I'm sorry but our board is incompetent to a whole new level. There is clubs you should just not do business, never in a million years trying to buy players from them and Barcelona is just one of this clubs.
Big fault on the big failure this window is on Erik ten Hag though. It's absolutely his wish and he is so so stubborn, even when the player is clearly happy and doesn't want to come in here, which is clearly to anyone who is not blind.
On top of that Frenkie DeJong was never anything special to begin with. He was a potential big talent, but failed to the hype when he move from Ajax to bigger club - Barcelona.
Yet they want us to pay them around 100m. which is a 25+ more million, when he clearly didn't live to the hype + he is 3 years older now. His performance for Barcelona are bang regular.
Their fans reaction and that they beg him to be sold tells you all the story.
Erik ten Hag stubbornness in this situation is hurting us big time. He just shows that he doesn't have a plan B/alternative, and just refuse to move on, which is terrible.
Look at Conte for example, Spurs failed to bring a lot of his A target, but they were fast to move on from target to target. They have like 5 alternative for a player/position they want, which is exactly what every competent board/manager should do.
This hurt the whole team, and delayed our whole transfer business. This was terrible acting from the manager, and from the board. Board should have tell Erik ten Hag, that they won't let themselves being held hostage and move long time ago from that thing.
Also we should have moved from this terrible business in spending huge moneys on 1 player alone, unless the player is really worth it. For example like player of the caliber of Erling Haaland or so.
Other teams have shown that you can build a great team, without the need to spend 80+m. for single players constantly. We did terribly business this summer once again.
Our focus and target should have been on either young talents that are ready, plenty of such players at 20+ years which are already ready to play at top club, and are not worth 80+ millions. And our focus should be getting this players first and from smaller teams.
