I hope that he knows that if this fail to happen then United will end up with an egg on their face the size of the empire state building. It would also be a good idea if he advice FDJ to stop calling Barca his dream team and show a bit more respect towards a club that wants him and has a tendency to actually pay their players.
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
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I hope that he knows that if this fail to happen then United will end up with an egg on their face the size of the empire state building. It would also be a good idea if he advice FDJ to stop calling Barca his dream team and show a bit more respect towards a club that wants him and has a tendency to actually pay their players.
You underestimate the man. He’s come this far, and will see it through. @Berbaclass is not for turning!
Typical shifting of goal posts. Getting the excuses out early.
Imagine the venom on here if EtH couldn’t go on this tour because of passport issues like Xavi is having. Would be carnage. 
I meant in terms of paying him what is owed and him joining us.
Get the feeling he is very important to Ten Hag and we will play the waiting game.
We're signing Xavi
Utd need to set a cut off date for Barca and Frenkie to sort it out, otherwise move on before our plan B targets end up moving too. It's too risky if this continues towards the end of the window
He hasn’t started, it can’t be bad!Hence the bad start
The only time I'll believe this isn't happening is when there's a clear briefing from our side saying he's shit anyway.
Lets assume he stays at Barcelona then what`s the guarantee he`s still available in a years time? He is after all in the club and City of his dreams if he plays well under Xavi they probably find a way to deal with the salary issue in between the season and he stays there completely leaving us with eggs in our faces without a CM for ANOTHER YEAR. Mind you this is the one position we NEED to sort out NOW
I`m also not having this thing of Ten Hag`s vision.Yes it`s good he has a plan but good managers are flexible in case their Plan A can`t be actualized. Ajax didn`t crumble when he lost FDJ in 2019 and he still found a way to build a good midfield with other "inferior" options. Look at Pep he wanted a ball playing CB in Koulibaly in 2020 failed to get him got Dias who`s more of a pure defensive CB but made him adapt to the system turning him into a world class CB and winning 2 trophies plus a CL Final that season.
Other midfield options are inferior yes but if Ten Hag is worth his salt he picks the best of the Plan Bs and makes it work. Neves is my personal pick but I`ll be happy with someone else as long as it isn`t Tielemans
Imagine the venom on here if EtH couldn’t go on this tour because of passport issues like Xavi is having. Would be carnage.
Have you not heard? We are the worst run club in the world mate.
Yes, for a non competitive friendly tour! The registration is for la liga only!
Yes, they couldn't register them when they had no money. They are about to receive 320m this week.
If it turns out that de Jong had no intention of joining and ten Hag was stringing the board along, i think he'd be in a whole world of crap with them and they'd likely question his choices in the future or give him less freedom due to past experiences. Again, i don't know if they WOULD do that but thats my opinion.
We don't know if he's been advised to say that though, we don't know the circumstances surrounding the money owed. If he says he wants to leave, Barca could use that to say ok, thats fine, you want to leave, this clause says we don't owe you a penny now. We just don't know at all
no I meant a plan to pay what is owed that he accepts and he joins United. That would be my hope anyway.
If the owe De Jong 17 or 18m I'd imagine they owe around €100-200 million across the squad. Barca cant just simply settle what they owe or there will be a big backlash from the other players
Do you not question why we won’t walk? Maybe there is too much to lose? Maybe we know it’s done? Maybe this is all part of our planning? We have agreed with Barca then moved onto other signings. Seems like a plan is being executed to me, which is why we’ve seen Big Rich and Johnny M touring Europe kicking ass this week. Patience dear croady, the truth is greater than we know!
Oh we'll wait no doubt and made a balls of the transfer window, its the one consistent thing about our club.
Poch is still available
It will be options who fit the same criteria as De Jong.
Only correction I'd make is we are going for two, Eriksen and FDJ.
The former is done but we need to move on now from the latter.
4 quotes and not one of you addressed the main concern here. The clubs have agreed a fee and they are trying to force him out yet the biggest signal of intent for that would have been keeping him out of the tour.
