Donny van de Beek has 'plenty of other clubs' out there, says former Manchester United coach

Donny van de Beek was brought in for £40million from Ajax but has struggled to nail down a place in Manchester United's first team.

The Dutchman is still settling in and adapting to life in the Premier League but there remain doubts over his ability to make it in the English top flight.

Former Manchester United goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek believes there will be multiple suitors for the midfielder if he cannot establish himself at Old Trafford.

'It is a big transition, from the Eredivisie to the Premier League,' he told Voetbal International.

'Not only the speed of action, but also physically. It is Ajax-Feyenoord in England every week, where you also have to win every match at United.'

Hoek, who worked under Louis van Gaal at United, went on to add that a fair judgement could only be made after a year.

'But it is not as easy there as in some matches in the Netherlands. I think that we can only actually assess Van de Beek when we are one year later', he said.

'Perhaps this is the run-up to a fantastic career for Van de Beek in Manchester. If not, there will be plenty of other clubs for him. For now I would say: wait and see.'

The 23-year-old only made his first start for United in November and has fallen down the pecking order with Paul Pogba's return to form.

Fred and Scott McTominay have also regularly been deployed in the heart of midfield by Solskjaer this term with Bruno Fernandes the first name on the team sheet every week.

Gary Neville recently admitted he could not understand the logic in United signing Van de Beek. He told Sky Sports: 'It's interesting, something's happened – the (Donny) Van de Beek signing's an interesting one – I still can't get my head around it.

'It's almost as if that signing was sort of done in anticipation of one of the others leaving because Van de Beek has just sat on the bench for the last few months and he cost £40million.

'I think that Manchester United are preparing for someone leaving. Maybe Pogba could leave, so they've already got Van de Beek in to maybe assume that role.'