Donny

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Ineos forever cementing themselves as geniuses, if they manage to collect a fee while shipping him.
 
Santos J said:
Don't really think it was a motivation thing, he just looked very shite
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Just about everything that could have gone wrong with this one, did. It's pretty much a case study in how to waste money as a football club.
 
Am I right in thinking he was the Declan Rice alternative from 2020?

We didn't want to pay the £60m or whatever it was..
 
I would be so happy if someone paid us 1m and found a solution with his wages so we won’t compensate him for lower wages he’d receive
 
I think we should change the thread title to: 'The Curious Case of Donny van de Beek'.
 
I hope he does move on, for his career. Shame how it turned out as I was pretty optimistic when we signed him but it was clearly done with no vision on how he'd fit into the team. All the "He Can Pay any role in the midfield" and "ETH will get the best out of him" can be put to bed now at least.
 
A very strange transfer in the first place, Ole certainly did not rate him and although we thought he was over harsh, time has proved him correct, Donny is just not good enough it seems.
 
I can see no fee involved, mutual termination of contract incoming. Scary how bad that transfer turned out.
 
The guy just nosedived so so hard. Such a shame how it's turned out, I can't think of many similar drop offs from how highly rated he was and how he turned out.
 
He must have just lost interest and motivation, for whatever reason. There is no other explanation for a nose-dive of being a rising star in Champions League to being a flop as a loanee at Eintrecht.

It is obviously very rare, at his level, but it does happen. Dude just checked out, no major injury, no nothing, just not into it

Pretty fecked up
 
NewGlory said:
He must have just lost interest and motivation, for whatever reason. There is no other explanation for a nose-dive of being a rising star in Champions League to being a flop as a loanee at Eintrecht.

It is obviously very rare, at his level, but it does happen. Dude just checked out, no major injury, no nothing, just not into it

Pretty fecked up
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He wasn't that good at Ajax either. He just filled an extremely specific (and small) role in a perfectly functioning machine. He didn't have any standout qualities there either.
 
KirkDuyt said:
He wasn't that good at Ajax either. He just filled an extremely specific (and small) role in a perfectly functioning machine. He didn't have any standout qualities there either.
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OK, but just because he was never Jude Bellingham doesn't mean he was an empty space.

Going from whatever he was to not being able to even be that under Erik, same manager who had him at Ajax, and being a flop at Eintrecht is still a dramatic decline

One thing people don't understand - there are some footballing basics that any quality pro has, you don't have to be a star. When you don't show even those - something is wrong. What happened to Donny is clearly not just his talent, and since it is neither injury nor a manager who doesn't get jt, it must be himselt and him likely mentally having checked out
 
NewGlory said:
OK, but just because he was never Jude Bellingham doesn't mean he was an empty space.

Going from whatever he was to not being able to even be that under Erik, same manager who had him at Ajax, and being a flop at Eintrecht is still a dramatic decline

One thing people don't understand - there are some footballing basics that any quality pro has, you don't have to be a star. When you don't show even those - something is wrong. What happened to Donny is clearly not just his talent, and since it is neither injury nor a manager who doesn't get jt, it must be himselt and him likely mentally having checked out
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That's fair enough, but he was never going to work for you guys. Motivated or not.
 
He won't be the first or the last Ajax system player who failed to adapt outside of the Ajax system.

I do wonder what would have happened to him, had COVID not happened and his move to Real Madrid not fall through.

You could see him and his way of playing football working. Playing short balls, 1-2's, finding space etc. It's a skillset that requires a particular system and style of play.
 
Going to be here again with Mount in a couple of years

Shame it didn’t work but another highlight why the recruitment needs to be so much better
 
GDaly95 said:
I can't even remember why this went so badly.

There's a difference between being a flop and near enough ceasing to be a professional footballer.

Was it injuries or did he just lose all motivation the second he joined us, like a Hazard at Real Madrid job?
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Harsh.

He just looks devoid of any confidence whatsoever.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
Going to be here again with Mount in a couple of years

Shame it didn’t work but another highlight why the recruitment needs to be so much better
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dinostar77 said:
Definitely, Chelsea laughing on the way to the bank on that deal.
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Mount is twice the player that Donny is.

He was great for Chelsea and pivotal in their CL win under Tuchel. He was one of the main guys. Donny was never even that at Ajax.

