Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

Frenkie to United?


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Cassidy

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No. They offered him a one year extension like they did with Müller and Neuer.
However, Lewandowski didn't accept the offer and suddenly wanted to leave immediately, which Bayern never agreed on.
According to his agent and him. You started the negotiations on the contract late.
 

B. Munich

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According to his agent and him. You started the negotiations on the contract late.
Really? He still got a valid contract until 2023. Offering an extension in April 2022 doesn't seem late to me.

The behavior of Barcelona and Zahavi is pretty similar. Both are cnuts.
 

DSG

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So you think going to buy players in January will be cheaper. I recommend you rethink that completely. January buys are always expensive and rarely work out.

whilst I get your point about ETHdo we really want to turn around to our new manager and say sorry you can’t have any of the players you want, you will have to work with shambles you have minus Ronaldo and you better work miracles? Plus you don’t know he hadn’t made other suggestions, but if you look at how he would utilize FDJ it’s clear fdj allows you to play a specific way, that v few other defensive cms do. Neves can’t, ruiz can’t, v few can fdj is reasonably unique. Can eth create a different team with different players of course, if you don’t think so you are being obtuse at best, he showed at Ajax he had effectively three very different teams. However if you expect him to do well with mcFred in midfield you are delusional. If he brings in other players then he will need to reshape the team completely.
There are so many examples of January signings working out, both for United and other teams. Players either succeed or fail and when you buy them has zero affect on that outcome.

I do agree that January signings tend to be more expensive, but that is market economics. There are situations where buying in January, while more expensive than 6 months earlier, still turned out to be excellent value.

How is this an issue of the board not backing ETH? Barca has given us a price, we’ve met that demand. The player is owed deferred wages plus has said he’d rather stay at Barca. If the player is dead set against coming to United, we could offer triple their asking price and it wouldn’t matter. This situation is actually a bit out of our control.

If FDJ decides to stay at Barca, there is nothing we can do. It would be stupid of the club and ETH not to have a backup plan, no? As much as none of us want to see McFred, if there is literally not a single option (Brozovic, Tonali, Veratti, Sanches, Rice, Tielemans, Ndidi, etc???.) and the club has no plan B, that’s just incredibly stupid.
 

TheReligion

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Bet you'll do a sequel, Another 72 hours, then stretch to a trilogy of Another Bloody 72 hours.
depends what money comes my way. I could do no more than 3 and then I’d have to move on.

I assure you this though the deals will get done. I don’t feck about.
 

Pronewbie

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I can see Barca getting completely fecked as stagflation persists over the next few years. Low growth and high interest rates for such an indebted club is a recipe for disaster.

They probably do social listening to see what United fans think of the transfer and how much more they can push us. We still have many suckers here but once they see a drastic shift in sentiment from the fans and negotiations, there's a high chance of them coming around. We are the only win-win option for De Jong and Barca.

We also need to start working on alternative targets now.
 

WPMUFC

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Laporta is so desperate to 1. not pay Frenkie what he's owed and 2. get Frenkie to take ANOTHER pay cut that the fecker likely leaked a players contract to make a point and get fans on side. Nothing about "Frenkie wants to stay" ever sat right with me. There have been so many opportunities for him or an agent to end this saga, especially after the Laporta meltdown. I know he loves the club, but this entire drawn out saga reeks of him actually having decided to leave but Barca are trying to get out of paying him money that is due.

I'm doing a 180 on this narrative, I do not think Frenkie actually wants to stay. I now believe this is sooooooo drawn out because those con artists are trying to stop payments to him.
Despite Barcelona president Joan Laporta’s claims that De Jong is not for sale, United reached a broad agreement with the Catalan club last week over a fee for the Dutchman that would see them pay an initial €65 million (£55m) with around a further €20m (£17m) payable in add-ons.


However, United’s hopes of wrapping up a deal in time for De Jong to join the start of their summer tour have been complicated by deferred wages and bonuses the player is owed from Barcelona after he agreed to take a temporary pay cut to help ease the club’s financial difficulties during the Covid crisis.


De Jong joined Barcelona from Ajax on a five-year contract in 2019 on a fixed annual salary worth £12m but he agreed to reduce his salary by £9.4m in 2020/21 and by £4.3m last season meaning he is owed £13.7m in basic wages.


He is also believed to be owed another £3.4m in waived bonuses for playing in at least 60 per cent of Barcelona’s matches over the previous two seasons.


De Jong extended his contract at the Nou Camp by a further two years to 2026, which allowed Barcelona to spread the deferred payments over a longer period.


But De Jong’s prospective move to Old Trafford means Barcelona face the prospect of having to foot a bill in excess of £17m in wages owed to the player and has left new United manager Erik ten Hag facing an agonising wait to land his priority summer transfer target.
Ducker.....my lawyers will be in touch. :nono:
 

SirReginald

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I can see Barca getting completely fecked as stagflation persists over the next few years. Low growth and high interest rates for such an indebted club is a recipe for disaster.

They probably do social listening to see what United fans think of the transfer and how much more they can push us. We still have many suckers here but once they see a drastic shift in sentiment from the fans and negotiations, there's a high chance of them coming around. We are the only win-win option for De Jong and Barca.

We also need to start working on alternative targets now.
By alternative targets, I hope you don’t mean a Moyes/Woodward scattergun approach. Was literally the most embarrassing window in history.
 

charlenefan

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As long drawn out transfer sagas go this is the most boring one I can remember
 

Redcy

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There are so many examples of January signings working out, both for United and other teams. Players either succeed or fail and when you buy them has zero affect on that outcome.