Why does it make sense to do otherwise? It doesn't something else is going on, they are paying out hundreds of millions of euros to buy players and United also increased the upfront payment this is not about the 17 million in wages.
Edit: The only thing that makes sense is that he just doesn't want to leave.
Why does it make sense to do otherwise? It doesn't something else is going on, they are paying out hundreds of millions of euros to buy players and United also increased the upfront payment this is not about the 17 million in wages.
Edit: The only thing that makes sense is that he just doesn't want to leave.
I give up
So you don't have any worries about a player who by all accounts isn't interested in joining
Would't be a great way to start your tenure at your new club would it...Poch is still available
Explain that one. Trying to work out what’s flowing though your brain
I believe that United got into this deal naively thinking it was plain sailing (Barca were offering FDJ to clubs and we were the only club willing to go for it) only to learn that we were into something way bigger then ourselves. Barca wants to sell FDJ not only to make money but also to avoid paying his differed salary which means that its one hell of an ethical and legal minefield. Which is why I suspect clubs who are way more shrewd then us had sat this one out and why we should now move to other targets. We might sign FDJ just as this might end in tears.
What United can't afford doing is for the transfer window to end without us strengthening CM
None. I trust the manager particularly but also the board as they haven’t given me reason to doubt yet. ETH would not allow this situation if we had no chance of getting the player. It will happen.
"Oh yeah, we want to keep him, 85million sounds about right, I don't know why you would think we don't want to keep him just because he didn't come on the pre season tour"
Barca journos are the only ones saying he wants to stay and isn’t interested. All the reliable British journos are saying he’s happy to come if his wages issue is sorted. Is in constant contact with ETH.
Not saying he’s 100% going to come but use some common sense. They’ve obviously been briefed and if he doesn’t come now it’s because Barca have found a way to keep him on his huge wages.
Great post.
Far, far too many posters are absolutely blinded by some utter idiotic transfer muppetry on here that they can't see the woods for the trees!
On the ETH thread they'll berate anyone questioning the mans abilities and say he can work with inferior players... But on here, its a case of ETH absolutely must have the top player in FDJ to make his system work.
It's transfer muppets caught up in the excitement of a shiny new toy.
Neves could and would be an improvement on what we have and we can get him far easier I reckon than this idiotic saga.
It makes complete sense if you think that what they would like above anything else is for him to write off the money they owe and to agree to the salary he was on last year as his regular salary. That would put a great midfielder for the prime of his career (6 years) on 150k per week contract & it would mean him giving up tens of millions. That would be ridiculously good business for Barça.
Taking him on tour is an attempt in that case to tempt him into doing something that most of us would see as absolutely ludicrous from a players perspective, and something he has said in no uncertain terms that he will not do. If Frankie sticks to his stance (and I believe he will), this saga will continue.
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One thing we can be sure of is that Barca want, nay, need to sell FDJ to balance the books. With that in mind, we can also be sure they will do everything in their power to make the deal happen, going as far as to force the issue. That's unfair on FDJ, who is living the dream of playing for his boyhood club, but that's the way it is. Needs must and all that.
If FDJ does end up staying at Barca, I'd be concerned he will be made a scapegoat by the club and fans when/if the shit hits the fan regards their financial problems. They'll paint him as the bad guy who put his "owed wages" before the club.
The other thing we can be sure of is that FDJ's agent, whoever they are, should never have allowed this deferred wages stuff to happen. It's insane.
If he's telling the board that de Jong is willing to join and that he's had assurances and he's certain that it'll be done, when in reality he hasn't and de Jong is telling the truth, doesn't want to join, has told ten Hag so, and so has his agent, yet he continues to push for him, then i imagine the board would be very pissed off having gone to all the effort of agreeing a fee etc and they'd likely question any future signings that he wants to make. Just my opinion as i don't know whats happening.
I don't think thats likely though. I think he's had proper assurances, he's very confident de Jong wants the move and has told the board so, likely with some proof i'd imagine? I don't know though
British journos are starting to crumble in the last 24 hours.
