DONNY VAN DE BEEK was mentally crushed by Paul Pogba playing ahead of him at Manchester United, despite the French star’s bad attitude.
Former Ajax star Van de Beek was one of Europe’s hottest properties when he moved to United in the summer of 2020 for £40million.
But the midfielder’s career has nosedived and he even endured a failed spell on loan at Everton last season from January.
Now back at United, Van de Beek has still featured little despite Dutch boss Erik ten Hag taking over.
VDB’s former agent Guido Albers told Voetbal Primeur: “I saw the disappointment about the way he was treated by Manchester United,
and he saw up close what I did to turn the situation around.
“In the Netherlands, Donny got all the appreciation, performed well and was super popular with the fans.
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“At Manchester United he then never played. The relationship between him and the club really cooled down badly.
“He had to compete against Paul Pogba, who reported late to the training camp, said sorry and was allowed to play again.
“In the place of a boy who was training 10 hours a day for eight weeks to show he was good enough.
“I then had that disappointment thrown at me. I underestimated what not playing anymore did to him mentally.
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“I should have looked earlier at how can I could help him.”
VDB, who has 19 caps, is now in danger of missing out on Holland’s World Cup squad. The flop has played for just 19 minutes all season.
