‘Better than Van de Beek’: Player Everton sold for £12m in the form of his life

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Things in football change rather rapidly. Just ask Donny Van de Beek.

Just a few months ago, he was the golden boy of Ajax and a guaranteed starter for the Dutch national team. But, with game-time proving hard to come by at Manchester United, the 2019 Eredivisie winner has paid with his place in Frank de Boer’s XI.

Van de Beek played just 20 minutes during Holland’s 2-1 win against Poland in the final UEFA Nations League fixture on Wednesday night.

And there is a certain irony in the fact that the man he replaced in Chorzow found himself in an almost identical position to Manchester United’s £40 million bench-warmer back in 2017.

Like Van de Beek, Klaassen swapped Ajax for the Premier League three years ago. But it became apparent almost immediately that there was no obvious place for him in an Everton midfield overloaded with number tens.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

After one forgettable season on Merseyside, Klaassen was forced to give up on his Premier League dream.

And it has taken a return to where it all began for the former Ajax skipper to once again establish himself as a key player for Oranje after three years without even a sniff of a call-up.

Klaassen has been in the form of his life since heading back to Amsterdam in October and, according to former Ajax ace Kenneth Perez, he is now a more ‘complete player’ than the one who joined Everton in a £23 million deal – and left 12 months later at an £11 million loss.

“Klaassen is now better than Donny Van de Beek,” Perez told Fox’s Football Talk podcast. “He’s such an intelligent football player. With Klaassen, you are more comfortable on the ball (as a team).”

Netherlands legend Rafael Van der Vaart, meanwhile, believes Klaassen’s transformation from an orthodox number ten into a box-to-box enforcer makes him something of a modern-day Mark Van Bommel – the fearsome ball-winner who captained Holland to the 2010 World Cup final.

“I think he’s a Van Bommel type,” Van der Vaart told the Vara Gids podcast, via Ajax Showtime. “Especially when he gets a little meaner – and I mean that in a positive sense. Klaassen left Ajax as a number ten and came back as a controlling midfielder, while still scoring goals.”

Whether Van de Beek will have to follow Klaassen’s lead as he looks to get his career back on track, only time will tell.