Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

[Keefy18]

We've had a new manager in place and targets defined for more than a month. There's no reason why we won't sign them other than the fact that we seem to have a one target at a time policy for some strange reason.

My complaint is not that this deal is taking a long time, we know it will. This is a position / profile (midfield playmaker) where you have your primary / backup targets and maybe don't initiate conversations about the backups until we're walking away from this deal. That's totally fine.

But we're not doing anything at all in entirely unrelated positions (2nd CM spot, CB, RW, Fwd) just waiting to wrap this deal up first.

There's no evidence of that considering we are in talks with both FDJ and Antony currently. We also held talks with Nunez according to Romano but backed out. We do drag our feet though, that's certainly not in doubt.

Comparing us to City is stupid though, again they are one of the worlds best teams, if not the best. They've dominated under Pep bar 1 trophy but still making the latter stages of the CL most seasons now.

Transfers for them are easy considering the structure in place, we have made life very difficult for ourselves due to a decade of mismanagement.

 

[Mainoldo]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Flattered = Thanks but no, thanks.

Replace Frenkie with Paul Labile saying they same things, being linked to Real Madrid away from Manchester United.

How would you feel?

 

[Tarrou]

Replace Frenkie with Paul Labile saying they same things, being linked to Real Madrid away from Manchester United.

How would you feel?

We don't have to imagine it because it happened right?

There was a meltdown

 

[Real Name]

This one is in the bag.

 

[SeanyC]

Anyone starting to get impatient over this? I’m starting to, yes I know it’s early but when I look at our rivals one help but wondering what we are up to. Game of chicken and who blinks first is not a proper way to do business in my few

 

[Cédric Sophie]

BubbleCafe

ImpatientCafe

 

[Judas]

Personally think the next 56 hours will be big.

 

[Charles Miller]

While De Jong would be in the two. So not really an alternative as they would play different positions

This is what i said; - Eriksen as an alternative doesn't mean he would play in the same role or that he is similar to Frenckie de Jong.

I think it was clear i'm talking about alternatives on the market, not similar players for the same position/role.

 

[pocco]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

'Prepared to walk away' has been a sign that a deal is done in the past few windows

Yeah and the journalists have been saying it for weeks. The threat kind of loses it's credibility after it's repeated so many times.

 

[elnorte]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Flattered = Thanks but no, thanks.

Look on the bright side. It avoids us having yet another cult of posters obsessively defending failing players for years as we currently see with Maguire and Rashford, formerly with Pogba (aside from that one weirdo who's like a parody of a Japanese holdout soldier from the Second World War) and in the case of Sancho still unfortunately very much in the early stages.

 

[Real Name]

Look on the bright side. It avoids us having yet another cult of posters obsessively defending failing players for years as we currently see with Maguire and Rashford, formerly with Pogba (aside from that one weirdo who's like a parody of a Japanese holdout soldier from the Second World War) and in the case of Sancho still unfortunately very much in the early stages.

You're right, we shouldnt sign anyone actually so he doesnt prove to be a failing player who then has his fanbois defending them at every opportunity.

 

[sglowrider]

But what is the cut off timeline here ? It’s just over 2 weeks left for Barcelona before all hell breaks loose for them as it’s reported. But they don’t seem to be that desperate at all and are amazingly calm. I’m surprised how stubborn they are to dig their heels in. I don’t quite get it. I would have thought they would be happy to get a fee around €70m for de Jong given time is against them but we are quite apart in agreeing a fee for de Jong as reported by Ornstein and whitwell.

If we know the cut-off time then we are in serious trouble. Leaks even within that small team that negotiating. #brownenvelopes

I suspect Barca knows that ETH really wants Frenkie and will build an entire team around him. Maybe Frenkie told them? Therefore they can wait and play some brinksmanship. (We must know that they must have some financial options since they turned down CVC recently.)

Its a chicken race. But you can assume that we have another option -- otherwise ETH isn't as good as we think he is. Even buying a house took me six months to bring the price down. There were weeks where there was no communication -- just to show we were that desperate or the seller wasn't that desperate since they had someone renting the place.
All over ... maybe 10% off.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Look on the bright side. It avoids us having yet another cult of posters obsessively defending failing players for years as we currently see with Maguire and Rashford, formerly with Pogba (aside from that one weirdo who's like a parody of a Japanese holdout soldier from the Second World War) and in the case of Sancho still unfortunately very much in the early stages.

