Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

[Plant0x84]

Theres an RNB belter by Craig David, released in 2000 that sums up the stance I want on this.

Gold star for anyone who wants to guess the song.

Hint - @golden_blunder might just give me a ban for saying the words

So your saying FdJ will be announced in ‘Seven days’? We’ll all be chilling on Sunday? Cool.
(Assume @golden_blunder isn’t a big Craig David fan)

 

[NZT-One]

Unfortunately, we're not really in a position to issue an ultimatum. Such is the consequences of no CL football. We'll just have to be happy we're even in this 'race'

Now that is smalltime as feck. Yeah lets be happy that somebody who is in dire need of money talks to us about us giving them money.... wow

 

[Plant0x84]

Do people really believe anything that's posted by shit sources? Jesus Christ

To be fair, most ONLY believe the shit sources. The good ones that make sense get ignored as it’s difficult to lose your shit about something plausible

 

[JinnerJamie]

This may not be the longest transfer saga, but it has to be the most tedious. Don't think I've followed a story and actually go to the point where I don't care if he gets signed or not - this might be it.

 

[copen1945]

Our midfield has to be strengthened. We might just have to pay the wage. After a protracted delay, we had paid the agent fee of Pogba's transfer from Juve. Tens of millions going to Barca is a better prospect than the amount going to our owners through their dividends.

 

[Sassy Colin]

Is this really DeJoff? Or is it paper bollocks or Barca posturing?

 

[golden_blunder]

So your saying FdJ will be announced in ‘Seven days’? We’ll all be chilling on Sunday? Cool.
(Assume @golden_blunder isn’t a big Craig David fan)

Hey I did a rewrite of a Craig David song just for this purpose

 

[AneRu]

To the people saying "we'll have spoke to his agent first to see if he wants to come" etc etc, these reports are saying that his agent has been trying to engineer a move but FdJ just isn't interested.

So perhaps we've been led a merry dance by his agent who thought he could convince him. And let's not forget, his agent has done ok out of us as we have a few of his players and just signed another...so perhaps he was trying to make it happen for us but failed.

But ETH has direct access to the player and their relationship should enable him to know the player's intentions and thoughts on a move to us. My take is that the deal is falling through and everyone is now making themselves look good to the fans and media. It would be the height of stupidity for ETH to make us pursue this deal without the player's express acceptance of the move.

Anyway, this is the summer 2013 nightmare on repeat where we have a new manager at this level, a new DoF and a new CEO being strung along by Barcelona who expected a big payday from us to solve some of their issues. This is what we get for getting shot of RR who is the only proven transfer market operator we had in the building.

 

[Brownie85]

Is this really DeJoff? Or is it paper bollocks or Barca posturing?

Seems to be whatever you believe it to be lately.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Now that is smalltime as feck. Yeah lets be happy that somebody who is in dire need of money talks to us about us giving them money.... wow

Small time would be giving up and going for Tielemans or something.

 

[Mmm-Qatarian]

Is this really DeJoff? Or is it paper bollocks or Barca posturing?

Moreso than anything else from what I've seen there's not been anything concrete from a really reliable source.

The closest we've got is what I can only assume must have been a paragraph in an article by Duncan Castles which wasn't mainly related to De Jong, or an interview with Duncan Castles (I haven't been able to ascertain the precise source owing to the Times paywall but he hasn't explicitly mentioned it on his Twitter and none of his recent articles have headlines about De Jong). Even with that, Castles is pretty hit and miss.

I have remained quite positive on this for a while, and I might fairly be called naïve for it, but based on what I've seen today I seriously don't understand where this sudden certainty that De Jong isn't happening has come from.

 

[Brownie85]

But ETH has direct access to the player and their relationship should enable him to know the player's intentions and thoughts on a move to us. My take is that the deal is falling through and everyone is now making themselves look good to the fans and media. It would be the height of stupidity for ETH to make us pursue this deal without the player's express acceptance of the move.

Anyway, this is the summer 2013 nightmare on repeat where we have a new manager at this level, a new DoF and a new CEO being strung along by Barcelona who expected a big payday from us to solve some of their issues. This is what we get for getting shot of RR who is the only proven transfer markwt operator we had in the building.

Just curious how you come to that conclusion? How do you think its falling through? Based on reports in Spain?

