Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

Frenkie to United?

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El-Manos

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Imagine chasing a player for 3 months for him to potentially join your rivals who only showed interest last week. Welcome to Manchester United. This is by far the most embarrassing saga yet if the aforementioned is realised. And no, this is not about our “pride” as fans being hurt. This is about making progress in terms of being proactive regarding transfer targets. We should have sorted out this diabolical midfield 2 months ago- allowed them to be fully. integrated and prepare them for the new season. We are starting Sunday with Fred & McTom in midfield: that’s the reality.
 
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MrSingh2002

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mazhar13 said:
Just so you're aware, this was a prerogative that was established by the Chelsea Supporters Trust when they were looking for new owners. The money that's being invested into new signings is part of the £1.75b that is supposed to be invested into the football club.
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Good on them. Our supporters trust went for Manchester United shares instead.

I'm not one that blames the owners alone as they've spent enough on transfers for us to have a successful dynasty on the whole. But ultimately the buck stops with them.

I blame the owners for sacking Rangnick because they knew he wanted a proper 10 player overhaul.

I can't blame the owners for Ten Hag picking a number 1 transfer target that doesn't want to come here more than he wants to stay at Barca or live in London.

That's on Ten Hag. He better identify other targets if De Jong doesn't sign. Burying his head in the sand and pretending there aren't other good footballers in the World won't work.
 

AdNani

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anyone else think that the chelsea owner is just being 'interested' in everyone to try and show his ambition to be a 'good owner'? there's no way they can afford all this.

'we were interested in De Jong, Kounde, Raphina, De Ligt whilst also splashing on Koulibaly, Cuccarella and Sterling'
 

mazhar13

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Mmm-Qatarian said:
I would also say that, as far as we're told by our own tier one sources, United seem to believe that De Jong will choose to join us and the reports are still saying that.

IF all of the "De Jong prefers Chelsea" noise is based simply on the belief of their owners then I don't know if there's much of a reason to lend it any more credence than the belief on our side that De Jong will still sign for United.
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It's mostly based on the noise from the Barcelona-based sources that the player prefers a CL club. Since Chelsea are in the CL, they're a logical choice between us and them. With that said, we'd have backed off a long, long time back if this was actually the case.
 

city-puma

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TheNewEra said:
Confirmation bias, I'll take it! HERE WE GO

1,097 Twitter followers that's a good number right?

Right?

(I refuse to believe he'd come for only €300k per week)
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Right!
Right!
We have to believe what we want to believe, right? Right?

300k euro/wk is very high, no? But it’s lower than what we paid Pogba. So, in that sense, Its seemly unbelievable if it eventually happens.
 

Mmm-Qatarian

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Brownie85 said:
It does seem to me that the noise is coming from Barca and not from Chelsea themselves. I don't know if they've just leaked some info out which everyone is mentioning in passing, or whether Chelsea have put the info out just to play the Billy Big bollocks card, the whole we can flex our muscles stuff.

Or Chelsea could be fecking with Barca as a kind of screw you for messing around with our transfers haha. Wishful thinking by myself there though I know.
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I did say I wasn't going to do this kind of speculation literally earlier today but I do sort of agree with you that there is something a little odd about the way the De Jong-Chelsea business is currently being reported.

I'm not questioning that there is a good deal of truth to the story; David Ornstein, Simon Johnson, Liam Twomey and Matt Law have all confirmed Chelsea's interest and they are all very reputable journalists. There is little reason to doubt the veracity of their claims. What is strange, though, is that as you've pointed out there hasn't actually been one article posted about this as far as I can tell. It's always been a couple of paragraphs within an article with a headline story that isn't directly related.

I'm not going to draw any sweeping conclusions from all of this because God help us, with all that's been floating around throughout this saga it's never been easy to guess where this transfer has been at. With that said, if Chelsea were making significant headway in what would be their largest signing of the summer by fee, and completely scuppering United's marquee deal in the process, one would think it might be worthy of its own story.
 

mazhar13

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MrSingh2002 said:
Good on them. Our supporters trust went for Manchester United shares instead.
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They have been pushing the Glazers to invest more in the team and the club for many years. These shares are one step towards realising that. If you don't like what they're doing, then feel free to become a MUST member and make your voice heard.
 

sewey89

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mazhar13 said:
They have been pushing the Glazers to invest more in the team and the club for many years. These shares are one step towards realising that. If you don't like what they're doing, then feel free to become a MUST member and make your voice heard.
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Nah, much easier to sit and bitch online..
 

