Donny van de Beek is a wanted man this summer and has currently held off any developments with Manchester United as he waits for Barcelona to make an offer.
According to a report published by Sport, Donny van de Beek is waiting for Barcelona to make a move for him this summer and has held off any talks with Manchester United in the meanwhile.
Van de Beek came through the Ajax youth academy and was promoted to the first team in 2016 after getting his debut in February that year. After spending his first two seasons in the senior squad coming off the bench, he found a place as a starter in the 2017/18 season, registering 11 goals and six assists in 34 games.
The Dutchman was also part of Ajax’s fairytale run in the UEFA Champions League in 2018/19 when they reached the semi-finals only to crash out courtesy a Lucas Moura second half hat-trick at the Amsterdam Arena. He played 12 games in the tournament, scoring thrice and assisting two goals, including one in the first leg against Tottenham Hotspur.
He was tipped to move to Real Madrid last summer, but the move fell through as the club promoted Federico Valverde from their Castilla side, who made an immediate impact. However, Florentino Perez has admitted that the club will not be making any big-money signing this summer after completing multiple significant transfers last year.
Ajax have not budged from their asking price from last year which was set at €55 million despite the coronavirus pandemic negatively impacting the football market. Now that Madrid have seemingly withdrawn from this race, Barcelona and Manchester United seem to be the only clubs really in contention for his signature.
Barcelona have brought in a new manager, one that van de Beek is familiar with – former Netherlands national team coach Ronald Koeman. The 23-year-old has appeared ten times in the Orange of the Netherlands, all under Koeman.
The same man is now interested in bringing him to the Catalan capital, as he might be shorthanded in the midfield department after putting most of the players up for sale including Ivan Rakitic, Arturo Vidal, Sergio Busquets, Carles Aleña among others.
Manchester United, too, are set to face a lot of midfield issues in the coming season. But for them, it might be a question of quality more than quantity. Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, and Nemanja Matic make up for United’s first-choice midfield trio, but they lack game-changing players from the bench, especially in Bruno’s role.
However, it seems like Van de Beek favours a transfer to Barcelona and has asked his agent to hold off any potential deal as he waits for an approach from Barcelona.
Van de Beek was not named in the lineup or the bench for Ajax for their pre-season friendly against Eintracht Frankfurt earlier today. Later, Erik ten Hag confirmed that there had been some recent developments in the interest for Van de Beek, which is why he had to be left out. It will be interesting to see which way this transfer heads to in the coming weeks.
