Erik ten Hag admits that Donny van de Beek needs to play for his career – Man United News And Transfer News

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Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag, has claimed that Donny van de Beek needs to play football to save his career. This doesn’t appear to be at Old Trafford.

The Peoples Person reported yesterday that in response to a question on whether the Dutch midfielder would be allowed to leave the club in the winter, Ten Hag retorted, “Donny has to play”.

The Manchester Evening News (MEN) also claimed that the 26 year old is free to leave in the January window.

The former Ajax star has become a forgotten man at United and is most definitely seen as surplus to requirements at the club. The attacking midfielder has only played 21 minutes all season and in his United career, he has only pulled on the shirt 62 times in almost three and a half seasons.

Van de Beek has only managed to start 23 of these games. To put this in context, under-fire goalkeeper, Andre Onana, already has 20 starts to his name at the club since joining in July.

The Dutchman has even been omitted from the Champions League squad and with the emergence of starlet, Kobbie Mainoo, there is yet another large obstacle in his way to represent the Red Devils.

In yesterday’s press conference, Ten Hag claimed that Van de Beek has “been in the squad and has had an opportunity”.

The manager went on to explain that the midfielder has had to “recover from physical setbacks” earlier in the season and now “he’s been doing really well in the training”.

However, the key moment was when the coach said, “from his perspective, he has to play for his career”.

The Peoples Person has reported extensively on the topic of the Dutch international leaving the club. Just last week, Van de Beek stated, “I need to start playing games very soon – if not at Man United then at another club. I think I have to be ambitious as I have always been a lover of the game”.

The former Ajax man has also been linked to various clubs such as Juventus and Galatasaray in recent weeks.

The Italian outfit are said to harbour an interest in all of Van de Beek, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane.

Furthermore, just this week, Galatasaray were reported to be keen to use United’s presence in Turkey to initiate talks for the wantaway player.

What is clear is that Van de Beek’s nightmare Old Trafford career needs to end. He knows it and it is now abundantly clear from the press conference, if it wasn’t already, that Ten Hag knows it. It will be interesting to see if the 26 year old finally gets his move this winter and gets a chance to rekindle the dying embers of his career elsewhere.