It’s really not clear exactly what the issue with Donny van de Beek has been at the Theatre of Dreams, but there’s no opportunity that this was the plan when they signed him in the summer.
He’s a 23-year-old who played over 200 competitive matches and played a huge role in Ajax’s UCL run so he was too good to be a project type signing, but there was never an obvious place for him in the side.
Perhaps Red Devils felt that Paul Pogba would finally be on the way out so they wanted Donny to take his role in the team, but he’s been little more than an afterthought off the bench so far this campaign at Theatre of Dreams.
Donny has played 10 PL games but they’ve mostly been from the bench, while it gets even weirder when you consider he’s done well when he does play. Van de Beek presses well, he looks to get into the box and cause issues and he’s been great for Holland on international duty, so it would be a shame if he’s stuck on the bench for the rest of the year.
It’s possible that the plan is still to use him in Pogba’s role next campaign, so that indicates that a loan spell could be the best thing for him just now to continue his development at the top level.
Inter Milan are hopeful of taking him on loan, although there’s no mention of there being any option to buy included in that deal. He’s absolutely shown enough to suggest that the Red Devils would be mad to let him go already, but a temporary switch could make sense if he’s not going to start regularly just now.
