The legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was famously reticent towards doing business in the January transfer window.
And while the Red Devils have since proved that there is value to be found in the market after all – Bruno Fernandes arriving in the winter of 2020 and blossoming into the club’s most inspired acquisition post-Fergie – another side who did business with the Premier League giants four months ago may find themselves agreeing with the fabled Glaswegian.
Eintracht Frankfurt added four first-team players to their squad in January 2024. And none, albeit for different reasons, can be considered a success at this stage.
Hugo Ekitike has had his moments – scoring a lovely finish last week after his loan deal from PSG was made permanent – but Sasa Kalajdzic made only five goalless appearances before suffering a repeat of the ACL injury which destroyed his Wolves career.
The jury is out on 18-year-old Jean-Matteo Bahoya, a hefty and high-risk £7 million investment. As for Donny van de Beek, well it’s telling that the most glamorous and high-profile of Frankfurt’s mid-season signings has made only one more appearance than a little-known teenager snapped up from Ligue 2 outfit Angers.
Another miserable spell for Manchester United misfit
The Manchester United loanee moved to Germany in an attempt to kick-start a career which stalled after leaving Ajax back in 2020. A rusted engine is difficult to fix, however, and Van de Beek now looks like a footballer leaking oil and lacking horsepower after four years gathering dust in the Old Trafford garage.
Frankfurt coach Dino Toppmoller has been reluctant to be too critical, putting Van de Beek’s struggles down to a lack of recent game time and march sharpness.
But the fact remains that a midfielder who was labelled an ‘outstanding footballer’ by Toppmoller a few weeks prior to his arrival has slipped further and further down the pecking order as his Commerzbank Arena nightmare descends ever further into the realm of horrors.
No goals and no assists
Van de Beek, yet to score or even assist a goal in the Bundesliga, has not even got off the bench in five of the last eight matches.
“Donny van de Beek was supposed to build on his Ajax days in midfield,” explains the local Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, pulling no punches. “And he (has) completely flopped.”
Frankfurt have already decided that they will not be triggering the £13 million option-to-buy clause in his contract, Ineos set to inherit a problem left behind by the old regime as Van de Beek prepares for a return to the club who have all-but treated him as something of a persona non grata for around three years.
“We had the opportunity to borrow Donny for six months. He delivered sensational performances at Ajax,” Toppmoller, a former assistant coach to Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich, told Sport BILD.
“There is hope that he can build on the old times here. We couldn’t and didn’t want to miss this opportunity.
“The others, like Ellyes Skhiri and Hugo Larsson, are currently ahead of him (in the pecking order). But he can always change this decision through performance in training. And he’s willing to do that.”
With only a few weeks and three games remaining, however, time is certainly no on Van de Beek’s side.