Manchester United has loaned Donny van de Beek to Eintracht Frankfurt until the end of the season. The German club paid a small fee to get him.

The Bundesliga team can buy the player in the summer for €11m (£9.5m) plus €3m in add-ons. During the loan, they will pay most of the 26-year-old’s weekly salary of about £120,000.

This is Van de Beek’s second loan move since he joined from Ajax in 2020. The Dutchman has never really made a name for himself on the team. He has only played twice this season and 62 times together, scoring twice and setting up two goals. Van de Beek joined Everton for the second part of the 2021–22 season two years ago. He played seven times and scored one goal.

United doesn’t think there will be many lasting moves this winter. Casemiro, Raphaël Varane, Jadon Sancho, and Anthony Martial are some of the players Erik ten Hag might sell, but only if he can also get better players in these areas.

Financial fair play rules say that the club needs to make money before making any big deals, so they will listen to bids. Any possible deals are muddled by the need to talk to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who will be a minority partner and run United’s sports activities.

The Premier League will have to approve the Ineos owner’s first buy of 25% of the club, which could take five to seven weeks. But because of the rules of the buy-in, Ratcliffe’s team, which is led by Sir Dave Brailsford, has to be involved in hiring.