Chelsea make Frenkie de Jong their number one summer target

Carlo Garganese

• 12 Mar 2023 20:15 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea have made Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong their top midfield target for the summer, according to Football Insider.

The Blues plan to sign a top-class central midfielder during the summer transfer window.

Football Insider reports that De Jong tops a four-man central midfield shortlist, also including Brighton’s Moises Caicedo, West Ham’s Declan Rice and Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham.

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De Jong is considered the most acquirable of the four for Chelsea.

Barcelona will listen to offers for De Jong due to the financial problems engulfing the club.

The Blaugrana must reduce their wage bill by around €200m before they are able to sign new players.

De Jong is one of the highest earners at the club and also one of the few players who can bring in a big transfer fee.

The asking price is reported to be around €80 million.

Chelsea already broke their transfer record in January to sign Enzo Fernandez from Benfica but they are looking for another top-class midfielder to partner the Argentine.

Football Insider reports that Barca hope to replace De Jong with Man City’s Ilkay Gundogan.

The Blues won’t be the only club interested in De Jong, with Man Utd potentially coming back in for the Dutchman.

Man Utd bid for De Jong

Man Utd were in negotiations to sign De Jong for much of last summer.

Barcelona are understood to have accepted an €85m bid from Man Utd in July, and made it clear that they wanted him to move to Old Trafford.

The reason for that then was because Barcelona needed to raise cash by selling players and lowering their wage bill in order meet La Liga spending requirements, which they eventually did by selling off club assets and shares in their TV deals. Barcelona will not be allowed to activate any new ‘levers’ this summer.

In the end, De Jong refused to join Man Utd and stayed at Barcelona, despite interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich as well.

The Blaugrana also tried to force De Jong to reduce his salary if he didn’t move, which the player refused to do, with reports that Barcelona even threatened legal action.

De Jong was furious that Barcelona refused to pay him €18m in wages he was allegedly owed after he agreed to defer them to help the club through their post-Coronavirus financial crisis.

The 25-year-old has made 32 appearances for Barcelona this season, with Xavi’s team top of La Liga currently.