City also wanted Sánchez, and Sánchez really wanted to go, for the play style and to win prices blah blah. And ManUtd stole the transfer.
Frenkie de Jong| Off to Barca - Confirmed
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Frenkie de Jong has years left to grab his last fat retirement contract.
Alexis Sanchez joined Arsenal in his prime. I can't believe anyone ever thought he cared about winning trophies.
Yeah it's a different situation. I'm sure at this point De Jong is putting more thought into which club can better his development than Sanchez did. And I'm sure City would put more effort into securing a deal that fits Pep more so than Sanchez. Finally, it's more likely that City put more effort into getting this deal done due to the context that is De Jong's contract. Sanchez could be had for cheaper by waiting until summer as his contract was running out and that is not the case for De Jong.
All of this could be wrong though and he could flat out be swayed by money if United hypothetically offered more. Can never rule anything like that out.
All of this could be wrong though and he could flat out be swayed by money if United hypothetically offered more. Can never rule anything like that out.
They could do with another CB as well actually! Presumably they're also very interested in De Ligt, how that will work out now he has Raiola on standby I'm not sure given the bad blood between the fat Italian and Pep - even last season things exploded before the derby.
But of course them going all out for De Jong makes a lot of sense. At the same time, football is a really strange world.
Take the Alexis Sanchez transfer for example, him going to City seemed nearly a 100% certain at one point. Guardiola was the one who brought him to Barcelona from Udinese, then he wanted to sign him at City last winter, they seemed clear favourites because coach and player had worked together before and City was in brilliant form. Yet somehow the guy still ends up at United playing for arch enemy Mourinho.
And the joke's on us now obviously, since he hasn't been on fire. Although Alexis did give two lovely assists against Guardiola's City in the 2-3 at the Ethihad a couple of months after signing for us, and there's still some hope for him, maybe as a striker.
In that case, you heard it here first: Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United in 2030.
I think that De Jong is going to go to Barca. He fits perfectly into their style of play, and he also wants to play with Messi, so I don't expect him to end up in the Premier League.
The Midfielder we should go for is Pelegrini.
Agree that nothing is set in stone yet. City gave up on Sanchez because they weren't ready to match our offer. Unless we give seriously stupid wages to De Jong, I guess that they will be more than willing to match any offer we make. The situation is different as they need De Jong much more than Sanchez and are probably ready to over pay. Nothing is decided yet though, I think he wants to go to Barca. If that is his firm wish, he can wait another season and move there in 2020.
The Roma midfielder? Can you elaborate more on him? Does he play regularly for them?
I thought he was a bit conservative against France, but maybe he was instructed to play like that, we don't know. Hopefully Ajax progresses to the R16 in the CL and we get to see him against top opposition again.
Best make a thread about him instead of discussing him in someone elses player forum.
Unless you can make good comparisons between the two. Just a " we should go for player xxx" is not really useful.
From what I’ve seen of Pellegrini he doesn’t play in De Jongs position at all. De jong is far more what we need.
For De Jong, Mourinho would 100% be a no-go. It goes against everything he clearly strongly believes in, from a footballing perspective. He's very much a "purist" in the Barca-DNA type way. There's no historic connection between Ajax and City obviously other than like a flopped move by kinkladze from them to us and a flopped move by trabelsi from us to them. But the Guardiola thing and the continuation of Cruijff's vision is something that plays very strongly in Holland, especially with people like De Jong (and De Ligt)
it's not about literal connection between the clubs, it's about the historic kinship that basically seeps through into any discussion of Ajax' values, which is stamped pretty strongly into someone like De Ligt from a young age, and De Jong similarly though through his father's love of Cruijff and his own love of Barca.
Another thing to keep in mind is that these two are currently genuinely surrounded by ex-Barca players. Overmars, obviously. But also Richard Witschge who's our staff's sort of player-staff link. Reizizger and Bogarde who are our reserve manager and assistant. Their national team coach, Koeman. Tonny bruins slot who does Ajax' opponent scouting and tactical work now again. Ronald de Boer travels in the same planes as they do to the European games (see the Ajax youtube promo for the Benfica match).
Are you Dutch? It's hard to tell from your comments but ifnot, I don't get how you can really say what's "nonsense" when it comes to the perception of that match in Holland.
the title was actually revoked as soon as Rosell took charge.
The horrible thing is the exact same thing happened with the current Ajax board/management and Cruijff in the two years leading up to his death. Except in our case it was people who had literally been gifted their jobs by Cruijff turning on him (main culprits being Van der Sar and Bergkamp btw).
it's not about us being "sanctimonious", I'm relaying how these two are likely to feel about the club, not my own feelings.
My own feelings would be that United would be an amazing club to join but that I wouldn't do it right now if I were either of these two due to A) Mourinho's playing style vs the type of players they are and B) the uncertainty that does still sort of hang over his future with the club. Rather to be brought in as a key signing with a clear plan for the future by either a club's long-term sporting director, or a manager with a secure position, neither of which are currently present at United.
In that case let's hope he goes to Barcelona. City getting their hands on the next generation's Xaviesta would be painful.
Oh they just landed coutinho.
It's time mourinho either adapts or leaves, its getting to ridiculous levels when players we have traditionally built our history on finds somewhere else as we don't exactly match their style.
