Time for Man Utd to give up following Frenkie De Jong's latest snub

Carlo Garganese

• 21 Dec 2022 13:00 GMT
• 3 min read

It’s time for Man Utd to finally accept that Frenkie de Jong has no intention in signing for them.

Yet more quotes have emerged in which De Jong makes it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want to join Man Utd.

In the newly released Amazon Prime Video docuseries called 'FC Barcelona: A new Era', De Jong says: "I see myself playing here for a long time.

READ MORE: Why Barcelona rejected Argentina legend

What did De Jong say?

“I don't care for rumours about whether I'm going to another club or staying here.

“We haven't spoken about it and no one from the club has told me anything. I don't think it will happen.”

This is the umpteenth rebuttal from De Jong in 2022 - and Man Utd must now move on from the Dutchman and focus on other midfield targets instead.

De Jong’s future has again been in question ahead of the January market, with it widely reported that Barcelona are still keen to move him on.

These questions started getting louder when De Jong struggled to play regularly in the opening weeks of the season.

However, the 25-year-old saw his minutes increase before the World Cup break - strengthening his desire to stay at Barcelona.

According to Sport, De Jong is happy at Camp Nou and has no intention of listening to offers in January.

De Jong is said to still “not be very impressed by the project at Man Utd”. He is more open to a possible move to Chelsea in the future, but not in January.

And as he says himself in the Amazon docuseries, his intention is still to have a long and successful career at Barcelona.

Man Utd bid for De Jong

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

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

The reason for that is 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.

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 €18 million in wages he was allegedly owed after he agreed to defer them to help the club through their post-Coronavirus financial crisis.

But that has not encouraged him to quit the club and Man Utd must stop wasting their time pursuing him.