While urging for Jesse Lingard to play his football elsewhere, Rio Ferdinand has put in question the nature of Donny van de Beek’s contract before signing for Manchester United last summer.
In order to bring in the midfielder from Dutch giants Ajax, the Old Trafford outfit had to scare away competition from Real Madrid during the summer transfer window.
Right before moving to Old Trafford, the Dutchman was regarded as one of the most exciting talented young midfielders in all of Europe during his time with the Eredivisie giants, but we have only been able to see a few of his prowesses in the last few months he played for the Premier League club.
Although the Netherland international has registered 21 outings in all competitions for the Red Devils this season, most of those appearances are from the bench and the 23-year-old midfielder has only been able to register two starts in the Premier League.
On Saturday, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave the Dutch midfielder a rare 90 minutes as the Red Devils prevailed over Watford in a 1-0 victory in the third round of the FA Cup. Due to his impressive performance, he might just be included in the starting lineup of United when they make a trip to Turf Moor to face Burnley on Tuesday, with the fans set to bet on all major football leagues and cups to improve their winnings as they support their favorite teams or players.
Ferdinand, who spent 12 seasons at the Old Trafford, still don’t understand why Van de Beek is having so little game time under Solskjaer ever since his move from Amsterdam, as he believes that a guarantee of regular game time should have been included as part of the contract negotiations, which saw him join the Manchester club.
“I’m really surprised he’s not played more minutes,” The former United defender told BT Sport prior to Saturday’s clash with Watford via Independent. “I’m 100% certain that he expected to play more.
“The interesting point with the whole van de Beek situation is what the conversation in negotiations coming here was?
“When you negotiate a contract to go somewhere, you come into the football club knowing where you are, if you’re going to start, or are they going to have to work their way into the team.
“That’s the important part and we don’t know the answer yet. I’m sure from the soundings that his agent has been given off, he expected to be playing games and be a major part of this team.
“It hasn’t materialized so far, and he’s got Euros to worry about if that goes ahead.”
Ferdinand also talked about the rumors surrounding the future of Jesse Lingard, who only just register his third appearances of the 2020/21 campaign in their victory against Watford.
Ferdinand believes that if the player wishes to reignite his football career he seeks for a transfer away from Old Trafford, he continued: “If I’m in his shoes, I’m, one, asking the manager what’s going on, and, two, if I’m not part of your plans, I’ve got to go.
“He’s 28 years old, so he’s not part of the plans, that’s been proven by how many times he’s been selected.
“He’s 28 – he’s not a kid anymore – he wants to go and play football, surely.
“Sometimes you have to put the badge down because it means so much to local lads especially, but when you come to Manchester United, it’s a hard badge to put to the side and say you want to go somewhere else.
“For the sake of your career, to play games, that’s the number one thing. He’s not doing that, he can’t be happy.”
Manchester United will be traveling to Turf Moor to take on Burnley on Tuesday before taking a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool for a big showdown next weekend.