I hate posters that try to defend our players!

 

[noelyman]

I'm going to be a right smug prick when we sign him.

I'll also accept being the brunt of all the whingers jokes if we don't get him

You'd better hope to god we sign him then cos that's a hell of a lot of whingers on your case if we don't. Personally I'm with you I think it'll happen this is just the negotiation phase. The deal makes sense to all parties and so common sense will prevail even if that means more upset on the way for those caf members who have about as much patience as 3 year olds on Christmas Eve. I believe it was Ghandi who said "To lose patience is to lose the battle."

 

[sglowrider]

We're still in the Antony is a target phase, no rumors of concrete discussions, certainly nothing advanced. FdJ we knew we hired a 3rd party firm to start negotiating in May.

I'd hope we atleast know who our targets were by now, otherwise there's no hope for the club.



I know modern finance is complex, but surely it can't be that hard to estimate how much they'll pay for the transfer and start using the rest of the budget. We know he's going to cost something between 60-80M.

I can understand that they can't sign Nunez and FdJ both in the same window and FdJ is our #1 target but I don't understand what prevents them from going for Timber, Antony etc. while we negotiate this deal.

The players report for training in two weeks. You're all mad if you think we can pull off FdJ, Timber and Antony in that period.

I suspect that they know ETH will be costly as a package and the others arent cheap either. You can assume that they already have made inquiries about them --- and the prices are high enough that it would depend on how much we will land up paying for Frenkie? And if we can then afford say a Timber after?

Also, they wont want to close the deal of their 2nd target as that would then affect the price of Frenkie -- Barca will say that if you are paying that much for XXX. We know that Frenkie, a pivotal part to your team, someone who is key to the National Team etc will be worth XXX times more than your #2 target/priority/buy.

Getting Frenkie as low as possible will have a knock-on effect on 2nd and 3rd targets.

Its sad we arent an oil club where this wouldn't matter.

 

[ehsanul]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Flattered = Thanks but no, thanks.

Its obvious he doesn’t want to come so stop wasting time and get someone that WANTS to come.We are a joke of a club nowadays run by a bunch of fools.

 

[devilish]

The biggest club in the world are selling you like horse meat Frenkie. They also expect club legend Pique to retire because, erm, he's crap and unprofessional while he's also expected to forgive at least part of the 40m debt Barca has with him because he's erm a legend and a professional.

 

[Bosws87]

Man in job contracted by team gives generic answer which keeps all parties happy and gives nothing away.

Meanwhile the CAF

 

[FrankDrebin]

Win or lose Manchester United rarely walk away from a deal.


What's Fellaini up to nowadays ?

 

[UnitedSofa]

Its obvious he doesn’t want to come so stop wasting time and get someone that WANTS to come.We are a joke of a club nowadays run by a bunch of fools.

Bloody hell calm down.

No player in the history of football has come out and said.

"Yeah i want to go to x club, get me out of y club as soon as possible"

 

[#07]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[UnsungHero]

Those Frenkie comments just underline what all of the various journalists have been saying:

He doesn't want to leave Barca... but he might if they effectively force him out for financial reasons.

However we try and spin it, it's not ideal... but I'm sure he'd do fine with Ten Hag here. Not convinced it'll happen at this stage, we have a habit of spectacularly messing things up.

 

[Kaizane]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

'Prepared to walk away' has been a sign that a deal is done in the past few windows

Loving the Murtough era. Threaten to walk away after the deal is done

 

[red_de_pologne]

Personally think the next 56 hours will be big.

I'm getting more of a big 63 hours vibe from this

 

[Cypriot]

Could've been smarter in his response. Will be a bit awkward if he comes now. "Oh ye, err, I've always dreamt of this err biggest club in the world"

 

[ForeverRed1]

Could've been smarter in his response. Will be a bit awkward if he comes now. "Oh ye, err, I've always dreamt of this err biggest club in the world"

exactly, that’s why I don’t think it’s a close as people are suggesting. He doesn’t seem like a man that wants to leave, if he does leave, it will be with a heavy heart.

