De Jong to Man Utd: The state of the play
Cameron Smith
- 5 Aug 2022 00:20 BST
- 8 min read
Both Manchester United and Chelsea are being forced to wait in their attempts to sign Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona this summer, CBS reporter Ben Jacobs writes for FootballTransfers.
Joan Laporta reiterated on record that Frenkie de Jong has not been offered to Chelsea. Laporta is all about smoke screens and Chelsea are certainly interested in De Jong but it remains to be seen if they make a move. A lot will depend on the player and his desire to leave Barcelona.
If De Jong leaves, he may prefer Chelsea over Man Utd if both offers were on the table but the Chelsea offer is not on the table yet.
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Chelsea are scrambling for defenders first and foremost, rather than spending the best part of €80 million on De Jong. The midfield has actually become less urgent because Jorginho at Chelsea is really settled because his friend Kalidou Koulibaly has come to the football club and N'Golo Kante still has value in the short term, as far as Chelsea are concerned. Those two were the ones that were allocated as outgoings or ones that needed replacing but they're both still there heading into the new season.
Man Utd will be extremely worried and frustrated if Chelsea do formally enter the race, but for both clubs, the challenge is all about doing business with Barcelona and Chelsea have learned this first hand in a different capacity in going head to head with Barcelona.
What is De Jong's stance?
With De Jong, it's all on Barcelona's terms. He has to wait and see whether Barcelona are going to let him continue at the same salary or he takes the pay cut, which he is reluctant to do, but if he does so, does he then become integral at Barcelona? And then he would stay at his dream club and he has no control at the moment over that situation because Barcelona are waiting to see what is feasible and possible.
And on the one hand, they may need his transfer fee in order to clear him off the wage bill and then register other incomings like Jules Kounde. And on the other hand, they may need his transfer fee to spend on Bernardo Silva. And that's another part of this narrative, that Barcelona would like Silva.
Ideally they keep telling Manchester City that they will come with an offer. And if Bernardo joins, then De Jong becomes surplus to requirements. And there's so many mixed messages at the moment because on the one hand, Laporta told me face to face only two days ago that De Jong wants to stay.
And I believe that to be correct and Barcelona want De Jong too and also they won't force him to take a pay cut. They want him to move into the new wage structure out of respect to the club's sustainable model, but they will not force the player. So if you take all that at face value, he's staying.
And yet Xavi says that he likes him at centre-back but Kounde has just joined. And if he plays in midfield, then if Bernardo Silva comes into the club, he falls even further down the pecking order. So there's all kinds of pieces to this narrative and De Jong's versatility allows him to play alongside other Barcelona players.
And Xavi definitely sees the player as part of his squad, but fundamentally the whole answer lies in what do Barcelona want to do? And Barcelona do not know the answer to that yet because there's too much of the window left. So in scenario one, if Bernardo Silva joins, De Jong needs forcing out the club, they want that money for transfers.
If De Jong doesn't want to take the pay cut, then they would also like to force him out of the club. They need to register players. As a result, they need to force De Jong out of the club, but until they 100% tell him, 'we want you out' in those concise terms, De Jong is biding his time because Barcelona's his dream club and he's on good money and he doesn't wanna take the pay cut.
And this is another Barcelona saga. And when the pieces fall in place on Barcelona's terms, Manchester United and potentially Chelsea will know what's possible. And until the pieces fall in place, it's a waiting game with absolutely everything, at the moment in Barcelona's control, and that's what makes it so frustrating for Manchester United.
Laporta's role
I asked Laporta directly 'can you categorically confirm whether Manchester United are out of the race for De Jong?' And he said 'I cannot categorically confirm that', which suggests that both Manchester United and Chelsea are just going to have to wait. Manchester United can't do anymore because they've agreed the broad fee they're prepared to pay, roughly speaking, that €65m plus add-ons, but there's nothing doing and De Jong still is looking at his options.
He's working out how bullish he can be with Barcelona. He's determining if he's prepared to take the pay up and with Dembele, we saw eventually the player cave, De Jong could still do the same. So a lot of it from United point of view is just about having the hope, but the frustration too, because this transfer is not being carried out on their terms.
I don't think Manchester United just gonna wait things out and that's really not how the transfer window works. Fans hear a saga and they become worried that their club is spinning a singular plate over and over again and wasting time, but clubs have got large football departments are always making calls.
De Jong alternatives
The reality is that Manchester United is spinning multiple plates and you're always lining up options, even if you're confident on a more simple transfer, because you never know what's going to happen in the future.
So it's not a case of De Jong and wasted time. It's simply the reality that De Jong was, and in theory still is, United's top preference in that position. But they've looked at Sergej Milinkovic-Savic but the transfer fee there is a problem, not impossible, but a difficult negotiation.
There's players like Youri Tielemans, who Manchester United were interested in under Ralph Rangnick and Erik ten Hag really likes the player available for 25 million at the lowest, probably 32 million at the highest and only one year left on the contract and looking for a move.
The problem there is that if Manchester United move, it might finally prompt Arsenal into entering the race.
And Tielemans prefers Arsenal to Manchester United, but Arsenal have slowed down on Tielemans. I think it was almost certain in January that they would make an early move in the window and they haven't and Manchester United have got a new manager in Ten Hag, they've got European football, which Leicester don't, so that one is still possible as well.
United under Rangnick have looked at Ruben Neves but Wolves don't really want to lose the player, but that's another option in the position as well. And who knows somebody like Fabian Ruiz could still come into the mix as well, he's only 26 and he's shone at Napoli.
In Manchester United thinking that when all of these names are either on their shortlist or more vaguely speaking possibilities that could be available with over a month of the window left Manchester United will almost certainly bring in a De Jong replacement if they know that the De Jong saga has ended and is not in their favor, but it's simply the fact that it's a waiting game and Manchester United are not going to just wait indefinitely and get to the final week of the window.
De Jong deadline
But I think what they're going to do is continue contact with Barcelona and the players' representatives to try and determine if there's gonna be any imminent movement between now and the first game of the season.
And then if we get into August, they'll draw a line. You never say no and burn your bridges entirely in a transfer unless the player goes elsewhere, but you have to start focusing on other priorities whilst potentially keeping the saga in the back burner.
It's incorrect to say that any football club that particularly Manchester United in this case are wasting their time on a saga because you have big enough football departments and intermediaries, and you don't do everything face to face, so everybody's multitasking.
And even when Manchester United, at the beginning of the window, allocated De Jong as their number one target, they were still working on other deals and they were still drawing up shortlists for every position, because that is just how the transfer window works. So nothing has ever just pulled out the hat like a rabbit, I suppose.
It's only the last week in the window, really, where you get a bit more opportunistic and urgent based on a merry go round of movement and a panic, maybe over missing out on certain targets, but let's not forget from Manchester United and other club's perspectives, Chelsea as well, that there is a long, long time still left in this window.
And we are now at the phase in the window where managers like to use the preseason up to the first game of the season to assess what they've got and look at the chemistry. And that helps them choose between choice a and choice B. So there are other targets for Manchester United. It's not De Jong or nothing, that's for sure.
The fan base, particularly on social media might think that and be upset and panic and be frustrated. And Manchester United are also frustrated over how the De Jong saga is playing out at the time of recording. But as I say, there are definitely other targets Manchester United are looking at, they still need a midfielder.
And between now and the end of the window, that is their priority position at the moment. And it will only really change if Ronaldo goes and then they'll need another striker as well.
