Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

Frenkie to United?


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RedChisel

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Surely if he loves Barcelona so much he will accept a new contract on reduced terms. If the idea of joining United repulses him so much he will have no problem taking a pay cut to stay. He and his family can still enjoy their beloved Barcelona on 50% wage.
 
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So it's incorrect?
Bit of both.

Barça can’t afford for him to stay on his current deal.
De Jong won’t agree to a salary reduction or leaving without being paid what he is owed.

As much as people want to get their knickers in a twist, it’s at stalemate until those two parties can come to an agreement on how to proceed.

De Jong holds all the cards though, make no mistake about that. If Barca really need him off the books so bad they agreed a deal with United, they will eventually be forced to make a settlement with the player.
If they don’t, De Jong stays on 17m minimum a year and Barça shoot their wage cap in the foot, and can’t register all new players they want. De Jong would obviously still be a very important player for them in that situation.
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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Surely if he loves Barcelona so much he will accept a new contract on reduced terms. If the idea of joining United repulses him so much he will have no problem taking a pay cut to stay. He and his family can still enjoy their beloved Barcelona on 50% wage.
Like most footballers, money is number one priority over anything else. They can never have too much of it.
 
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Surely if he loves Barcelona so much he will accept a new contract on reduced terms.
His camp have stated they have zero intention of doing any such thing.
And why the feck would he? He’s already deferred 17 fecking million of wages over 2 years.

Why would any footballer accept that at a top club for their prime years?
Would Keane? Rio? Rooney? Like feck they would.
 

RedChisel

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Like most footballers, money is number one priority over anything else. They can never have too much of it.
But it's his dream to play for Barcelona as he likes to constantly remind everyone. Would he want to help financially cripple the team of his dreams ?
 

B. Munich

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Nonsense.

Barca aren’t gonna have a great player in his prime rot who’s a) been loyal as feck to them and b) is their highest earner, just to make a point.

Absolute tosh.
It happened to Bale at Madrid when Zidane froze him out. Bale played hardball and pretty much spend the last 3 years in the stands and playing golf.

Of course Barcelona will hope that FdJ will eventually give in and either accept the pay cut or move in the next transfer window to rescue his career.

What else can Barcelona do, if FdJ insists to stay but don't take a pay cut?
 

Pickle85

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It happened to Bale at Madrid when Zidane froze him out. Bale played hardball and pretty much spend the last 3 years in the stands and playing golf.

Of course Barcelona will hope that FdJ will eventually give in and either accept the pay cut or move in the next transfer window to rescue his career.

What else can Barcelona do, if FdJ insists to stay but don't take a pay cut?
Bit different with Bale and fdj in that Bale had already won pretty much all there was to win at club level. Also, wasn't he a lot older than fdj is now?
 

NicolaSacco

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But if they pay him off to go or he stays, then he gets the deferred money (DM) either way. It's only if he goes without a payoff that Barca keep the DM. But if the new contract really has been structured in such a way that getting rid of him saves Barca paying the DM then he's been badly advised. Surely any basically competent lawyer would have inserted a clause that he would recoup the money in the event of a transfer. It would be beyond incompetent to do otherwise.
I can’t believe for a second that such an obvious error would have been made. Deferred payment, by its very definition, has already been earned. I’ve no idea what is happening behind the scenes, none of us do. But I think coming to a conclusion about what happens in the future, which is based on the premise that there has been an inexplicable error in the negotiation of a multimillion euro contract, is the wrong route to go down. I can’t see any way something like that could have happened.
 

RedChisel

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His camp have stated they have zero intention of doing any such thing.
And why the feck would he? He’s already deferred 17 fecking million of wages over 2 years.

Why would any footballer accept that at a top club for their prime years?
Would Keane? Rio? Rooney? Like feck they would.
Players who's boyhood dream it was to play for United such as Scholes, Giggs and Neville never demanded ridiculous contracts and would have reduced their wage if it meant keeping the club afloat.

For De Jong playing for Barcelona is a dream and he loves the club. Surely like the aforementioned United players he would reduce his wage if it meant keeping Barcelona afloat.
 

tbtt

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Doesn’t seem that way.

Seems United, Barca and De Jong reached a “general agreement” for the transfer.
However De Jong and Barça are in a dispute about wages owed, Barça likely think they owe nothing (scummy but legally might be true), and De Jong think they owe him 17m.
Until De Jong and Barça can find an agreement, it’s at stalemate.

Right now both Barça and player are calling each others bluff.
Then a general agreement was a fake one. There is still 17m gap after weeks of negotiation!
United should have anticipated this sort of dispute and brought it up during the negotiation. Am I asking too much?
 

