Relationship between Donny van de Beek and Manchester United has become bad, implies Guido Albers
Donny van de Beek
|Donny van de Beek’s former agent Guido Albers has hit out at Manchester United and claimed that preferential treatment towards Paul Pogba was why the Dutch star left last season. The 25-year-old has struggled for minutes ever since he arrived at Old Trafford and spent half of last season on loan.
Following Donny van de Beek’s move to Manchester United in the summer of 2020, a lot was expected from the Ajax starlet, especially after he thrived in the Eredivisie. However, in the two seasons since, things haven’t quite gone to plan for the now 25-year-old with him struggling immensely to play regularly for the club. So much so, that the Dutch midfielder has played fewer minutes over the course of his career in England as compared to his last season with Ajax.
Not even a loan spell to Everton halfway through the 2021/22 season helped Van de Beek as his lack of match fitness meant that the midfielder needed time to acclimatize again. His situation hasn’t changed under Erik ten Hag and reports even indicated that Van de Beek was looking to leave Old Trafford this summer. However, while no move materialized, Guido Albers has hit out at the club for the way they’ve treated the midfielder and even insinuated that Paul Pogba was given preferential treatment over Van de Beek.
“I saw the disappointment about the way he was treated by Manchester United, and he saw up close what I did to turn the situation around. But from the day he was not allowed to leave Manchester United again, it was final. In the Netherlands, Donny got all the appreciation, performed well and was super popular with the fans,” Albers said, reported Goal.
“At Manchester United, he then never played. The relationship between him and the club really cooled down badly. He had to compete against Paul Pogba, who reported late to the training camp, said sorry and was allowed to play again – in the place of a boy who was training 10 hours a day for eight weeks to show he was good enough.
“I then had that disappointment thrown at me. I underestimated what not playing anymore did to him mentally. I should have looked earlier: how can I help him?”