 

[AndySmith1990]

Could've been smarter in his response. Will be a bit awkward if he comes now. "Oh ye, err, I've always dreamt of this err biggest club in the world"

Players that join us don't need to make any mention of "biggest club", it's purely an ego thing for insecure fans to drool over. We're clearly not even in that conversation at the moment anyway so it'd be nonsense for anyone to say it. I'd rather players saved the PR guff and just put all their energy in to improving results on the pitch. If he's professional enough to do that then everything else is irrelevant.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

He will do a Haaland and say that he has always been a fan of United since he was a kid.

 

[Mainoldo]

We don't have to imagine it because it happened right?

There was a meltdown

That’s right. So flip reverse. Why are we panicking.

 

[Judas]

exactly, that’s why I don’t think it’s a close as people are suggesting. He doesn’t seem like a man that wants to leave, if he does leave, it will be with a heavy heart.

He wants to make it clear he’s being forced out which he’s well within his right to do to be honest.

 

[OutOfTowner]

ImpatientCafe

BitchmadeCafe

 

[Skip to my Lou]

Could've been smarter in his response. Will be a bit awkward if he comes now. "Oh ye, err, I've always dreamt of this err biggest club in the world"

Im pretty sure he´s gonna say something like "Yes, i was happy at Barca. But things change in football, and now im very happy to be here at Manchester United"

 

[pcaming]

All this effort and time on someone with absolutely no desire to play for the club. Rather sad honestly.

 

[B. Munich]

City signed a player who had a release clause. A player they have likely been negotiating with for 2 years already. Their coach and backroom team have been in place for years and they have a clear roadmap for squad building.

We have a new backroom team in place a few weeks and are chasing players we'll have only started speaking with in May.

How on earth can people not see the different challenges involved?

City weren't interested in or negotiating with Haaland for years. It's just 10 months ago when City desperately wanted Kane.

Yes Haaland had a release clause but in to they had to negotiate huge signing bonuses for Haaland's team and his wages. So it was all but a straight forward transfer.

 

[Rozay]

City weren't interested in or negotiating with Haaland for years. It's just 10 months ago when City desperately wanted Kane.

Yes Haaland had a release clause but in to they had to negotiate huge signing bonuses for Haaland's team and his wages. So it was all but a straight forward transfer.

So basically, ‘personal terms’. That’s it, no negotiations with Dortmund, which, in the absence of a release clause, would have been tedious for a player like that.

 

[Cypriot]

Players that join us don't need to make any mention of "biggest club", it's purely an ego thing for insecure fans to drool over. We're clearly not even in that conversation at the moment anyway so it'd be nonsense for anyone to say it. I'd rather players saved the PR guff and just put all their energy in to improving results on the pitch. If he's professional enough to do that then everything else is irrelevant.

Of course, but they'll do it anyway, as they always do. My point was that whilst he obviously wants to stay where he is, he should at least be respectful of the other club just in case he ends up going there, so he doesn't look like a fool later on. Obviously, each to their own and he might just not give one - which is respectable too.

 

[diarm]

City weren't interested in or negotiating with Haaland for years. It's just 10 months ago when City desperately wanted Kane.

Yes Haaland had a release clause but in to they had to negotiate huge signing bonuses for Haaland's team and his wages. So it was all but a straight forward transfer.

Being interested in Kane last summer doesn't mean they weren't already talking to Haaland.

And any deal where you don't have to negotiate with the selling club is automatically far more straight forward than deals where you do.

 

[Pronewbie]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Flattered = Thanks but no, thanks.

Anyone else getting Di Maria vibes?
white text

 

[goalscholes]

Player in Barcelona with point to prove says he's happy if he stays put on huge salary and Champions League football, given no deal is agreed with another club.

Pitchforks out, lads.

 

[TheDosser56]

De Jong saga is embarrassing this club.. move on!!! We are trying to get rid of players who don't want to be here.. why stockpile another one?! De Jong isn't THAT good FFS! If he was that good you'd have PSG and Manchester City wanting him, but they don't! That says a lot!

Many players maybe even like Ruben Neves would run through glass to play for this club! Target those type of players and build a great team spirit/ethic. I don't expect Manchester United to win the League I just want to see a TEAM that is together and fights for each other like Brighton for example!

the club have already lost out on Palinha because they are all-in for De Jong

De Jong would get so much criticism if he joins now and he doesn't tear it up immediately. And these comments will be used again him. So it's best for all parties if Manchester United Move on.

De Jong is making Manchester United constipated because he's holding up other transfers because until we sign him or not we don't know what transfer budget we have left.