Newcastle United have held talks with Donny Van de Beek’s representatives as the £35 million Dutchman looks to leave Manchester United in the January transfer window, as reported by Corriere Torino.
Would Van de Beek be better suited to life at St James’ Park than he appears to be at Old Trafford?
Unfortunately, that is a question we – nor anyone else for that matter – can answer with any degree of certainty.
Should nouveau-riche Newcastle hire, say, a Graham Potter or a Brendan Rodgers as their new manager, then maybe the former Ajax play-maker would be a man reborn in black and white.
He would certainly relish the prospect of taking on the ‘James Maddison’ or ‘Pascal Gross’ role under a forward-thinking, possession-orientated coach like Potter or Rodgers.
Then again, maybe he would struggle with the sweat-shedding, hard-running style demanded by Steven Gerrard.
For Van de Beek to truly thrive at Newcastle – at least in the same way he did in Amsterdam – he would need to work with a coach more akin to Erik Ten Hag than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, someone who likes a patient, probing, passing style rather than rapid-fire counter attacks.
Could Van de Beek be Newcastle’s first big signing?
With the identity of Steve Bruce’s replacement still very much a mystery, we are in no position to pass judgement on whether Van de Beek should jump at the opportunity to become one of the first signings of a bold new era on Tyneside.
What we can say, however, is that the Dutch international would surely benefit from a change of scenery.
He has only started four Premier League games since joining Manchester United from Ajax in a deal worth £35 million last year after all and his performances in that time, while admittedly few and far between, have only served to justify his peripheral role.
Corriere Torino claim that, along with Newcastle, Everton have held talks with Van de Beek’s agent, the influential and experienced Guido Albers.
Juventus, as you might have guessed given where these claims have come from, are interested too.
“We had him on our list,” Everton’s director of football, Marcel Brands, admitted earlier this month, via NOS.
“At the beginning of the transfer window, we inquired at United, then it was impossible. At the end of the window, I received a call from Guido Albers, his agent, that he might be rented out after all.
“But at the last minute it was cancelled, stopped again.”
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