'Frenkie de Jong ghosted Man Utd'

Tom Weber

• Updated: 30 Oct 2024 18:32 GMT
• 3 min read

Manchester United came up with a ploy to sign Frenkie de Jong in 2022, but he simply ignored them, according to a report.

Erik ten Hag is gone as Man Utd manager and one of the defining moments of his reign at Old Trafford was his failed attempt to sign Barcelona star De Jong in 2022.

When he arrived in Manchester that summer, one of the first orders of business was to sign a No.6 who could repeat what De Jong did for him at Ajax - and who better to do that job than the man himself.

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However, Man Utd tried in vain to sign the Dutchman, with him instead deciding to remain in Barcelona despite the fact that the club owed him millions in deferred wages.

Two years on, De Jong is still with the Blaugrana, while Man Utd signed Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte for that position instead, but neither player was exactly what Ten Hag had wanted.

De Jong ghosted Ten Hag

Looking back at the 54-year-old's reign and the major transfer failures of his stint, The Athletic has revealed that De Jong seemingly never really gave moving to Man Utd any serious thought.

The outlet claims that the club even went so far as "making a video of De Jong mocked up next to some of their club legends in an attempt to persuade him to join."

However, the midfielder did not even watch the video. Since that fruitless attempt in 2022, links with De Jong kept cropping up over and over again but it seems the Dutchman has never really been close to moving to Old Trafford.

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Ten Hag himself admitted earlier this year that he wanted to sign De Jong to recreate his Ajax style of play. "Frenkie de Jong and Casemiro, they would be really connected with each other. They would have been really complimentary with each other, absolutely. If you want to play the Ajax style, you need that type of player.

"But in the last decade and in this period, we couldn't always get the players we wanted. But then you have to build and you have to accept that you get talent in instead of players who already proved it in the past."