IF the deal is collapsing and United are still persisting that in absolutely no way makes us look good. It makes us look stupid and incompetent, a look we're desperate to move away from

 

[Plant0x84]

Hey I did a rewrite of a Craig David song just for this purpose

My apologies, I’m sure it was great

 

[Plant0x84]

But ETH has direct access to the player and their relationship should enable him to know the player's intentions and thoughts on a move to us. My take is that the deal is falling through and everyone is now making themselves look good to the fans and media. It would be the height of stupidity for ETH to make us pursue this deal without the player's express acceptance of the move.

Anyway, this is the summer 2013 nightmare on repeat where we have a new manager at this level, a new DoF and a new CEO being strung along by Barcelona who expected a big payday from us to solve some of their issues. This is what we get for getting shot of RR who is the only proven transfer market operator we had in the building.

Except United who have actually said very little about the whole transfer. Hmm, not a great take to be honest.

 

[devilish]

What? We look like mugs right now a little bit. Because everybody knows we don't want to deal with Barca internals. Plus everybody knows that we do Barca some kind of a favor by potentially paying them a chunk of money.

Of course we look like mugs if we set a deadline and then continue to deal later. But thats not the ideal situation isn't it? We should set a deadline and walk away if it is ignored. It would set a good example to other clubs and it is professional.

Find it pretty discouraging that your first thought in connection with a deadline seems to be to use it as a bluff...

What United should do is to work for an alternative (ex Fabian Ruiz). Then just before we have the deal wrapped up then we would be in a position to a take it or leave it offer to Barca fwith a 24 hours deadline attached to it. It would be humiliating for such so called big club to have to tell every prospective signing to feck off because they can't afford them

 

[golden_blunder]

My apologies, I’m sure it was great

It was crap to be fair

 

[croadyman]

I genuinely hope that we have an a plan B in place. Can you imagine the backlash if we end up with 3 players from the farmer's league and some 30 year old from Brentford?

Yeah and rightfully so

 

[devilish]

Yeah and rightfully so

I agree. To the very least Murtough would either have to resign or be sacked

 

[FreakyJim]

Slowly but surely It's all coming up McFred.

Those two will be our midfield again, won't they.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Slowly but surely It's all coming up McFred.

Those two will be our midfield again, won't they.

They will, and I'm tired of pretending they won't.

 

[croadyman]

Just curious how you come to that conclusion? How do you think its falling through? Based on reports in Spain?

IF the deal is collapsing and United are still persisting that in absolutely no way makes us look good. It makes us look stupid and incompetent, a look we're desperate to move away from

Well unfortunately we do look stupid and incompetent so gotta take the L and move on

 

[NZT-One]

Small time would be giving up and going for Tielemans or something.

It really wouldn't. A) I am not saying we should pull out now, but we should make sure we have alternatives in place full force right now. B) It would be smalltime, even deluded, to think that one single player is worth the hassle in order to change Uniteds course. It would be easy to communicate as "we need to prepare for the season so we can't wait forever" even though I might overestimate our fanbase looking at the folks here who are ready to "wait and hope for one of the worlds best midfielders".

What United should do is to work for an alternative (ex Fabian Ruiz). Then just before we have the deal wrapped up then we would be in a position to a take it or leave it offer to Barca fwith a 24 hours deadline attached to it. It would be humiliating for such so called big club to have to tell every prospective signing to feck off because they can't afford them

Sounds like a plan. And I can't see anything negative about it for us - if FDJ goes through, then fine, if not, at least we are not out there in the rain. We need improvement in midfield, no question about it. But lets not act as if only the worlds best players would improve it. Our level right now is McFred. I'd take McNeil and McGinn at this point. We need stability, stability to built on from, the more success we have, the better the players we can get, if we can create our own superstars on the way, even better. We have to accept where we are right now. There is no point to pretend, we are what we were and act as if it would be the case.

 

[Shakesy]

Slowly but surely It's all coming up McFred.

Those two will be our midfield again, won't they.

Both of them have had good games for us before... They could be coached... They're not all bad...

 

[sewey89]

Why are people still getting themselves worked up over the Spanish press reports? Clear as day that they want the sale and they’re trying to force uniteds hand, all while ‘reminding’ everyone that FDJ loves Barca more than anything.

 

[Berbaclass]

Why are people still getting themselves worked up over the Spanish press reports? Clear as day that they want the sale and they’re trying to force uniteds hand, all while ‘reminding’ everyone that FDJ loves Barca more than anything.

Yep. Nothing to see here.

 

[AneRu]

Except United who have actually said very little about the whole transfer. Hmm, not a great take to be honest.

Haven't we? Our interest in this deal has been the major transfer saga this summer surely you don't think we will come out of this looking anything less than mugs, we will obviously need to manage the optics because failure here could be very damaging to our already battered image.

