On Saturday, we covered a claim from the Catalan media that both Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have initiated contact over signing Donny van de Beek.
Later that day he sat out of a friendly, with Ajax confirming it’s transfer related. Then the claims really started, and it’s been the Manchester club highlighted as the player’s imminent destination.
There’s been targeted leaks to the Catalan media, and it all seems to be coming from someone at the Dutch club. Tottenham fans may remember similar happened when talks were taking place for Davinson Sanchez, with claims of offers from Real Madrid which didn’t exist.
Andre Onana has also been the subject of endless stories about clubs being interested in him, with a lot of it seeming manufactured. Before Frenkie De Jong signed for Barcelona, there’d been a front page De Telegraaf story saying he was moving to PSG, and earlier this year the same newspaper went big with a claim of an agreed deal for Van de Beek to move to Real Madrid.
So whilst there are reports of an imminent move to Manchester United, not everyone in the Netherlands is convinced.
Van de Beek’s agent Guido Albers is at Ajax’s training centre today, and Fox Netherlands journalist Jan-Joost van Gangelen spoke to him briefly. The agent talked down the idea of a move to Real Madrid, and the journalist was left with the impression a transfer is being finalised elsewhere.
However, he went against the grain, and suggested a move to Tottenham instead, saying “I think it’s Spurs”, as quoted by Voetbal Primeur.
