Donny van de Beek is relishing his ‘big opportunity’ at Manchester United and says he ‘cannot wait’ to play in front of the club’s fans at ‘amazing’ Old Trafford.
Van de Beek became Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first signing of the summer when he completed a £40million move from Ajax at the start of the month.
The Netherlands international featured in Manchester United’s pre-season friendly against Aston Villa on Saturday and is in contention for their opening Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace this weekend.
Fans will not be present at the Theatre of Dreams due to the coronavirus pandemic but Van de Beek is excited for their return, with the Football League continuing to stage pilots with up to 1,000 supporters at matches this weekend.
Discussing his first few weeks at Old Trafford, Van de Beek told MUTV: ‘Everyone has helped me a lot and wanted to make me feel at home and this is really good for me and it has given me the confidence to play.
‘It’s a family club, I feel this already from the first seconds I have been here.
‘Old Trafford is an amazing stadium. The nicest thing will be when the fans are there too and I cannot wait to play for the first time in front of them.
‘I hope to see them soon in the stadium because for our team they will give us a lot of power when we can have them with us.
‘I watched United a lot [when I was younger]. Because a lot of Dutch players have played here and this was nice to watch if you’re a young kid and you see the Dutch players there.
‘Daley, Edwin, Robin van Persie… you see them. They won a lot of titles and United always played nice football, which was always good to see.’
Asked how he feels to be part of Solskjaer’s young and talented squad at Old Trafford, Van de Beek added: ‘I cannot wait to play many games with them.
‘There are a lot of young players in the group, around my age, and I think this is a really big opportunity for me to help the team.
‘It’s always good to play with these kinds of players, you can learn from everybody. Everybody has their own qualities and you have to pick things up from them.
‘I’m really happy I can play with them. That is what I want and I hope together we can make a really nice future for the club.’
Manchester United’s opponents this week, Crystal Palace, clinched a 1-0 win over Southampton in their opening fixture last Saturday.