 

[Shakesy]

Yep. Nothing to see here.

Our window in a nutshell then.

 

[Brownie85]

Well unfortunately we do look stupid and incompetent so gotta take the L and move on to someone else

You're assuming that based on the reports from Spain that are from unreliable sources. No credible source over here has said anything to confirm it (excluding castles but aside from mendes news, I don't think he's all that).

Seems to me that you'll believe anything negative as genuine and United are incompetent, useless and a mess, but anything positive is all lies. Until something reliable comes out from a quality source, United don't look stupid at all, and the blame lies with Barca and their payment of deferred wages

 

[devilish]

Sounds like a plan. And I can't see anything negative about it for us - if FDJ goes through, then fine, if not, at least we are not out there in the rain. We need improvement in midfield, no question about it. But lets not act as if only the worlds best players would improve it. Our level right now is McFred. I'd take McNeil and McGinn at this point. We need stability, stability to built on from, the more success we have, the better the players we can get, if we can create our own superstars on the way, even better. We have to accept where we are right now. There is no point to pretend, we are what we were and act as if it would be the case.

We should aim for players who can or at least have the potential to elevate us to EPL title winners. Mc Ginn is clearly an upgrade to what we've got but I very much doubt he can do that. Fabian Ruiz and Laimer on the other hand...

 

[Gazza]

Ironic that you'd say that here in the De Jong thread. Barca bought him from the same farmer's league you're talking about and here we are a few years later looking to sign him.

poor dev didn't think that one through did he

 

[Berbaclass]

Our window in a nutshell then.

Shakesey is doing a joke.

 

[Shakesy]

Shakesey is doing a joke.

Berbaclass noticed.

 

[Brownie85]

Why are people still getting themselves worked up over the Spanish press reports? Clear as day that they want the sale and they’re trying to force uniteds hand, all while ‘reminding’ everyone that FDJ loves Barca more than anything.

Seems to be the cool thing to do... most people are convinced now that ten Hag is stupid and is chasing a player with no assurances that he wants to come, and is deliberately wasting our time because no reports have come out about us having any kind of backup, which to be fair, we don't know if there is or not?

As is the way usually, negativity is believed without question, regardless of who the source is, but any positivity even by the same sources is deemed rubbish and lies.

 

[NicolaSacco]

What United should do is to work for an alternative (ex Fabian Ruiz). Then just before we have the deal wrapped up then we would be in a position to a take it or leave it offer to Barca fwith a 24 hours deadline attached to it. It would be humiliating for such so called big club to have to tell every prospective signing to feck off because they can't afford them

In your scenario do you tell Ruiz/ his agent/ Napoli that your intention is to flush out a deal for De Jong and that you’ll immediately drop the Ruiz deal even after fees and wages have been agreed in principle if it suits you?

 

[croadyman]

You're assuming that based on the reports from Spain that are from unreliable sources. No credible source over here has said anything to confirm it (excluding castles but aside from mendes news, I don't think he's all that).

Seems to me that you'll believe anything negative as genuine and United are incompetent, useless and a mess, but anything positive is all lies. Until something reliable comes out from a quality source, United don't look stupid at all, and the blame lies with Barca and their payment of deferred wages

Yeah I won't argue with your assumption of us being incompetent and a mess because not seen anything this summer to suggest otherwise

 

[Plant0x84]

Haven't we? Our interest in this deal has been the major transfer saga this summer surely you don't think we will come out of this looking anything less than mugs, we will obviously need to manage the optics because failure here could be very damaging to our already battered image.

All the noise is Spanish noise. The only thing you hear from trusted UK sources is that the fee was agreed and we are confident. Duncan Castles can do one!

 

[Plant0x84]

Slowly but surely It's all coming up McFred.

Those two will be our midfield again, won't they.

Donny, Garner, Hannibal all say hi. You’d think we only had 2 midfielders.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Seems to be the cool thing to do... most people are convinced now that ten Hag is stupid and is chasing a player with no assurances that he wants to come, and is deliberately wasting our time.

It would be a monumental feck up that I would lay at the door of the new manager, which I why I don’t believe it for a second. Why would ETH start his new role whilst leading everyone at the club up the garden path?

 

[Sunny Jim]

Why is everybody so negative right now?

 

[golden_blunder]

Donny, Garner, Hannibal all say hi. You’d think we only had 2 midfielders.

Don’t forget the young Zidane lad, apparently he’s really impressed EtH