Frenkie de Jong has been doing everything possible in order to stay at Cam Nou with FC Barcelona. On the other hand, Barcelona has been doing everything possible to persuade him to join Manchester United.
The Catalans are doing more so after agreeing a £67 million deal with United for the transfer of the midfielder. But the deal has since stalled after De Jong’s refusal to join the Red Devils.
However, De Jong has now gone one step further and told his teammates at the club that he won’t be leaving for England. Moreover, he has also communicated the same message to United players as well.
De Jong has been his former boss Erik ten Hag’s top priority after taking over the reigns at United. Barca too want sell the Dutch international in order to balance their poor financial books.
£17 million and Champions League keeping Frenkie de Jong, United apart
According to multiple reports, there are two big reasons Frenkie de Jong is refusing to join Ten Hag’s project at Old Trafford.
Though there’s this lure of working under his former boss Ten Hag who transformed him into the player he is today, United missing from the Champions League pot is one of the reasons De Jong is against the move.
Another big hurdle is the £17 million owed to him by Barcelona in wages. The Catalans owe a lot of money to a lot of entities, with De Jong being one of them.
To avoid paying him his £17 million, Barca want to sell De Jong as soon as possible. However, according to Cadena SER Frenkie de Jong has notified to United officials his decision to choose against a Ten Hag reunion.
United too are growing frustrated and looking at other options according to reports coming out of the club. Ten Hag doesn’t want to dwell on the missed opportunity of landing De Jong and quickly wants to sign an alternative.
Barcelona however are firm on their decision of De Jong’s sale and are busy in finding another suitor. Bayern Munich and Chelsea are both interested, with the advantage of offering Champions League football as well to the midfielder.
Meanwhile, former United captain Gary Neville has come out thrashing Barcelona against their treatment of the 25-year-old, urging him to take legal action.
Neville through Twitter expressed, “De Jong should consider legal action versus Barcelona and all players should be behind him! A club spending fortunes on new players whilst not paying the ones they have under contract their full money is immoral and a breach. FIFPRO should be all over bullying like this and stop it.”
United still intend to come back for De Jong despite Ten Hag identifying Youri Tielemans and Ruben Neves as his alternative. The window closes on September 1 and anything can happen before that, believe the United hierarchy.