Van de Beek to Girona for 500k

Like another Andy van der Meyde...

It's a shame, really. Looked a really good player for Ajax and he's just totally lost his way.

Obviously van der Meyde's problems were more in his own head and alcoholism, etc, but it seems like Donny just been discarded and himself lost interest.
 
Ali Dia said:
I don’t know. I know he doesn’t really tackle much and he hasn’t done well on loan anywhere but wouldn’t we have been better off giving the like of Amrabat and Sabitzers minutes to him and seeing if we could have gotten a fee for him? Or even better let him go at the start of the second season when we’d had a good look at him but everyone else wouldn’t have known he couldn’t fully cut it here. Once again we play it out until the dying day when the player is absolutely worthless. Horrible horrible recruitment and management from us with an international player who was seemingly on the way up
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Considering that Sabitzer is a decent starter for the 5th in the BL and Donny can't even get minutes as a sub for the 6th I think there is such a massive gap in performances between those two that it would have been hard to justify to field him instead of Sabitzer when you had both available. Probably the same applies to Amrabat, but there we don't have this current comparison.
 
LDUred said:
Like another Andy van der Meyde...

It's a shame, really. Looked a really good player for Ajax and he's just totally lost his way.

Obviously van der Meyde's problems were more in his own head and alcoholism, etc, but it seems like Donny just been discarded and himself lost interest.
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I do wonder if there is some confidence mental block with him. Just a very odd situation.
 
StamsShinyHead said:
I do wonder if there is some confidence mental block with him. Just a very odd situation.
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I guess it’s something like this. Would make sense. Until he failed at United, his career went from one highlight to the next. And suddenly, nothing worked anymore. That ought to leave a mark on one’s mental health.
 
stefan92 said:
Considering that Sabitzer is a decent starter for the 5th in the BL and Donny can't even get minutes as a sub for the 6th I think there is such a massive gap in performances between those two that it would have been hard to justify to field him instead of Sabitzer when you had both available. Probably the same applies to Amrabat, but there we don't have this current comparison.
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He couldn’t cut it at Everton who were in a relegation battle when he was there I’m fairly sure. Another baffling attacking midfielder signing from Utd with no idea how to use them. Mata Kagawa Miki and this guy. It’s over a 100 million that. Mad.

That’s without bringing Sancho or Sanchez into it. Whole teams who play better football than us cost less or close to the same
 
Ali Dia said:
No manager has anywhere
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To be fair, he was a huge part of Ajax getting to the semi-finals of the CL in 2019.

Something's gone wrong since then, but he was a very good player for Ajax, scored against some big clubs.

It's sad to see how far he's fallen since he's been with us.
 
LDUred said:
To be fair, he was a huge part of Ajax getting to the semi-finals of the CL.

Something's gone wrong but he was a very good player for them, scored against some big clubs.

It's sad to see how far he's fallen since he's been with us.
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Quite simply, injuries. He’s been half the players since the injuries. He was not picked for a while then the legs went. And unfortunately, he’s not been able to play to his potential. Unable to run in a league known for aggressive running. He wasn’t helped by a shite team and structure too.
 
Ali Dia said:
He couldn’t cut it at Everton who were in a relegation battle when he was there I’m fairly sure. Another baffling attacking midfielder signing from Utd with no idea how to use them. Mata Kagawa Miki and this guy. It’s over a 100 million that. Mad.

That’s without bringing Sancho or Sanchez into it. Whole teams who play better football than us cost less or close to the same
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I'm not Brunos biggest fan, but when you look at the list of AMs that have failed here it's crazy just how much criticism Bruno gets.
 
P-Nut said:
I'm not Brunos biggest fan, but when you look at the list of AMs that have failed here it's crazy just how much criticism Bruno gets.
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I love Bruno but he’s been garbage this season. What a goal but his general performance was very poor. You can’t just keep punting the ball up field and getting cleaned and giving out. He’s more than that. He has the best shot out of our midfielders why doesn’t he work the keeper anymore?
 
P-Nut said:
I'm not Brunos biggest fan, but when you look at the list of AMs that have failed here it's crazy just how much criticism Bruno gets.
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It’s not merely about failing / making it, but about the collective and which parts work towards us becoming a great team. Bruno is undeniably a good footballer - that’s simply a fact. However, he has deep rooted flaws that make him terribly unsuitable to a great team or a team that aspires to be one.

Against Liverpool, right after kick off, he spanked a ball straight to a Liverpool player despite being under little pressure and things like that both accumulate and set the tone. He simply does not have the necessary precision and control over his game and likely never will. If we want to be a perennial top 4-6 team then yes sure he will be a success here as he would be at Wolves, West Ham or Spurs (maybe not this version), but if this club wants to be something more dominant, you cannot have good players who keep handing possession over and don’t have the close control / physical qualities to make up for it.
 
A makes pass to B and B immediately passes it back; A passes again, and B immediately passes back again. What can A do then? In EPL, the pressing is fierce and the opponent players have been able to close down further to A and B. A needs to pass to C. But, there is no C available in his view. Even worse, A,B, and C might find themselves already encircled by five or six opponent players.
The next time, A will pass to anyone except B.
In Ajax, I guess they know each other so well. They will know that C is available, then C can pass to B because B has moved to a free space which is vacated by the opponent players just moving to close A and C in Eredivisie?
 
