A few months ago, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf had a big story about Donny van de Beek moving to Real Madrid. It was all agreed, the transfer was just a matter of time, and the midfielder would be swapping Ajax and Amsterdam for Los Blancos and Spain.
However, that oddly wasn’t echoed in the media closest to Real Madrid. Marca and others spoke of interest, but it was made clear that Van de Beek was simply an option like many others, and the club certainly hadn’t agreed to signing him yet.
The Dutchman was there for Madrid if they wanted him, they just weren’t that sure whether they did.
De Telegraaf’s story was, at best, premature.
So today, they bring claims about Manchester United. Ole Gunnar’s Solskjaer’s club are ‘trying to hijack’ Van de Beek from Real Madrid. They use Covid-19 as a reason why Madrid haven’t completed the signing, and suggest United getting the player now would be a ‘robbery’.
It would be ‘inappropriate’ to spend €50m now. At Sport Witness, we’ve seen a lot of reasons given for transfer scoops being wrong, and it feels like the pandemic is going to be a regular option in coming months. More to the truth could well be Marc Overmars again pushing stories to the Dutch media to try and hype interest in Ajax players.
Anyway, back to Manchester United.
De Telegraaf state Solskjaer is ‘a big fan of dynamic midfielders with the scoring drive of Van de Beek’. He may well be the biggest fan in the world, but he already has two in Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes, and Van de Beek isn’t getting ahead of either.
Despite that, it’s stated the Red Devils made contact last week.