Luckhurst and Shaw querying why we've stuck with it this long. It's minor for now, but I imagine in the week ahead you'll start seeing a change in narrative from the UK side also.
If you genuinely believe that, that's your problem really. I can't fathom people actually thinking Ten Hag would have us chasing a player all summer, a player he knows, and the player has no interest in joining us. If that turned out to be true, I'd be beyond gobsmacked.
1. They don't want to be seen doing something like that.
2. They need to keep him fit in case he ends up staying.
I completely agree with you that Barca are going to be able to register Raphinha and Lewandowski and, for all intents and purposes, we can probably consider both to be done.
I think you're completely wrong that De Jong has no bargaining power left when it comes to added wages though. You are forgetting the fact that, should he stay at Barca, he is under absolutely no obligation to take the salary cut that Barca are asking of him. According to the Marca report on De Jong's contract, also touched upon in this article on The Athletic, this will entail Barcelona paying him a total of €88.7 million over the next four seasons in salary and loyalty bonuses. Assuming that the €17 million in deferred payments forms a part of this figure (which by my understanding is correct), that would still be €71.7 million owed to him over the next four seasons. That works out at about €18 million per season. It's not hard to see how this isn't ideal for a club already struggling with its finances that, at this moment, patently does not view De Jong to be a key player for the club.
The leverage De Jong has, then, with the reported €17 million payment is that, should Barca choose not to pay it, they will be paying him even more than that every season for the next four years of his contract AND forego the money they'd receive from the transfer itself. I therefore think it is incorrect to act as though Barca's ability to register Raphinha and Lewandowski without De Jong's sale/salary reduction negates any bargaining power that De Jong might have in this situation.
So when he's not here for those first few games against Brighton, Brentford and scousers who should we play there
We're playing a dangerous game if we continue to pursue this and decide against other options. Midfield is trash. McFred were completely shown up by Iqbal and Savage yesterday.
There's 45 or so days until the transfer window closes, 3 weeks before our first game, and then we play Liverpool at home another 2 weeks after that. We're at the crunch time and a decision has to be made either way. If we're going all in and are prepared to wait until the end of the window for this player, then the club/management are going to have to stand up to scrutiny on that decision. Deadlines seem to be coming and going and it's all sounding artificial. Wait until x date, wait until he does/doesn't get picked for the tour squad, and so forth.
Barcelona aren't going to give a single shit about our business. At the end of this window, they're either going to keep hold of de Jong (who is a great player, who we're desperately after) or they'll have the money, which they also need. For a club who so desperately need the money, they seem to be able to find it when they need players. You can't plead poverty one moment and then sign Raphina and Lewandowski the next! My mind is telling me that Barcelona will find a way to keep de Jong sweet somehow. The money will come from somewhere, as it always seems to.
Verdict: time to move on. This is too messy of a transfer and too time consuming. We've made the offer, the offer has been accepted and it's up to Barcelona to decide what happens next. Keep the offer on the table, leave it there, and start pursuing other targets. It's not like we're suddenly going to be tripping over world class midfielders in our squad anyway, we're not suddenly going to be buying too many.
Barcelona aren't going to give a single shit about our business. At the end of this window, they're either going to keep hold of de Jong (who is a great player, who we're desperately after) or they'll have the money, which they also need. For a club who so desperately need the money, they seem to be able to find it when they need players. You can't plead poverty one moment and then sign Raphina and Lewandowski the next! My mind is telling me that Barcelona will find a way to keep de Jong sweet somehow. The money will come from somewhere, as it always seems to.
Verdict: time to move on. This is too messy of a transfer and too time consuming. We've made the offer, the offer has been accepted and it's up to Barcelona to decide what happens next. Keep the offer on the table, leave it there, and start pursuing other targets. It's not like we're suddenly going to be tripping over world class midfielders in our squad anyway, we're not suddenly going to be buying too many.
Barca continuing to spend money, without actually having sold De Jong.
How does that work?
How does that work?
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