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city-puma said:
A makes pass to B and B immediately passes it back; A passes again, and B immediately passes back again. What can A do then? In EPL, the pressing is fierce and the opponent players have been able to close down further to A and B. A needs to pass to C. But, there is no C available in his view. Even worse, A,B, and C might find themselves already encircled by five or six opponent players.
The next time, A will pass to anyone except B.
In Ajax, I guess they know each other so well. They will know that C is available, then C can pass to B because B has moved to a free space which is vacated by the opponent players just moving to close A and C in Eredivisie?
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Ali Dia said:
I love Bruno but he’s been garbage this season. What a goal but his general performance was very poor. You can’t just keep punting the ball up field and getting cleaned and giving out. He’s more than that. He has the best shot out of our midfielders why doesn’t he work the keeper anymore?
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I agree his performances have been poor this season.

In his defence, he's played nearly every minute since he's joined, played through injuries, always plays for Portugal and covers over 10km per game. That would have an affect on any player - he's not one to converse his energy either.

I'm not saying with an extended break that he would turn into a ball retaining midfielder, but I think some of his sloppiness and decision making can be put down to the relentess amount of games he's been playing. We played a crazy amount of games last season and going from the reports, our pre-season was a shambles in terms of being too intense. You can see just by the numbers of injuries we've had this season how that has affected us so I have to give Bruno some leeway here.

Unfortunately he's not going to get a break over the summer with the Euro's, then another commerical tour in the US and then straight into the season.
 
LDUred said:
To be fair, he was a huge part of Ajax getting to the semi-finals of the CL in 2019.

Something's gone wrong since then, but he was a very good player for Ajax, scored against some big clubs.

It's sad to see how far he's fallen since he's been with us.
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That's a massive stretch imo. I would have taken probably 6-7 players from that Ajax team before him. He was a decent player who excelled in a specific system, surrounded by very good players.
Never understood the signing.
 


Genuinely forgot he existed. At this point just terminate the contract, he's more or less worthless.
 
Will be like a new signing when he gets back.
 
Samid said:


Genuinely forgot he existed. At this point just terminate the contract, he's more or less worthless.
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Not just more or less. He is worthless.
Also after recently I would urge the club to not sign anyone from Ajax the next time.
 
He is still only 26. Might be worth a 3/4 year contract and see if a new manager can recapture some of that talent. Hyuck hyuck.
 
Send him on loan for a single year to a bottom half club where hes going to play most weeks with a £5 million buy option that they'll take up if hes at all solid to keep him after the 1 season.

Sending him to the team that finished 7th last season in Germany last season sounded a bit optimistic and its proven to be too high a level for him
 
Shane88 said:
He is still only 26. Might be worth a 3/4 year contract and see if a new manager can recapture some of that talent. Hyuck hyuck.
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Yes, if he goes on a good run we can sell him for much more. So yes, we need to sign him up for a decent contract. But, if we don't pay enough he won't sign and might go to like Saudi Arabia or something. So $250k a month makes sense.
Hyuck hyuck hyuck
 
Another mysterious signing.
It was obvious from day one that he wasn't a player that Solskjaer wanted, so who did make the decision to splurge £40m quid?
He must be out of contract soon, so surely another player leaving on a freebie, but at least the wage bill will be reduced... :rolleyes:
 
Ikon said:
Another mysterious signing.
It was obvious from day one that he wasn't a player that Solskjaer wanted, so who did make the decision to splurge £40m quid?
He must be out of contract soon, so surely another player leaving on a freebie, but at least the wage bill will be reduced... :rolleyes:
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It’s a weird one alright. I’d say it’s one where the manager was made listen to the scouts and he realised he’d no use for him pretty much instantly. I still don’t understand why we didn’t sell him after the first season? Glazernomics I suppose. In FM that year he becomes world class. He should have been a great player to keep Bruno fresh but he never got a shot in that postion in fact he was moved back deeper as we keep trying to do. Mount Anderson etc and playing 10s on the right wing. We are a crazy club. The only reason you’d have been coming here is for money and to expand your brand
 
Has to be among the worst transfers we’ve done post-Fergie.
 
If that’s true that’s one bad transfer all round. I was pretty happy when we got him, thought he’d do well for us. If he was fit could we really not get a small tune out of him?
 
Berbaclass said:
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Is that a typo? Should it be 5million instead of 500k? I thought we paid close to 50million for him. If it is really 500k, our recovery is 1% which is probably one of the worst deals we got. Girona has freaking rich owners and we should fleece off more from them.
 
How much is left on his "book value"? Was it an initial 4+1 contract or straight 5 year deal?
 
The player himself seems a little deluded, he just wont go back to Ajax despite failing everywhere else
 
cj_sparky said:
How much is left on his "book value"? Was it an initial 4+1 contract or straight 5 year deal?
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From BBC:

Manchester United have signed Netherlands midfielder Donny van de Beek from Ajax for £35m, plus £5m in add-ons, on a five-year contract.
 
Jaysus not even 1m :lol:

Sale to purchase fee ratio has to surely be one of the worst (ignoring free transfers)?
 
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