Brownie85

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mazhar13 said:
It's mostly based on the noise from the Barcelona-based sources that the player prefers a CL club. Since Chelsea are in the CL, they're a logical choice between us and them. With that said, we'd have backed off a long, long time back if this was actually the case.
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That's my feelings too. We obviously know what's going on, we'd be in contact with de Jong and his agents, and we'd be getting updates and reassurances that he still wants to come. It's not like we're going to agree a fee then just feck off and leave them too it. We'd be checking in to see if anything changed or he's having second thoughts.

If he was to turn round and say "look guys, Chelsea are showing an interest, they have CL and London is very appealing to me and my partner, I'd have to go there" you can bet your arse we'd be out of there. We did the same with Timber and Brobbey. Unless ten Hag is desperate for him and just ignoring everything, then there's no chance we'd remain in if we weren't sure he wanted to come.
 

InspiRED

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2/1 has to be a good bet for Frenkie to come to us for a braver muppet than I. I'm saving up my bravery for page 2000 to help push this one over the line with the sheer force of muppet will
 

MrSingh2002

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mazhar13 said:
They have been pushing the Glazers to invest more in the team and the club for many years. These shares are one step towards realising that. If you don't like what they're doing, then feel free to become a MUST member and make your voice heard.
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Personally I don't think the amount of money spent has been the issue. Its how they spent it.

I thought they'd fixed that by bringing in Rangnick. Only to sack him after 5 months because he actually wanted to do what he was brought in for.

Other than the Glazers being protested against and ousted. Nothing will matter.
New owners who put the right people in charge of the club should be the only priority for now.
 

Brownie85

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Mmm-Qatarian said:
I did say I wasn't going to do this kind of speculation literally earlier today but I do sort of agree with you that there is something a little odd about the way the De Jong-Chelsea business is currently being reported.

I'm not questioning that there is a good deal of truth to the story; David Ornstein, Simon Johnson, Liam Twomey and Matt Law have all confirmed Chelsea's interest and they are all very reputable journalists. There is little reason to doubt the veracity of their claims. What is strange, though, is that as you've pointed out there hasn't actually been one article posted about this as far as I can tell. It's always been a couple of paragraphs within an article with a headline story that isn't directly related.

I'm not going to draw any sweeping conclusions from all of this because God help us, with all that's been floating around throughout this saga it's never been easy to guess where this transfer has been at. With that said, if Chelsea were making significant headway in what would be their largest signing of the summer by fee, and completely scuppering United's marquee deal in the process, one would think it might be worthy of its own story.
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Absolutely. They're apparently in talks and confident a deal can be reached and are confident that de Jong would join them if he leaves Barcelona. He's admittedly a world class talent, one of the best in his natural position, they're about to trump United to a signing, after what's happened to them twice this summer you'd think they'd be happy about that... yet all the reporting on it is a small paragraph or sentence in a totally unrelated article.

It's just strange to me that a deal of this size and magnitude, with the amount of effort United have put into it, 13 weeks of sticking around and waiting, could possibly swing in their favour and be done within a couple of weeks max, and it doesn't deserve its own article?

Are they not totally confident in the info they have? It just seems strange
 

Resonance

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I’m trying to count which word or phrase has been used the most in this thread, I think the heavy hitters are:
  • Levers
  • Embarrassing
  • Walk away
Have I missed anything?
 

Adam-Utd

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We both seem confident that he wants to join. Clearly the agent is playing both sides, but why? strange.

I still don't understand the hold up. Barca are clearly desperate to sell, so what's taking so long? Is FDJ really digging his heels in that he just doesn't want to leave?
 

