It's unlikely Donny van de Beek will leave Manchester United on loan before the end of the January transfer window.
The Manchester Evening News understands Van de Beek is open to a temporary move away from United in search of more minutes on the pitch, however, Ralf Rangnick has indicated that he wants the Dutchman to remain at the club beyond January.
Van de Beek is yet to start a Premier League game this season and he's recorded just 380 minutes across all competitions.
The midfielder has failed to establish himself as a consistent starter at United since his £40m transfer from Ajax in September 2019 and it's understood the player will look to leave the club in the summer if his current plight doesn't improve by then.
Newcastle have shown interest in taking Van de Beek on loan across the last few weeks and fresh reports emerged on Tuesday claiming Crystal Palace also want the 24-year-old on loan, so what exactly has Rangnick said on his future?
Van de Beek has started one game under Rangnick and that was against BSC Young Boys in the Champions League. The German discussed the player ahead of that match. "They will both [Van de Beek and Henderson] play in the first XI," Rangnick said.
"I have to get to know the players first in the next couple of weeks in order to finally assess them. Right now, I am more than happy to have them all on board and I will try to give them as much game-time as possible."
The New Year soon rolled in and Van de Beek's game time hadn't increased despite Rangnick's promise to assess his players. That meant Van de Beek had made just two league starts throughout the whole of 2021 and that was an obvious talking point.
Rangnick was asked what Van de Beek could do to get into the starting XI and he said 'just work hard'.
“Just work hard. So far, as I have got to know him, he has got a top mentality," Rangnick added. "He works hard in every training session. He is a team player through and through. There will be games where he will get his chance to play, I am sure.
"I also had a long conversation with him last week about that and again, of course it is difficult for him right now because he also wants to play for the Dutch national team, he wants to qualify for himself and play in the World Cup in Qatar.
"In order to do that he needs to get game time here. But I still believe we should keep him, and he should stay here, definitely until the end of this season and try to get as much game time as he possibly can.”
Just over one week after those comments were made, Van de Beek came on as a substitute in United's 1-0 win over Aston Villa in the FA Cup. Rangnick then praised the 'control' that Van de Beek brought to United in the closing stages of that fixture.
"The game against Villa today confirmed, with a minimum three central midfielders, we had problems in times of the game to control the centre of the pitch," Rangnick explained. "From the very moment when we changed to a diamond in the last 20 minutes, when Donny came on, from then on we controlled the game, we had our counter-attack situations."
That suggested Van de Beek could start in United's next game, but he was then on the bench again versus Villa in the league.
Van de Beek was also an unused substitute against Brentford and West Ham, just before the current winter break.