B. Munich

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Bit different with Bale and fdj in that Bale had already won pretty much all there was to win at club level. Also, wasn't he a lot older than fdj is now?
True that's why Barcelona will bank on FdJ to not do a Bale but with accept the pay cut or move in the next transfer window.
 

Brownie85

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But it's his dream to play for Barcelona as he likes to constantly remind everyone. Would he want to help financially cripple the team of his dreams ?
Because at the end of the day, as much as they love the club, their career is, for all intents and purposes, a short one. De Jong might only have 4 or 5 years left at the very top, now to us, that's nothing as we work until we're 60 or 70, but for him, he needs to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.

Plus you have to imagine, his career could be over instantly with a bad injury. He needs to make as much as possible to live comfortably for the next 60 or so years after retiring. If injury ends his career, do you think Barca, the club he loves, will do anything? They'd have him replaced within a season. That's the harsh reality of football
 

Lash

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It happened to Bale at Madrid when Zidane froze him out. Bale played hardball and pretty much spend the last 3 years in the stands and playing golf.

Of course Barcelona will hope that FdJ will eventually give in and either accept the pay cut or move in the next transfer window to rescue his career.

What else can Barcelona do, if FdJ insists to stay but don't take a pay cut?
Are you willfully ignoring that he doesn't have to accept a pay cut and can just stay at the club? Barca can't afford to pay him his contractual wage and they can't afford to keep him and freeze him out.

Madrid for all their faults are actually incredible well run and could do that.

I can’t believe for a second that such an obvious error would have been made. Deferred payment, by its very definition, has already been earned. I’ve no idea what is happening behind the scenes, none of us do. But I think coming to a conclusion about what happens in the future, which is based on the premise that there has been an inexplicable error in the negotiation of a multimillion euro contract, is the wrong route to go down. I can’t see any way something like that could have happened.
This was my opinion when the suggestion came out they said he'll have to for go it if he wants to move. I genuinely would have thought it was completely unenforceable and would be easily recouped through litigation.
 
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But it's his dream to play for Barcelona as he likes to constantly remind everyone. Would he want to help financially cripple the team of his dreams ?
If they didn’t sign just one of Kesse or Christensen, they could pay him accordingly as per his terms.
So no, he wouldn’t be crippling anything, the club would be doing that to themselves through having zero respect for the players and deferred wages.
 

RedChisel

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Because at the end of the day, as much as they love the club, their career is, for all intents and purposes, a short one. De Jong might only have 4 or 5 years left at the very top, now to us, that's nothing as we work until we're 60 or 70, but for him, he needs to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.

Plus you have to imagine, his career could be over instantly with a bad injury. He needs to make as much as possible to live comfortably for the next 60 or so years after retiring. If injury ends his career, do you think Barca, the club he loves, will do anything? They'd have him replaced within a season. That's the harsh reality of football
Which is exactly my point. All the talk of dream clubs is pointless as at the end of the day it all comes down to cold hard cash.
 
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Players who's boyhood dream it was to play for United such as Scholes, Giggs and Neville never demanded ridiculous contracts and would have reduced their wage if it meant keeping the club afloat.
Frankie isn’t a local lad, isn’t from the youth setup and has already massively helped out the club.
Beckham loved United more than Frenkie ever will Barca, and he absolutely demanded what was due to him.
 

RedChisel

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If they didn’t sign just one of Kesse or Christensen, they could pay him accordingly as per his terms.
So no, he wouldn’t be crippling anything, the club would be doing that to themselves through having zero respect for the players and deferred wages.
Then more fool him if he wants to hang around at a club that's taking the piss out of him.
 

hobbers

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I just hope we're working on other midfield targets now outside of the media eye. And not moronic ones like Rice or Bellingham either.

Because if we're not we deserve to go backwards and Murtough deserves the all the criticism Woody had after that Moyes summer.

If we were a halfway intelligent club we'd be briefing news stories about our interest in other midfielders.
 

Rightnr

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This feels like last year, and the year before and the year before...

We hope we're doing something behind the scenes if and when FdJ fails but we all know, it's pure hopium at this point...
 

B. Munich

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I can’t believe for a second that such an obvious error would have been made. Deferred payment, by its very definition, has already been earned. I’ve no idea what is happening behind the scenes, none of us do. But I think coming to a conclusion about what happens in the future, which is based on the premise that there has been an inexplicable error in the negotiation of a multimillion euro contract, is the wrong route to go down. I can’t see any way something like that could have happened.
Why else then is the transfer hold up allegedly on FdJ deferred payments?

There is no doubt FdJ earned the money and if his agent worded the contract correctly that FdJ will get paid also, if he leaves Barcelona there shouldn't be any issues, at least not with outstanding payments from deferred wages of the last 2 years.
 