This kid has been around for like years, i don't know why do we act so late after Fergie is gone. Pogba was 16 when he was already in united academy, that's how visionary he was. There just doesn't seem to be any now.
Well played sir!
Seriously though, I get where you are coming from. Obviously like I also explained to the other guy on this page, in the end my point was simply that I don't think it's all set in stone yet or that De Jong would be categorically against playing for United at this point in his career and we would have 0% chance to sign him - but you're right, all things considered it doesn't look particularly likely either nor does it make an awful lot of sense for him to go to United.
Have we actually been reputably linked?
Keep no hopes. Mourinho doesn't sign these type of players.
Nope.
It’s funny how people are discussing which club he supports as if that matters even the slightest. Playing time, money and success are only things that matter in varying amounts to any footballer.
Young and technically gifted? A pipe dream if there's ever one.
Not sure this kid is mourinhos cup of tea. If he's got a taller, less talented brother though...
If Pereira can't get a game, then we won't be going for de Jong with Mourinho at the helm.
Yup, I wish I had never watched this kid now as there isn’t a chance that Jose would like him and this saddens me. Looks an absolute class act.
He fits City's style even more. City play more like Barca than Barca themselves these days - Valverde has them playing less like the 'traditional' Barca we associate them with.
I think City has a strong a chance of landing him, if not the greatest chance. There is more of a guarantee of playing time at City than there is at Barca, which will be a bigger factor than which club he supported growing up (see Mbappe).
Fernandinho is 34 in the summer, Busquets will only be 31 and will have at least a couple of seasons in him as first choice. De Jong could quite feasibly join City in the summer and be the first choice option at DM by January given we know how quickly players can decline at Fernandinho's age.
I think he’ll end up at Barca along with De Ligt, those two positions look like Barca’s priority areas and I’m sure Ajax would prefer a straightforward double deal. De Jong and De Ligt would basically make Barca what they were style wise a few years back and there’s always been a link between the two clubs going back to Cruyff.
Reality is that De Jong isn’t likely to be coming to us so instead of wasting time on De Jong we should be looking at Ruben Neves who’s exactly what we need and have done since Carrick was out of the first team picture a couple of years ago, Neves is the sort of deep lying playmaker in front of the back four dictating play we need instead of Matic attempting to be but not being good enough in that role.
Reality is that De Jong isn’t likely to be coming to us so instead of wasting time on De Jong we should be looking at Ruben Neves who’s exactly what we need and have done since Carrick was out of the first team picture a couple of years ago, Neves is the sort of deep lying playmaker in front of the back four dictating play we need instead of Matic attempting to be but not being good enough in that role.
We've got more chance of signing Kim Jong.
Don't know why people are raving about kids in the Eredivisie. Blind & Depay were highly rated, it often just doesn't work out. On top of that, Ajax are a very well coached and excellently run club. I can't see this kid come in here and transform our midfield, considering what's at stake here at the moment. Don't forget we have Fred and Pereira rotting on the bench at the moment, 2 youngish talented midfielders.
Yep, Pereira could be very good. Just needs chances.
likely to end up at barca as replacement for busquets but it will be big jump for him which many have failed to make in the past.
Blind was never as highly rated as Frenkie de Jong. He was loaned out to Groningen as a youngster, because Ajax doubted he would make it there. The regard in which De Jong is held is completely different. There was no interest in Blind from any big sides except United and that's probably mostly down to LVG being there.
Also, it's not his Eredivisie matches that are most promising it's the CL matches and the way he completely outplayed a French midfield consisting of not the worst players to ever play the game. I'm a staunch critic of overrating Ajax' talents, but this kid is the real deal. He has more talent in his pinky than both generations of Blind combined.
I think he's the real deal too. But these young players are so overhyped they can only fail. And i don't mean that in general. Both he and De Ligt will get there. But if one of them makes a huge mistake (which is normal for a young player) tonight against Germany everyone will be saying they are overrated. A bit of time is what they need.
Blasphemy at best.
Little knows Frenkie facts:
- He was typographically wrongly named after the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
- His nick name is Fatty because of his baby face.
- In just a couple of years, he is eligible to marry to Princess Amalia of Orange, effectively becoming Prince Frenkie, and later, King Frenkie.
It's not so much about his feelings as a fan but rather about the club being suited to his views on football. For a young (and clearly very talented) player he already spent lots of his time benched because his and his manager's views on football were vastly different and he was not ready to compromise.
Looking forward to watching him play tonight.
Matthijs De Ligt's nickname is Fatty (dikkie).
nothing to do with his performance, but i don't think i've seen anyone celebrate this way since the 80s
This! And he can never become king Frenkie, since marrying a Queen will only give him the Prince title
So only your first fact might be true.
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Big part of Germany so eaily dominating us yesterday was them putting massive pressure on De Jong when he got the ball. They didn't give him an inch of space and he (we) struggled with it. Shows he still has a ways to go, but the fact the entire team constantly looks to him to come up with a solution while he's basically still a baby is very promising.
This! And he can never become king Frenkie, since marrying a Queen will only give him the Prince title
I stand corrected. But isn't our current Queen just a princess as well? I want to kind of not give up on King Frenkie.
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