If anyone knows what it takes to become a successful Premier League goal-scoring midfielder then it’s Frank Lampard so it’s perhaps not surprising to hear that one of his first moves as Everton manager could be to go for Donny van de Beek.
With 177 goals, which puts him fifth overall, Lampard is the leading Premier League scorer from midfield of all-time while his old Liverpool rival and now Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard (19 th on 120) the only other non-striker in the top 20.
At club level, he netted double figures in all competitions in no fewer than a dozen seasons in European football, even breaking the 20-goal barrier over five straight campaigns between 2005/06-2009/10.
During his final three years at Ajax, Van de Beek recorded scoring returns of 13, 17 and 10 but following a £35million switch to Manchester United in 2020, the goals, and indeed the minutes this term, have dried up.
The 24-year-old has just a solitary strike to show from each of his seasons at Old Trafford so far and is now deemed surplus to requirements.
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It’s curious then that Lampard is being touted to make a late swoop for the Dutchman before the January transfer window ‘slams shut’ (copyright Sky Sports) on Monday night with what would be one of his initial acts as Blues boss.
Given that Van de Beek has struggled so much to adapt to life at the Red Devils though, is it worth Everton taking the plunge?
It’s true that Goodison Park has so far endured something of a chequered past when it comes to recruits from the Netherlands with more cloggers than Dutch Masters while the ‘curse’ even goes as far as Marcel Brands, the club’s director of football whose tenure ended prematurely in December.
John Heitinga once won Everton’s player of the year award in 2011/12 but on the whole failed to live up to the high expectations that followed him after his big money switch from Atletico Madrid.
Late 1980s pioneer Raymond Atteveld – best remembered for stripping down to his undies thanks to being tricked by Neville Southall on an end-of-season lap of honour – and Maarten Stekelenburg might both fall into the mediocre category.
Meanwhile, Andy van der Meyde, Royston Drenthe and Davy Klaassen all have to be considered high-profile flops.
It’s memories of the latter – Klaassen – that might be most likely to prompt Evertonians to break out in a cold sweat when it comes to the prospect of signing Van de Beek.
The fellow central midfielder came with a stellar reputation at Ajax where he was captain but other than the infamous Per Kroldrup, David Moyes’ expensive centre-half recruit who supposedly struggled to head the ball, there have been very few Blues recruits who seemed more ill-suited to English football than Klaassen.
Despite being bought by compatriot Ronald Koeman, Everton’s ultimate ‘Dutch Uncle’, Klaassen’s brief spell on Merseyside saw him take up a role of something of an invisible man in the engine room.
Supposedly nicknamed ‘Kaasstengel’ (cheese straw) in his homeland, he didn’t look particularly quick, strong or dynamic and despite his accomplished technical ability, it seemed very difficult to see how he was influencing the game at all, and this from a signing who cost a cool £23.6million.
The Manchester Evening News reports that Van de Beek looks certain to be heading for the Old Trafford exit door in the coming days as there is concrete interest from three clubs – Crystal Palace, another Premier League club (understood to be Everton) and an unknown outfit from overseas.
Further indications from the national press today suggest Everton are very much "in the race".
The player himself has been training in Amsterdam in recent days and any potential suitor would be required to pay his £120,000-a-week wages in full so what would make this move different for the Blues?
First and foremost – unlike the last time Everton made a January swoop for a Manchester United midfielder in January ( Morgan Schneiderlin again under the aforementioned Koeman) – this would for now only be a loan.
Unlike Klaassen, Van de Beek has at least already experienced 18 months in England to acclimatise and this type of deal would enable the Blues to try before they buy.
Everton are in quite desperate need for reinforcements in the centre of the park right now as well.
Abdoulaye Doucoure, who has already endured a spell on the sidelines this season with a toe injury, is now expected to be out for at least a month with a groin issue picked up against Aston Villa and he joins the likes of fellow midfielders Tom Davies and regular absentee Fabian Delph on the Finch Farm treatment table.
The Blues have already looked unbalanced in the centre of the park for prolonged periods this term and have Allan coming back from illness while Andre Gomes’ off-the-ball limitations have often left the team overrun.
Poor Jean-Philippe Gbamin, now fit-again after an injury-plagued first two years at the club, sadly looks to be a lost cause given that the £25million signing finds himself in the catch-22 situation of requiring more game time to build up sharpness but having looked well off the pace when he has been on the field.
In what must have been another painful snub for the Ivory Coast international, caretaker manager Duncan Ferguson preferred teenager Tyler Onyango to him as a substitute against Villa when Doucoure was forced to make way.
It’s already been Everton’s busiest January window on record in terms of incomings in the shape of Vitalii Mykolenko, Nathan Patterson and yet another of Van de Beek’s fellow countrymen arriving on loan in the shape of Anwar El Ghazi, a player that disgraceful waste of space Van Der Meyde once told not to join the Blues because he branded them “a s*** club.”
However, like the Villa winger who has arrived on a temporary switch, there’s not much to lose from this situation but potentially plenty to gain.
Especially with the potential of the Dutchman having an old master like Lampard as his tutor.
