Frenkie de Jong| Off to Barca - Confirmed
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I’ve seen that. And yet the moment he’s in the lineup it will probably be those same people that are complaining he’s been played and not sold.
Top top signing for Barcelona. Arthur and De Jong are the basis for a phenomenal midfield.
The key here is the 'if' They are taking a huge punt that he will, whereas it's far from a guarantee! Hope it works out for both though!
I mean, we paid close to £50 million for Fred last summer, who's a lot older yet has only showed it at Shaktar. Manchester City casually threw £60 million in the winter market at a young CB who only showed it at Bilbao, not even for his country.
Now a year later transfer fees have inflated a little again, and the £65-£70 million Barca paid for him seems like a very normal price for this type of talent. It's not a bargain at all, but not much of a rip-off either.
My personal opinion on the kid is that staying at Ajax for one more year wouldn't be the worst thing for his development. I'm convinced he would completely flop if he moved to a team like Everton this summer for example. But in terms of skillset he's so naturally talented at the things that are fundamental for the type of football Barcelona want to play, and unlike most of his peers he's actually a very intelligent, funny and down to earth fella as well. Seems like the type who really has that ability to learn, self reflect, adapt and develop as a player.
And he's only 21 years old now as well, 22 when he will make the move. Even if it takes him three full seasons to settle in we're still talking about a player who's only 25 then, normally with his best years still very much ahead of him. And considering the inflation of transfer fees over the years they might not even lose that much money if they would have to flogg him off around that time.
So yeah all things considered I'm quite jealous at Barca for getting this done. Would've loved it if we somehow would've gotten our hands on him, maybe with the idea to let him stay at Ajax for another year.
Kind of expect De Ligt to follow him to Barcelona now.
Sad that were never in the hunt, Barca's hording of all the top talent is why they stay on top and the rest of Europe plays catch up to the Spanish duoply, as Real previously did this. Even though I could watch de Jong play more if he went to PSG I'm glad he didn't, that league is a waste of his talents.
Pavard, Arthur, Ousmane Dembele and now frenkie De Jong. This looks tasty no matter how you look at it. They might flop but the upside is scary if they reach their potential.
Busquets/De Jong
Rakitic/Vidal Arthur
Not really. Only 5 players for 3 positions. And 3 of them are >30 yeard old.
Pavard went to Bayern.
Jealous
Hope we are in at least for De Ligt, but i doubt it
Hope we are in at least for De Ligt, but i doubt it
Its the right move for him? If he is a DM as people said they have Busquets there.
United should be much more aggressive on the transfer market like this, aiming at the next stars. First, buying established players is a risk too, see Sanchez, Di Maria, etc. Second, the risk is not the transfer sum. See Di Maria, it's the buy minus the sell price. If Coutinho or Dembélé don't quite make it at Barca, they will be sold at a loss but still for a substantial amount of money. So they buy a couple, some don't make it and some will, and it's worth it for those who will. They wouldn't have them if they didn't take the risk on the market. They will have their next big team, or at least they show the ambition. Maybe that's what I find currently lacking at United. But I guess we'll have to wait until the summer, new manager, new funds.
I meant to say Lenglet
Busquets hasn't been at his best lately, seems to be getting on. De Jong ideal replacement to take over in the next seasons, young enough to not have to take over immediately, they can bring him slowly.
Hey ho! I'll always appreciate a FF7 reference.
Good for Barca, I don't think PSG could offer that kind of crazy wage. There's a lot that's not quite clear yet on how they're going to deal with the Mbappe and Neymar transfer and FFP. I also wouldn't be surprised if their interest in De Jong was overstated to raise up the price for Barcelona. It's become very petty between the two clubs. Either way, I think it also spells the end of Barcelona's interest in Rabiot when it seemed like it was a foregone conclusion he was heading to Barcelona. It'll be interesting to see where he heads to now.
Who will Ajax replace him with?
At least now you can do an Atlético Madrid and act as the pure small team investing in youth trying to break the unbelievable investment Barcelona is making.
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Haven't you guys resorted to a version of 4-4-2 at times under Valverde as well? You could add someone like Coutinho to that list in such a system, but then it's still 6 (or maybe 7) for 4 positions.
Once Messi retires or at least becomes less of a key player in a few years time though their wage bill will be more in line with other clubs. The wage bill is only so high because they have to pay one the greatest ever his worth.
They still made a profit on most of those dud's though. With Mina they more than doubled their money in about 6 months, they made a bout a £5 Million profit on Digne a back up full back, they made a small profit on Paulinho who I would have said was more of a surprise success than a dud, Deulofeu they made another 5 Million on. The money that Barca have made the last few windows on unwanted players is quite incredible.
And if you think Dembele has been underwhelming you can't have been watching him this season.
Might be one of their own academy players Eiting but he's getting surgery, so don't know if they'll attract a new player for that position. They also have an incredible 16 year old in that position who's already starting to knock on the door of the first team, Ryan Gravenberch.
He is gonna flop.
Never seen him play but the way people talk it's like he could be the best in the world. Hadn't heard of him until a few months ago tbh.
Or they do what Real always does, which is to join the arms race and lure Pogba away from us in the summer
Arthur and De Jong on paper does sound amazing.
He won’t retire anytime soon though. He’ll probably renew soon and start getting even more.
I guarantee that 90% of the guys raving about him hadn't, except of course our Dutch posters.
overrated.
Money over Pep. Ridiculous really when you think about it.
De Jong has always had a preference for Barcelona, many Ajax players do. Man City has nowhere near the stature in the Netherlands that Barcelona has. So it's really upto Barcelona to capitalise on that or not, same goes for De Ligt.
Mctominay of course
Look at the joker, that about Atlético is too much. We are not so rich because we PAY our taxes!!Barcelona must have a magic money tree.
I was joking obviously! It's hardly a surprise that he ended up in Barcelona.
I think there's a lot of risk involved in that as well. A dip in form or injury and now the option to move to a top club may not be available. I've only seen highlights on youtube but based off that it does seem like he's the typical Barca midfielder. Let's hope De Ligt is United bound.
I'm predicting he'll flop.
He's in the same mould as Weigl/Jorginho, kind of players with who it is very obvious to see that they have little quality yet hipster will tell you that "you don't understand" until they flop at Chelsea or become benchwarmer at BvB
He's in the same mould as Weigl/Jorginho, kind of players with who it is very obvious to see that they have little quality yet hipster will tell you that "you don't understand" until they flop at Chelsea or become benchwarmer at BvB
It's mostly their wages. Their net transfer spending hasn't been that high or much higher than us over the past 3 seasons because they had a lot of outgoing transfers too, that included ofcourse the Neymar sale.
Impossible to replace directly. That kind of generational player isn't in the Eredivisie, and won't move to the Eredivisie but to a bigger league if he isn't there already, even if Ajax would be willing to splash out the money. They will probably buy but play different in the end as compared to with Frenkie. I'm thinking of buys like Tadić, proven players to complement the youngsters. Some great talent is developing in the youth teams as well such as Gravenberch, but as usual we'll have to wait to see if they can make the step to the first team.
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