Towards the end of his unveiling at Old Trafford in May, Erik ten Hag was asked by a Dutch journalist about his reunion with Donny van de Beek at Manchester United.
"We had a fantastic squad in that time at Ajax, I had a really good relationship with him and I’m looking forward to meeting him again on the pitch," he said.
This was a day after Van de Beek's disappointing loan spell at Everton had ended, but while his United career had been a two-year nightmare so far, there was an expectation that the arrival of a familiar face in Ten Hag would bring a change in fortunes.
READ MORE: Ten Hag sends transfer message to board
Fast forward two months and it already feels like Ten Hag's tone has changed. Van de Beek has played in the second half of all three of United's friendlies in pre-season and he did play well against Crystal Palace on Tuesday, but the arrival of potentially two more midfielders is only going to add to the competition.
Speaking in Melbourne earlier this week, Ten Hag's olive branch to Van de Beek had disappeared. Now, it was all on the midfielder to save his United career.
"It's the same for every player, he has to do it by himself," Ten Hag said of Van de Beek. "Me as a manager and the coaching staff around him can do everything to set the right conditions so he can perform but in the end the player has to do it by himself. They have to take responsibility for their performance. Donny has the capability. I have seen it but he has to prove himself."
Proving himself in the Premier League has been difficult so far for Van de Beek. There have been just four starts for United in 18 months and two of them came in meaningless games towards the end of the 2020/21 season, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was making wholesale changes.
The £40million signing of Van de Beek in the summer of 2020 was viewed as a coup at the time. A deal wrapped up swiftly when Real Madrid pulled out, but it now feels like was a transfer pulled off without a clear plan as to how he would fit in the team.
He could offer back-up to Bruno Fernandes, but a disastrous 45 minutes at West Ham in December 2020 essentially signalled the beginning of his problems. United came back to win after being 1-0 down in the second half and Fernandes' arrival transformed the game.
The problem for Van de Beek was that he wasn't trusted to play a deeper role either by Solskjaer and his minutes became harder to come by. In the end, he became a cause celebre amongst supporters towards the end of the Norwegian's tenure, but the arrival of Ralf Rangnick offered no change to his circumstances.
He has somehow crept to 50 appearances for the club, but 23 of his 27 Premier League appearances have come as a sub and he is yet to clock 600 minutes in the league.
Ten Hag changing his stance on Van de Beek feels intriguing. He replaced Scott McTominay at half-time in the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday, but both player and manager have said his best role is further forward.
The problem with that is Fernandes has had a fine pre-season and next week Christian Eriksen will join up with the squad for the first time. That is more competition for Van de Beek.
He might benefit from the rule change that will allow five substitutes next season, but it is hard to see how Van de Beek can force his way into the starting line-up.
He might have a prior relationship with Ten Hag, a manager who is focusing on signing players he is familiar with this summer, but the 25-year-old can't rely on that to extend his United career. He is running out of time to make a real impact.
READ NEXT:
