Not very likely i'd imagine, as theres no other clubs in for him. Chelsea are "interested" but they've showed no signs of bidding, and by some accounts, de Jongs agents have absolutely no idea that they even are interested
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
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Cheers. I hope Murtough has a lot of names on his CM list he can work through!
I think the media are taking blind shots as they have to report something, there's too many contradictions each day. Also both sides (De Jong and Barcelona) could be feeding information that could be strategic messages to put pressure (and not necessary true) in their particular 'battle' over the money they owe him.
But all this considered, it still looks a very complex deal. I don't know what's going on, but if we're waiting and waiting without solid assurances of it being done at some point then we're playing a very risky game. At some point we have to draw a line if there's no advances.
But all this considered, it still looks a very complex deal. I don't know what's going on, but if we're waiting and waiting without solid assurances of it being done at some point then we're playing a very risky game. At some point we have to draw a line if there's no advances.
To the people saying "we'll have spoke to his agent first to see if he wants to come" etc etc, these reports are saying that his agent has been trying to engineer a move but FdJ just isn't interested.
So perhaps we've been led a merry dance by his agent who thought he could convince him. And let's not forget, his agent has done ok out of us as we have a few of his players and just signed another...so perhaps he was trying to make it happen for us but failed.
So perhaps we've been led a merry dance by his agent who thought he could convince him. And let's not forget, his agent has done ok out of us as we have a few of his players and just signed another...so perhaps he was trying to make it happen for us but failed.
Absolutely! This is probably one of the bigger transfers of the summer. Theres basically no info coming out, and not much has happened in the past week. They need to keep the interest up some how, and because de Jong says he wants to stay, why not add their own opinion as to why he wants to stay and pass it off as breaking news, or new news? Makes sense. They can easily spin it if he does finally leave - "Barca and de Jong couldn't reach an agreement over contract, both sides agree transfer is the best option". Simple. If he DOES stay "de Jong never had any intention of leaving, he's negotiated a new contract, which was always his intention"
Complex deal? I'd say this is probably one of the most complex we've had.. maybe even more so than the Tevez third party ownership BS back in the day
What are they going to do?
You lot were laughing at the suggestion FdJ would take a pay cut, saying he'll just stay on his same wage as there's nothing Barca can do. Now you're trying to argue that isn't an option?
Ftfy.
Imagine wasting 2 months!
We can’t even get Eriksen done and he’s a free transfer. The guy doing the negotiations for us isn’t capable of doing the job, seems like we’re worse than under Woodward ffs.
We can’t even get Eriksen done and he’s a free transfer. The guy doing the negotiations for us isn’t capable of doing the job, seems like we’re worse than under Woodward ffs.
Yep the reports that Barca are putting out themselves by all accounts. They have to be seen that de Jong and his agents are the bad guys, going against Barca who want to do all they can to keep him, whilst trying to explain to de Jong that they've love him to stay, but his current contract just makes it too difficult.
Plus, do you think he'd be happy with his agent if that was the case? Would you want an agent thats going behind your back and trying to get you to move from a club that you truly love? Your agent is there to work for you and work on things as you wish them to do. At least thats the theory behind them anyway!
Well... Can't disagree with you there to be fair haha
Are we though?
If the new regime at the top are to be believed, then we are no longer going to overpay for players and no longer going to try players down to lengthy lucrative contracts when it is not deserved. Given that background is it a surprise we haven't signed top targets? We don't have CL football and we are not repeating what we offered to attract Pogba in 2016 with EL football.
I always expected this Summer to be difficult given that.
Might be the case, certainly there is a huge dilemma in the room. The question is, is FDJ's wish to play for his dream club bigger than him wanting his owed cash. Lets face it, there is still the possibility to make a deal, something water proof for FDJ, containing possible punitive costs when broken or something. To be perfectly honest, if the player wants to stay and the club wants to keep, then the rest should be logistics. If other players cannot be brought in, than thats an issue, but it can be dealt with. Barca needs to stabilize right now, same as us, nobody expects them to challenge for titles, they could run low for a year.
Somebody constructed some sort of solution: FDJ fecks away some of the money, Barca pays him 5 and we will give Barcelona 5 million more while structuring the rest of the payment a little different. All is possible, only thing that matters is what the player wants. If he wants to stay at Barcelona he should. We are in turmoil - fair enough to not be fully convinced of the project. Especially for a player of 25 years who has maybe 5 to 8 years left in his career.
Number of followers of a certain stance isn't a great metric, isn't it. I mean, it was literally the same with Pogba here. I agree with the other poster, I also consider him a pretty good midfielder but one of the best in the world, I don't know. I mean, when he joined Barca, he was to replace Busquets and he couldn't do it. Might be system might be something else. But to claim him to be one of the best, is extremely optimistic. And I get it, we all want United to bring in the best players. But I am not a fan of that plan when it leads to fixation on a single player. To a point that we have to see ourselves get dragged into Barca-internals.
Make him public enemy number one?
Make his life difficult whilst not breaking any laws?
Use him as infrequent as possible, impacting on his national team status?
Make examples of him?
Theres lots they COULD do, but it depends on how far they'll go to push him out. Yes he could flat out refuse a pay rise and demand they honour his contract, but they'd make sure he'd be gone quick if that was the case. It would mess up all their incomings by all accounts. How can they have de Jong on more money than Lewandowski? Hell, how would they even sign Lewandowski? Yes you can argue the "lever" will help, but his wage is still majorly unsustainable, and that lever money won't last forever.
This is all opinion and speculation though, as we're just going by reports that Barca need him gone, as you're arguing based on reports that say they want him to stay. So it just proves that no one really has any idea whats going on
I genuinely hope that we have an a plan B in place. Can you imagine the backlash if we end up with 3 players from the farmer's league and some 30 year old from Brentford?
By all of whose accounts?
Think it's naive to think his agent won't listen to us and talk to him about the option, especially when they don't know what will happen at Barca with regards to his wages etc. He probably saw that there was a potential for him to be convinced and tried. Hell even Barca might have asked him to try and that would explain the strange comment about his agent ghosting them. Why else would would his agent do that? If Barca want the sale, like you all claim, then why isn't he responding to them?
Can we take notes about how they handle it and use the same approach on Martial?
Well we’ve known the fee Barce want all summer and everybody knows the player earns 300k+ a week we either do the deal or not it’s criminal to waste 2 months on a player unwilling to join.
If we don’t get FdJ now Murtough generally needs sacking.
I can’t believe that a position we’ve needed to strengthen for years and our grand plan was a superstar player unwilling to join….a new low even for us.
In relation to the first part of your post, that is the crux of it. The issues are between the player and his current club.
It comes down to the fact that should we really continue to pursue this? The longer this goes on, the worse it becomes for our pre season. It is becoming absurd!
The second question is, is this guy really fundamental to our plans that we can't find someone else? Is he going to be the guy comes here and alongside his teamates, go to places like Anfield and City and help us compete and even tear these teams apart?
Personally speaking, for the sake of integrating players and so forth, I would say to De Jong listen we have got a project and to try and start bhere, I understand you have contractual obligations to resolve, but we have our own issues to sort out, we are withdrawing the offer!
Just move on. We have to start applying more self regulation in circumstances like this and partipate in deals that are logical and not with these obstacles. Especially, as he is not that bothered about coming here anyway.
Ffs
Not proving us wrong are they. Complete mess thus far these guys have been employed by the club right through all the failings.
Forever McFred.
Ironic that you'd say that here in the De Jong thread. Barca bought him from the same farmer's league you're talking about and here we are a few years later looking to sign him.
Sounds plausible but is it really? I mean, there reputations isn't great at the minute but if they would do that, to a player in the spotlight, that will seriously hinder their recruitment in the future. Not sure if this is worth it.
Christ that's what I said ages ago when everyone (I think even you!) was telling me he could just return on normal contract and there's no way he'd take a pay cut, and there's nothing Barca could do! Crazy the circles we go in over this stuff. But legally, they can't get rid of him against his will without paying him anyway.I suspect that Barca would keep him if he agrees to lower his wages, FdJ would prefer to stay and maybe his agent just tried to explore the option for us since we've done a lot of business with him and he'd have got another pay day. It's looking more likely now that he stays anyway, whatever the truth.
Does anyone honestly believe that Erik and Frenkie don't talk?
They probably didn't talk on a regular basis when ETH was in Amsterdam coaching Ajax and Frenkie was playing in Barcelona, but now that he's the manager of Manchester United and he's a target player.....they must have talked.
Surely he gave him a call....you know, whats up, look, i want you to come to United, i need a player like you.
Frenkie said, fine, but id like to stay in Barcelona, my girl likes it here, Xavi this, Xavi that....
