the club’s recruitment strategy should be arranged.
Maurice Steijn allegedly wanted both Donny van de Beek and Nicolas Tagliafico – beacons of better days – back at the Johan Cruyff Arena.
But while former Netherlands international Willem van Hanegem certainly has little positive to say about Mislintat’s strategy – the one-time Arsenal director sacked following Ajax’s worst start to a season since 1965 – he also has his doubts about whether Van de Beek would have made much of an impact too after three forgettable years on the Manchester United bench.
Van de Beek still a Manchester United player
“The fact that he wanted Donny van de Beek and Nicolas Tagliafico is probably well received by the supporters, with their whining about the ‘Ajax DNA’. But you can still ask yourself whether it would have helped Ajax if those boys had returned,” Van Hanegem argues, via Algemeen Dagblad.
“Van de Beek has rarely played in recent years.”
You can say that again.
Van de Beek has made just 11 Premier League starts since his £35 million arrival at Old Trafford back in 2020. That 19 minute cameo off the bench in Tuesday’s 3-0 Carabao Cup victory over Crystal Palace, meanwhile, was his first outing of the entire campaign.
Steijn’s plan to ‘get the old band back together’ may seem like a good one in principle. But, after three years without an instrument in his hands, is Van de Beek really capable of producing the same old tunes?
Summer exit fell through
The likes of Trabzonspor, Fenerbahce, Genoa, Lorient and Real Sociedad were all linked with Van de Beek over the summer but none succeeded in striking a deal.
“Donny does not want to make a move to say I’ll be away for six or seven months (on loan) and then I will return. This is not Donny’s style,” Fabrizio Romano told the United Stand recently.
“If he wanted to go to Turkey, he had some possibilities to go. But the player was not so keen on that kind of move.”
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