If Donny van de Beek was expecting time to acclimatise to life in Manchester, away from the media spotlight, he was in for a rude awakening.
In the past few weeks alone, the 23-year-old has had a Dutch legend telling him he made the wrong move, an ex-Manchester United defender stating the club made the wrong decision in signing him, while his new manager has been bombarded with questions as to why he keeps omitting United’s new man from the starting XI.
Do United even need Van de Beek, came the cries from exasperated fans, with Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes already there? Where does he even play? Is he a defensive midfielder? A No. 10? Can he play out wide? Welcome to the circus that is Manchester United, Donny.
The fact that so much remains unknown about Van de Beek is not a surprise to those who oversaw his development in the famed Ajax Academy, and that element of mystery is why they believe he will keep grabbing the headlines in the ensuing months, but for the right reasons.
It all started for Van de Beek in the countryside, before a wide-eyed 10-year-old travelled to Amsterdam for a trial. Nobody could have foreseen how well that was going to go, and the stature of the man who put his faith in Van de Beek’s bright future.
“Dennis Bergkamp was coaching the under-10s, and Donny came for trials,” former youth coach and head of academy talent development at Ajax, Ruben Jongkind, tells i.
“Donny was picked out. I can still remember Bergkamp saying to me ‘this child is very interesting, he’s very special. He could make it to the top.’
“I was working with the players individually and Dennis said I should work with this kid. I said maybe he was a bit young for individual work, but Dennis said ‘yes, but I think he will make it’.
“He told me that Donny had this ability to know where to be, at the right time, that he had some kind of insight into where the ball will go. At the age of 10.”
From there on in, Van de Beek was in the perfect place for a jack-of-all-trades kind of player to turn into a master of many. With the ‘Plan Cruyff’ that Jongkind helped implement at Ajax – one of the many Johan Cruyff legacies that has lasted the test of time – the emphasis was on talent development, at all costs.
“We took the main instinct of football – to win – away from coaches,” Jongkind says. “That’s not our aim. The aim throughout the academy was to develop the player, not win youth matches.
“Initially, Donny was still rough in his play, but he just had this incredible positional sense and drive forward. These were very interesting characteristics of a Cruyff player.
“Coaches would then play him as a No. 6, as he was physically big, but we could influence the other coaches into decisions that helped develop the player. We would put different-aged players like Donny in different teams and positions to develop all areas. This does not happen in other academies.
“Matthijs de Ligt looks like he’s just a central defender, but we played him as a defensive midfielder to develop his passing and reaction speed. Sergino Dest, who has just joined Barcelona, was a striker at first, and with Donny, it was important he could play as a No .6 to develop his passing, but also a No. 10 and No. 8 on the right of midfield.”
Even in his short cameos off the bench for United and in his impressive first start against Leipzig that helped Ole Gunnar Solskjaer outwit one of Europe’s most promising tacticians in Julian Nagelsmann, fans saw how Van de Beek’s uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time could be a devastating weapon.
He may get game time against Arsenal on Sunday when United resume their stilted Premier League campaign. Having claimed just seven points from five games – including a dour draw against Chelsea last weekend – Solskjaer will be hoping Van de Beek and co. can get one over Bergkamp’s old side.
Solskjaer is still very much under pressure, his tactics being the main cause for derision, but having a diamond in the rough, an unknown entity, in reserve to call upon, could prove vital in the long term. It is a role Van de Beek has been destined to play ever since catching Bergkamp’s eye.
“He’ll take time to adapt, but he will bring so much value to the midfield,” Jongkind adds. “Give him some time to get used to the Premier League and fans will see what an amazing player he is.
“He expects the unexpected – suddenly he is there. United made the right choice, and so did Donny. I just hope it works, because he can be really special in Manchester.”
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