Yeah, but look, they need money, they can't pay you what you want....
Ok boss, i'll think about it...
He's Barca's jackpot - he's the player they'll get the most money for, and as a bonus - he's not a spaniard, he didn't quite settle, etc...
Meaning, it's the easist cash flow target they have.
That, and that alone is the only reason im pretty confident this will eventualy resolve itself, in our favour of course.
They probably didn't talk on a regular basis when ETH was in Amsterdam coaching Ajax and Frenkie was playing in Barcelona, but now that he's the manager of Manchester United and he's a target player.....they must have talked.
Surely he gave him a call....you know, whats up, look, i want you to come to United, i need a player like you.
Frenkie said, fine, but id like to stay in Barcelona, my girl likes it here, Xavi this, Xavi that....
Yeah, but look, they need money, they can't pay you what you want....
Ok boss, i'll think about it...
He's Barca's jackpot - he's the player they'll get the most money for, and as a bonus - he's not a spaniard, he didn't quite settle, etc...
Meaning, it's the easist cash flow target they have.
That, and that alone is the only reason im pretty confident this will eventualy resolve itself, in our favour of course.
This 100%.
He has a relationship with our new manager. Why would we go after him without assurances that he'd be interested?
Barca are desperate and greedy, they're in a right fecking mess and they know we're absolute mugs and are likely to throw money around. It's refreshing to see that this new era has started with a bit of backbone. The deal will either happen on fair terms or not at all, and I'm happy to remain patient. Time is on our side, not theirs.
Hence I always think its not wise to spend all the time pursuing those top signings this summer, as it would be very hard to convince them to join us at our current state.
We should focus more on those money ball type of signings instead, more signings such as Malacia would be good for us.
Isn't he back off holiday now? Surely they'd have had some communication with his agent or FdJ himself and told him the situation going on?
I suspect that Barca would keep him if he agrees to lower his wages, FdJ would prefer to stay and maybe his agent just tried to explore the option for us since we've done a lot of business with him and he'd have got another pay day. It's looking more likely now that he stays anyway, whatever the truth.
You'd think that if there was no chance of it happening we'd have backed off? It just makes no sense, and i don't think United would want to be played as a plan B? I know ten Hag loves the guy but even he knows that if a player doesn't want to come, then theres no reason to stay around? There has to be more going on behind the scenes for him to want to continue pushing? Surely theres only so much "Just give it a few more days whilst we get a clearer picture of whats going on" United will take before saying "actually, no, we're done here".
I probably did say that, i can't remember, and can't be bothered trawling through posts haha, so i won't deny it haha.
No one has a clue what's going on and outlets are just chasing clicks whilst they can. Ignoring anything until a proper source reports.
Isn’t it as simple as Ten Hag hearing the player wants to stay and thinking he can change his mind? The way he signed his last contract tells me this kind of Machiavellian plan isn’t possible tbh!
I mean I agree with all of that.
I did read (yes, I know) that we had a fixed transfer budget (excluding money raised from sales) and so agreeing a fee in principle with Barca meant we knew how much we had left to spend and which other targets we could pursue.
If that is true (a big if, who knows what the truth is) then that in principle isn't a bad approach. But we need a rebuild the club on a long-term project so hungry, young players who want to play in the PL and who don't cost the earth (plus astute free transfers like Eriksen) are surely the way to go.
Think he only reports back on Monday but they go on tour very soon.
So either way, we'll have developments of some sorts next week? Good or Bad.
One things for sure, this won't be a transfer saga thats missed when it is finally resolved
If anyone who has to do one deal at a time it's Barcelona nowadays.
What are the pros and cons of giving Barca and De Jong a deadline? Maybe this has been discussed (probably has).
We'll look like mugs once it inevitably gets ignored?
Boo! OK. No deadline then.
Got it in one! Bingo! Yahtzee! Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
What? We look like mugs right now a little bit. Because everybody knows we don't want to deal with Barca internals. Plus everybody knows that we do Barca some kind of a favor by potentially paying them a chunk of money.
Of course we look like mugs if we set a deadline and then continue to deal later. But thats not the ideal situation isn't it? We should set a deadline and walk away if it is ignored. It would set a good example to other clubs and it is professional.
Find it pretty discouraging that your first thought in connection with a deadline seems to be to use it as a bluff...
Unfortunately, we're not really in a position to issue an ultimatum. Such is the consequences of no CL football. We'll just have to be happy we're even in this 'race'
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