Frenkie de Jong: Why Man Utd failed to sign Barcelona star
FT Desk
- 14 Sep 2022 16:45 CDT
- 3 min read
Manchester United believe that they blew the chance to sign Frenkie de Jong because they took too long to agree a transfer fee with Barcelona.
Man Utd and Barcelona were in negotiations for the Dutch midfielder for several weeks until a transfer fee of €85 million was agreed.
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AD reports that Barcelona had quoted this asking price at the start of June but that Man Utd did not meet that figure until a month later.
By that point De Jong had returned from holiday and decided he did not want to leave Barcelona. But had Man Utd had acted faster, they believe they would have signed the 25-year-old star.
Erik ten Hag made De Jong his priority signing of the summer transfer window when the market began.
Barcelona themselves were desperate to sell De Jong in order to fund new signings and cut their wage bill.
Why De Jong rejected Man Utd
However, De Jong decided against joining Man Utd for a number of reasons.
Firstly, he considered Barcelona his dream club and wanted to prove he could be a success there after three rather underwhelming years since signing from Ajax.
Secondly, he was not convinced by the sporting project at Man Utd given the club is not in the Champions League and has gone over five years without winning a trophy.
And, finally, De Jong is owed a substantial amount of money by Barcelona in wages he agreed to defer during the Coronavirus pandemic. The midfielder is not prepared to just write this off.
De Jong also refused to reduce his salary, as requested by Barcelona in order to stay, with reports that the Blaugrana even threatening legal action if he doesn’t do so.
The midfielder has started three of Barcelona’s even games this season in La Liga and the Champions League, scoring once.