To be fair to him, ha has been injured for nearly his entire United career from the start. Once he gets pre season under his belt and (hopefully) puts his injury problems behind him, he will be a very good player for the team.
 
GDaly95 said:
I can't even remember why this went so badly.

There's a difference between being a flop and near enough ceasing to be a professional footballer.

Was it injuries or did he just lose all motivation the second he joined us, like a Hazard at Real Madrid job?
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Hazard never lost motivation, his body was done far as he explained in several interviews.
 
onemanarmy said:
Hazard never lost motivation, his body was done far as he explained in several interviews.
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Of course it was motivation. There are plenty of his ex team mates and coaches that have said Hazard was very lazy in training and his natural ability/talent on match day is what made him shine.

Even on match day there was plenty of seasons where he was switched off and was poor for large chunks of the season.

You don't turn up overweight when first arriving to a club like Real Madrid, unless you lack the motivation.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Mount is twice the player that Donny is.

He was great for Chelsea and pivotal in their CL win under Tuchel. He was one of the main guys. Donny was never even that at Ajax.

To be fair to him, ha has been injured for nearly his entire United career from the start. Once he gets pre season under his belt and (hopefully) puts his injury problems behind him, he will be a very good player for the team.
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Donny did play in that 4-0 Ajax win over Real Madrid away though if I'm not mistaken. And was good. Then of course was minutes away from a CL final

I've resigned myself to Mount not working. I don't see anything there which suggests there will be improvement and I think he'll be injured again soon. I do seriously hope you are right and I am wrong because I think he's very likable and very easy to root for.
 
GDaly95 said:
I can't even remember why this went so badly.

There's a difference between being a flop and near enough ceasing to be a professional footballer.

Was it injuries or did he just lose all motivation the second he joined us, like a Hazard at Real Madrid job?
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Ole forgot to negotiate that veto power in his contract.
 
The holy trinity 68 said:
Mount is twice the player that Donny is.

He was great for Chelsea and pivotal in their CL win under Tuchel. He was one of the main guys. Donny was never even that at Ajax.

To be fair to him, ha has been injured for nearly his entire United career from the start. Once he gets pre season under his belt and (hopefully) puts his injury problems behind him, he will be a very good player for the team.
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His best ability is his work rate off the ball. That says everything about him.
 
KirkDuyt said:
That's fair enough, but he was never going to work for you guys. Motivated or not.
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Yeah, I agree he was a very stupid buy, especially considering Ole bought him, who had zero idea how to use him

El-Manos said:
Mount is a much better player. We didn’t need him but at least he has talent.
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+1. Mount is not a bad player, if he can stay fit, but he is also the most bizarre acquisition in Ten Hag era. There have been worse buys under Erik, but at least you knew why he was buying them. There is zero justification for us buying Mount, because he can really only play instead of Bruno, in our system, and Bruno is an ironman who plays every single game of a season, so - when is Mount ever going to get any playtime?
 
He was on the Ball on Dor shortlist.
We bought him soon after.
And as we have seen time and time again with so many different players, he turned to crap.
How do we so consistently destroy the careers of promising, up-and-coming footballers?

Bruno was the only guy who I can confidently say was purchased and maintained good form. And even Bruno has recently "reduced" a bit.
Is it our coaching?
 
LawCharltonBest said:
Going to be here again with Mount in a couple of years

Shame it didn’t work but another highlight why the recruitment needs to be so much better
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Not a Mount fan but he's far better than Donny.

That's not saying much though as I think Donny is one of the most pointless players I have ever seen.
 
KirkDuyt said:
He wasn't that good at Ajax either. He just filled an extremely specific (and small) role in a perfectly functioning machine. He didn't have any standout qualities there either.
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This is 100% my recollection and why I was never enthusiastic about signing him. Very basic player, with very little standout ability (except perhaps a smidgen of those intangibles like “movement”, “football IQ” which you couldn’t really quantify) but part of a well oiled machine.

All that being said, plus me being puzzled as to why we signed him when his best position was that of Bruno (& we needed a quality DM)….i still never envisaged how shit a signing he’d end up being for us. Think the more he struggled, the deeper the hole his confidence sunk into and he’s just never been able to work his way back out.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
Going to be here again with Mount in a couple of years

Shame it didn’t work but another highlight why the recruitment needs to be so much better
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Very possibly.
Buying a player for a fairly substantial fee who plays where your best player, who barely misses a game plays.
 
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