Frenkie de Jong’s pay cut intentions as Barcelona, Man Utd and Chelsea saga takes new turn | Football | Sport
Barcelona star Frenkie de Jong still has no plans to take a pay cut at the club, according to reports. Manchester United and Chelsea are both keen to land the Netherlands international. And with the Catalan titans pushing to land Bernardo Silva from Manchester City, that new development gives both teams hope of striking a deal.
Barcelona have, publicly at least, insisted De Jong isn’t for sale.
But the Catalan giants would like to jettison the 25-year-old so they can raise funds in order to register the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie.
Barcelona are, however, open to keeping hold of De Jong if the player agrees to take a pay cut.
Yet, according to Sport, the Netherlands international still has no intentions of doing that despite his desire to stay at the club.
To this day, it’s claimed he doesn’t intend to leave either.
But with Barcelona pressing ahead with plans to sign Bernardo from City, it seems like something will have to give.
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United are still frontrunners in the race to land De Jong, with the Red Devils believing his good relationship with Erik ten Hag can work in their favour.
The duo previously worked together at Ajax, where they won the Eredivisie title and helped the Dutch side reach the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2019.
United have lost Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba on free transfers this summer, with the pair moving to Roma and Juventus respectively.
And though they’ve been linked with the likes of Ruben Neves and Youri Tielemans, of Wolves and Leicester, it’s still De Jong or bust as far as they’re concerned.
United are stressing they believe De Jong does want to go to Manchester.
But there’s been talk of a potential move to Chelsea for the midfielder, with Thomas Tuchel eyeing the Barcelona star as a long-term replacement for N’Golo Kante.
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The Blues can offer De Jong the chance to play in the Champions League after finishing third in the table last term.
And it would certainly be a statement of intent from new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly as he looks to make his mark at Stamford Bridge.
As United’s pursuit of De Jong has gone on, the club have faced scrutiny.
And Gary Neville insists it would be a disaster if they miss out on the midfielder, especially given how they’ve spent nearly a quarter of a year chasing a deal.
“There’s a lot on that De Jong deal,” said Neville. “Just generally. Not just for the team but for the club, the new operation, so they can get a deal over the line.
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“There are three scenarios. One is that they get him, they look smart, they look patient, they look like they’ve bided their time and got the deal that they wanted.
“Or, he stays at Barcelona. Which I think could be slightly embarrassing given the relationship the manager’s got with the player.
“Or the horrific outcome is that, he doesn’t just leave Barcelona, he goes to Chelsea – a competitor in the Premier League.
“That wouldn’t be a good outcome for United’s recruitment department. I think that would cause problems in the next few weeks.
“At the moment, it might be in two or three weeks Ronaldo settles down, says he’s staying, the football they’ve played in pre-season has been great, they might get De Jong over the line, all of a sudden you’re thinking: oh wow, it could be United.”
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And he added: “Look if the manager has a relationship with the player, you’d have thought United would have abandoned that deal ages ago.
“If Ten Hag trusts, knows, looks…they’d have surely aborted that mission weeks ago.
“You’ve got to read between the lines a little bit and think he must be getting told something that we’re not.
“If he’s said ‘no I’m not coming I want to stay at Barcelona’ or ‘I want to go to London to play in the Champions League’, surely at that point United would have said ‘we’re out of the race for Frenkie de Jong.
“That they’re still in it, there must be something there.”
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