I do agree that January signings tend to be more expensive, but that is market economics. There are situations where buying in January, while more expensive than 6 months earlier, still turned out to be excellent value.

How is this an issue of the board not backing ETH? Barca has given us a price, we’ve met that demand. The player is owed deferred wages plus has said he’d rather stay at Barca. If the player is dead set against coming to United, we could offer triple their asking price and it wouldn’t matter. This situation is actually a bit out of our control.

If FDJ decides to stay at Barca, there is nothing we can do. It would be stupid of the club and ETH not to have a backup plan, no? As much as none of us want to see McFred, if there is literally not a single option (Brozovic, Tonali, Veratti, Sanches, Rice, Tielemans, Ndidi, etc???.) and the club has no plan B, that’s just incredibly stupid.

As I have said there probably is a plan B, almost none of those players are either suitable, affordable or if they are require us to buy other players.

Rice will be extortion we all know it
Tieleman, Sanches, cannot do that same job, they are not even defensive midfielders, buying them relies on you buying another player to play with them in midfield.
Veratti is not moving
Brozovic is not a player who can pick up from defenders, he is a destroyer if anything, which is fine, but then you are asking one of McFred to be your play maker, or you need to buy another midfielder. Its certainly viable, but you would also need a better defender than maguire if you do.
Ndidi, not a carrier of the ball forward, would cost a fair amount of money, and would still leave us with no progressive midfielder. You would have to buy another midfielder to do the distribution. Again viable but will cost as much as FDJ when you buy two players.

ETH can do that with his teams, he can build around the players he has, but if we don't buy FDJ then we would need to go buy v different players to suit a different way of playing. We can barely get one signing done. Imagine we now turn our attention to Brozovic and we end up with him and Fred, are you confident that is much better than mcFred? So now we have to go get another player. I think this is why we are holding out with Barca, switching to plan B is not just a case of selecting another midfielder.
 

Tweek

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For me, the Telegraph reports about his deferred salary from earlier today are the most believable reason as to why this is dragging. If you leave aside all the other speculation and bullshit and just consider this alongside the actual soundbites we've had from Laporta and FDJ (because to my mind, the only things you can put any real stock in one way or the other are actual 'on the record' quotes), it is starting to look like brinkmanship between those two camps.

Surely any deferral of wages will have been contractually agreed and signed by both parties... nobody is making gentleman's agreements with those sorts of figures involved. That means there is an agreed repayment plan that is likely complicated by FDJ leaving the club. I'm no expert on Spanish employment law but I cannot see how Barca can refuse to pay him the deferred money just because he has left unless the contract explicitly says that he waves any future payments if that happens. However, I also cannot see any semi-competent lawyer or agent advising the acceptance of a contract that could, under the right set of circumstances, ultimately leave his client significantly out of pocket in future. I guess it could happen, but I'd be surprised if he has ended up in that situation. Barca agreed to pay him money for 'services rendered'... those 'services' have already happened so Barca owe him at least some of that money somewhere down the line. Perhaps the repayments are covered by some sort of clause that says if FDJ seeks to initiate a move away from the club, Barca are not liable for the back-pay, much like a loyalty bonus, and that is why we are seeing the back-and-forth between Laporta (saying Barca aren't pushing him out) and FDJ (positioning himself so as not to breach such a clause). There could be no clause of that kind and Barca are simply chancing their arm by saying "of course we'll agree to sell you but only if you agree to wave (or maybe reduce) the deferred payments" and FDJ is quite simply holding his ground... he has all the cards in that scenario and little to lose so why not. That would be what I would do, especially if leaving could in any way be legally construed as tacit agreement to forego some or all of the money owed.

I am not up to speed on the ins and outs of Barca's finances, what these magical levers have done for them both now and over the next 5 years, or what is happening in terms of pay cuts and deferrals throughout their squad. I also don't know much about La Liga's FFP/wage cap rules. There is however too much smoke for there to be no fire at all with this one... United are seemingly chasing the player but keeping extremely quiet. Barca are seemingly talking to someone about a FDJ transfer, even if they do also believe that they may keep him. I am starting to think that if he stays, it will almost be out of spite because Barca tried to mug him off to the tune of millions of euros and he refused to cave to their demands, or his agent/lawyers couldn't find a way for him to leave without seriously affecting the money he is owed. If even a fraction of the reports about Barca needing his wages off the books are true though, I think he will leave at some point soon and it is purely posturing on both sides to put themselves in the best financial position. Unfortunately, if any of that happens to be in any way accurate, United are caught in the middle until they sort it out.
 
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El-Manos

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It sounds opinion based rather than factual. I refuse to believe we'd be putting in this much effort if FDJ had no interest in coming here. We can't be that stupid...... We all know in an ideal world he'd want to stay at Barca but we must have received encouraging signs from his camp to proceed with a potential deal due to the clusterfeck of a situation Barca are in.
 

JustinC00

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This is 65+20 vs 85m It's agreed it will be 85. But Barca want the 20 now so they can pay FDJ and get it off their books to free up more money and then use the rest for Lewandowski
 

JustinC00

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That’s an opinion piece isn’t it?

@Berbaclass can give you his opinion and it will make you smile again!
If he wasn't open to joining we would have known by now and would have briefed the media. His agent was literally at our offices this week, I think at that point we would have at least asked him to give a definitive answer.
 
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