Only one year after their successful search for England sensation Jadon Sancho, the Red Devils club may be extremely close to making one more transfer masterstroke.
For the transfer of Dutch international Frenkie de Jong, Manchester United and Barcelona are reportedly finally close to an agreement.
As Barcelona gets to work in their position, the Red Devils’ interest in De Jong has dominated a sizable portion of the first deals of the window this summer. The Catalan Monsters are in a particularly precarious financial situation, but for a long time wouldn’t change their assessment of their midfielder.
However, after much pressure and debate from United, the La Liga heavyweights may have finally come to an agreement over a cost that they consider to the point of sanctioning De Jong’s departure for Old Trafford. United supporters will surely be happy with the detailed sum, which is £67m with more goods given everything.
The discussions are startlingly similar to United’s pursuit of Jadon Sancho the summer before, when the England international was still a member of Borussia Dortmund. The conversations between United and the Bundesliga team lasted for so long that they actually crossed multiple windows.
Dortmund at one point demanded a sum in excess of £100 million before considering allowing Sancho to return to Manchester just years after they had signed him away from United’s crosstown rivals City. The Red Devils order was as patient as they could be, taking as much time as was required before finally driving the transfer expense completely down from that high pitch digit requirement.
Following Euro 2020, United finally revealed Sancho to be a player they had acquired for £73 million. The ability to reduce the cost by that much in the board’s opinion deserves appreciation, even though it is still unclear whether he has actually come close to justifying that amount following a failed presentation campaign.
They are about to recapture that success with De Jong, whose initial price tag was estimated to be approximately £89 million, which is roughly equivalent to Paul Pogba’s price from a long time ago. With the ongoing “will he/won’t he” sign saga involving the former Ajax player, joined supporters have really had their knowledge put to the test.
John Murtough, the head of Joined, deserves praise for upholding his duty to treat Barcelona as a more reasonable expense rather than spending money on what the club considers to be overrated.
After a considerable amount of planning, everyone involved appears likely to receive compensation for their efforts, much like they ultimately did with Sancho. De Jong will have faith that he can create more of a stir in the community than his potential new companion.
