There is nothing to it, but rumours have it that Manchester United may finally have their man after two summers of chasing him.
Frenkie De Jong has been a target of Erik ten Hag’s since he moved to Old Trafford. Having coached the midfielder while overseeing the AFC Ajax Amsterdam dressing room a few years back, the Man United boss has been doing all he can to be reunited with the Netherlands international.
The five-time UEFA Champions League winners had turned down a bid for him in 2022/23 but were willing to listen to offers in 2023/24. However, the former Ajax man stayed put and gave his all to the club before ending up injured in the latter stages of the season.
Barcelona remain De Jong’s dream and at this point, nothing short of a betrayal or the club’s outright refusal to resign him when his contract expires will cause him to leave the Catalan giants.
That betrayal or refusal may not come any time soon because though the club has been rumoured to be in talks with United over De Jong, club president Joan Laporta seems all casual about it.
In his interaction with fans in the US where Barcelona will be spending their pre-season, he interacted with a fan wearing a United jersey and joked, “Please throw that shirt away!” The joke has been interpreted by many in the media to be a dig at United and the rumour peddlers who claim that Barcelona are looking for £67 million for De Jong from United, who still maintain an interest in him.
As stated earlier, there is nothing to these reports as De Jong is getting along well with Hansi Flick and focusing on his recovery so that he can be ready to follow the German manager’s instructions when the season resumes.
Meanwhile, Barcelona have activated another economic lever to sign Nico Williams.
Since Laporta assumed presidency, his goal has been to cut spending at the club to clear their debts and to build the squad with the best talents possible. One way he has done this is by activating economic levers which allows the club to receive inflows of cash to finance their operations.
The signing of Nico Williams has led to the club choosing to sell Barça Studios, the club’s production arm. This means that whatever content the club will produce for its global audience will now be handled by a third party instead of them directly.
This sale will help them with the necessary cash to convince Athletic Club Bilbao to let go of the player, who reports claim is leaning towards remaining at San Mames because of a promise he made to his elder brother Iñaki Williams.
Barcelona have sent the documents for this lever to the leadership of the league for ratification before going ahead to make the sale.