Plant0x84

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sewey89 said:
There HAS to be some doomers willing to put their neck on the line and agree to voluntarily feck off from this place if he doesn’t sign, surely?!
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Don’t be daft, they’ll disappear just like the Barca defense league have. Probably go camp the match day threads aiming their bile at Fred because you know, he’s the root of all our problems. :rolleyes:
 

Jim Beam

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AdNani said:
anyone else think that the chelsea owner is just being 'interested' in everyone to try and show his ambition to be a 'good owner'? there's no way they can afford all this.
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100%. That Fofana tweet says it all where it states that he means bussines and will bid until Leicester accepts.

They have nothing to lose being involved here. The worst thing that can happen is that we pay more, so why the feck would they care. The small problem imo is that I think Tuchel likes the player and it's possible that their owner will somehow find the money even for that if the player fancy them more by any chance.

He basically acts like Woodward on coke in the market.
 

skc_18

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I dont think Barca has any option other than selling him. Even if FDJ lets goes his wages, I dont think Barca signed so many players without including FDJ's sale money.
Honestly, I dont think he will be integral to the team with the signings they made and rise of their academy players. So really not sure why he is not looking out. Is he waiting for other clubs or for the money owed to him?
 

croadyman

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bond19821982 said:
If he is going to Chelsea, do you think we would still be waiting ? We would have moved to other targets or a leak would have come by now that we aren't proceeding with any backups.
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That leak is coming soon I am convinced
 

NZT-One

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Brownie85 said:
Absolutely. They're apparently in talks and confident a deal can be reached and are confident that de Jong would join them if he leaves Barcelona. He's admittedly a world class talent, one of the best in his natural position, they're about to trump United to a signing, after what's happened to them twice this summer you'd think they'd be happy about that... yet all the reporting on it is a small paragraph or sentence in a totally unrelated article.

It's just strange to me that a deal of this size and magnitude, with the amount of effort United have put into it, 13 weeks of sticking around and waiting, could possibly swing in their favour and be done within a couple of weeks max, and it doesn't deserve its own article?

Are they not totally confident in the info they have? It just seems strange
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Get your point, but wouldn't overestimate it as well. I mean, you have spent quite some time in here but the rest of the world doesn't really care that much about us and our business. Barcas mess is interesting, our involvement is only a side character. Also, who would go for such a story... first the Man United guys and I guess, nobody with a bigger name will be the one to start a frenzy. Because this is what it is going to get if now the headlights are placed on the things that are criticized in this thread for quite some time.

Many possible reasons. Would still file the whole stuff as slow start of the weekend. And us and Chelsea are popular clubs with some open topics on the transfer agenda.
 

MrSingh2002

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croadyman said:
That leak is coming soon I am convinced
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What the strangest thing is about this saga is how Ten Hag is sticking to his "only the right player" mantra.

At what point does he then start looking at another target? Only if or when De Jong signs somewhere else?

That would.be massively reckless and irresponsible. Surely we're not that stupid as a club today. After the last few years we've been through. Surely.... Right?
 

croadyman

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Strootman's Finger said:
The smile on Ten Hag's face at the press conference when he said, "we want Frenkie" when asked about transfers, suggests he's pretty confident.
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I remember Ole in that press conference when it looked like Haaland was signing, we know how that turned out
 

Plant0x84

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Brownie85 said:
That's my feelings too. We obviously know what's going on, we'd be in contact with de Jong and his agents, and we'd be getting updates and reassurances that he still wants to come. It's not like we're going to agree a fee then just feck off and leave them too it. We'd be checking in to see if anything changed or he's having second thoughts.

If he was to turn round and say "look guys, Chelsea are showing an interest, they have CL and London is very appealing to me and my partner, I'd have to go there" you can bet your arse we'd be out of there. We did the same with Timber and Brobbey. Unless ten Hag is desperate for him and just ignoring everything, then there's no chance we'd remain in if we weren't sure he wanted to come.
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Interestingly Mitten said on the athletic pod that Murtough has had multiple meetings in Barca, it’s just that only one has been picked up on but we’ve had people there since and before that. Arnold told the guys at the pub Murtough was ‘out there now sorting it’. It all adds up. We are working through this one step at a time,
 

bond19821982

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Resonance said:
I’m trying to count which word or phrase has been used the most in this thread, I think the heavy hitters are:
  • Levers
  • Embarrassing
  • Walk away
Have I missed anything?
Click to expand...
Di Maria vibes
Incompetent
Fecking Woodward
 
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