Brownie85

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If they didn’t sign just one of Kesse or Christensen, they could pay him accordingly as per his terms.
So no, he wouldn’t be crippling anything, the club would be doing that to themselves through having zero respect for the players and deferred wages.
I just don't understand Barcas logic through all this. At the end of the day, they're just stunting their own window as until this is sorted, players like Raphinha and Lewandowski won't be brought in. Hell, I'd be surprised if they could even afford Azpilicueta at this moment in time! With Leeds losing patience and Bayern demanding full payment, how long before something absolutely has to give.

Yes they will say levers will help, but thats very short term and even with a lever, de Jong on his current contract is unsustainable as has been pointed out many times. I'd say it won't be long before something gives and we see and end to this
 

Plant0x84

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I just hope we're working on other midfield targets now outside of the media eye. And not moronic ones like Rice or Bellingham either.

Because if we're not we deserve to go backwards and Murtough deserves the all the criticism Woody had after that Moyes summer.

If we were a halfway intelligent club we'd be briefing news stories about our interest in other midfielders.
I keep seeing this and it makes no sense. We have assurances that the player will come, we’ve agreed a fee with Barca and the stalemate is between Barca and deJong. How does briefing about other players help anything? This deal will get done so I don’t see the need to pay games.
 

Brownie85

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To be honest I’d be looking g at Ten Hag asking why he got us into this shit show.
How do you figure? He would have got the assurances he required from de Jong or his agent. Once he's got them, that's all he needs. It's upto de Jong and Barca to sort their issues. That's nothing to do with Ten Hag or United.

There is just no possible way United would be staying involved with this if there was no assurances the player wants to come, as much as people are convinced otherwise. Ten Hag isn't stupid, and he wouldn't piss the board off in his first season, as they'd seriously question him if it turned out that they were blindly pushing for a player without knowing his intentions
 

hobbers

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I keep seeing this and it makes no sense. We have assurances that the player will come, we’ve agreed a fee with Barca and the stalemate is between Barca and deJong. How does briefing about other players help anything? This deal will get done so I don’t see the need to pay games.
Assurances from who? We don't have assurances and even if we did they're meaningless.

Barca are the ones who desperately need to sell De Jong and we should be putting the fear of god into them that times up and we're going elsewhere. That might push them into offering De Jong more of his deferred salary or making it more clear to him that he has to leave.

If De Jong doesn't like that, who gives a feck. We're a distant second choice to his preference of staying at Barca anyway.

And regardless of any mind games or posturing, we should be sorting out backup options anyway.
 

Brophs

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Lads, you need to chill the feck out about this story that his deferred wages are no longer payable if he leaves the club. It's clearly a plant by Barca. First, it's dumb. Not like, @esmufc07 on The Chase dumb, but shaving your neck beard with a chainsaw dumb.

Every agent and lawyer in the history of the game would ask the same basic question if a clause like that was included in a draft agreement: "Yeah, but what happens if.....". It didn't slip through the net. The idea that they'd see a clause like that and just brush over it without a second thought is morbidly, clinically dumb. Because, in that case, the wage deferral you're negotiating just became a signed and witnessed incentive for Barca to push him, a valuable, high earning player in a position they're strong, out the door once his wages became unmanageable, saving themselves £17m (and the rest) in the process, on top of the fee they'd get for him.

There's no reason for him to have agreed to such an unfavourable clause. At the time, Barca had no leverage over him and had to rely on the goodwill of he and his team mates to get the deal done. To suggest that they'd have then been able to strong arm or trick him into a deal so obviously against his own interests is daft. And it doesn't even make sense. It presumes that Barca can just make him leave whenever they want to, but what this supposed agreement would guarantee is that FDJ would have be dragged kicking and screaming from his dream club, because he'd be leaving his dream club against his wishes and paying Barca for the privilege of doing so. Which leads to the current situation. We're being led to believe that Barca won't allow him to leave until he's essentially written off large proportion of the debt. Great. That's exacly what FDJ apparently wants. To stay at the club without giving up those deferred wages, or agreeing a permanent salary reduction. Job's a good 'un. Remind me why this is apparently a positive for Barca?

Freezing him out, as they threatened to do with Dembele, would be foolish, as his value to them is not just in the wages they can remove from the club's overall salary costs, but the fee he might generate. No one is paying €80m odd for a guy who has been sat in the stands for a season or two, on a recently-increased wage. To my mind, this is pretty simply. De Jong wants to be made whole, Barca aren't willing to make that happen, or at least don't want to pay the bill and United are stuck watching the Mexican standoff from the sidelines, while their fans call them paedos on Twitter.
 
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