Donny van de Beek 'WILL return to Man United in June'

Donny van de Beek is expected to return to Manchester United later this summer with Eintracht Frankfurt reportedly unwilling to trigger an option to buy clause in his contract.

It had been widely accepted that the 26-year-old, who joined Man United for £40million in 2020, needed to go out on loan to play first-team football, with the midfielder playing just 21 minutes from the bench at the start of the 2023-24 season.

The Dutch international joined Frankfurt on loan in January. His deal included an option-to-buy clause that allowed the German club to make his stay permanent for a fee of £9.5m plus an add-on fee of £2.6m

The Bundesliga side currently sit sixth in the German top-flight with Van de Beek having made just seven league appearances for his new team since joining, and according to Fabrizio Romano, they will not activate his option to buy.

The Italian journalist wrote on X (formerly Twitter): 'Donny van de Beek will return to Man United in June. The option to buy clause added into his loan deal will not be triggered by Eintracht Frankfurt.

'The dutch midfielder is expected to look for a new chapter and a new club in the summer transfer window.'

Since joining Frankfurt, Van de Beek has failed to return a goal or an assist and has been an unused substitute in three of their last four league matches.

At United, the midfielder fell down both Ralf Rangnick's and Erik Ten Hag's pecking order as injuries and dips in form plagued his four year spell at Old Trafford.

After signing from Ajax in 2020, he has subsequently gone on to feature in 62 games for the Red Devils, scoring two goals and two assists.

Amid his struggles for game-time, he went out on loan to Everton in 2022 where he would play seven times and score one goal but suffered a thigh injury that ruled him out for a large proportion of the back end of the season.

In the summer, several clubs, including his former side Ajax, had expressed their interests in singing the out-of-favour Man United midfielder.

His contract at Old Trafford is set to expire in June 2025, with Ten Hag believing injuries were primarily to blame for his struggles this season.

'He has had many injuries, first of all,' Ten Hag said. 'From the first moment I came in here at Manchester United, he wasn't the player he was at Ajax as he was injured.

'So many times he was not available and then he struggled for a long time to recover from that injury. That is probably the main reason why he was not playing.

'We decided for a loan in the summer but it didn't come and then his opportunities are few because also we make appointments and we make agreements with players and contract players in that position. The competition was high.'

Frankfurt wre recently knocked out of the Europa Conference League, suffering a 3-4 defeat by Union Saint-Gilloise in the playoffs.

They are currently on the cusp of gaining a berth in the European competition next season and are three points clear of Augsburg in sixth place.

Despite that, head coach Dino Toppmoller has admitted that he has apologised to Van de Beek after he had been left out of their Europa Conference League squad earlier this year.

‘He’s only played a total of four games in the last two years, so it won’t happen overnight,’ he said back in January.

‘But I have 100 per cent confidence in his quality, he’ll definitely help us in the second half of the season.

‘I told Donny that I was sorry but also what I expected from him now.’