Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

[Toshey]

Bizarre take that. He's being fecked over by his current club, he's said NOTHING disrespectful about United, in fact, he's said nothing at all. But you don't want him here because of what Barca are doing? Let him get that sorted and then he can come when Erik's got us back in the CL next season.

My take is that we wouldn’t have pursued him so hard, making complete asses of ourselves, if he and his camp didn’t give is any positive answers and insurances.
In the end he has expressed strong position that he loves Barcelona and Xavi and doesn’t want to go anywhere.
If we offer him the 17million he is owed, then the money problem is off the table.

Unless he wants these money ONLY from Barca. To feck them over I guess.
But it still doesn’t make sense to love the club and work against it.

Again - he gets offer by Chelsea to get what he’s owed. Probably we can make the same offer.
He still doesn’t want to go. So it’s about the money, but not really about the money.

Conclusion - feck him and move on.

 

[Chief123]

Just popped in to say Hi.

 

[Laurencio]

My take is that we wouldn’t have pursued him so hard, making complete asses of ourselves, if he and his camp didn’t give is any positive answers and insurances.
In the end he has expressed strong position that he loves Barcelona and Xavi and doesn’t want to go anywhere.
If we offer him the 17million he is owed, then the money problem is off the table.

Unless he wants these money ONLY from Barca. To feck them over I guess.
But it still doesn’t make sense to love the club and work against it.

Again - he gets offer by Chelsea to get what he’s owed. Probably we can make the same offer.
He still doesn’t want to go. So it’s about the money, but not really about the money.

Conclusion - feck him and move on.

I don't think it's quite that simple given that Barca are now pushing a narrative that his contract is void and part of a criminal conspiracy.

Clearly there is something wild happening behind the scenes at Barca these days.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

If you look through this thread, I'm sure you'd find posters that have gone through the five stages of grief

 

[reelworld]

Bizarre take that. He's being fecked over by his current club, he's said NOTHING disrespectful about United, in fact, he's said nothing at all. But you don't want him here because of what Barca are doing? Let him get that sorted and then he can come when Erik's got us back in the CL next season.

I believe he stringing us along by giving hints that he would like to join us while in actually he just wanted to have a backup plan in case no ECL club going for him. And while I think our negotiation team was stupid to get played like that, it's still a shitty thing to do

 

[RedDevilUnited369]

 

[Summit]

I believe he stringing us along

He has defo strung us along. What were people saying? There's no way United would be in for him this long unless we didn't know he'd come. We'll FDJ has indeed strung us along and we've wasted all summer on his bullshit

 

[We need an rvn]

nice to see this thread slowing down to 1 post per 10 minutes so you don't have to go back 5 pages to find out what is being discussed.

4 days to go before their first match and last I checked they still haven't registered the new players. Frenkie doesn't want to negotiate with us or Chelsea at all, Braithwaite getting booed by the fans - such a nice distraction from our own sh!tshow

 

[Resonance]

He has defo strung us along. What were people saying? There's no way United would be in for him this long unless we didn't know he'd come. We'll FDJ has indeed strung us along and we've wasted all summer on his bullshit

I used to think this too but now I think he's fed us just enough to keep up on the hook but not enough that would compromise his integrity if he doesn't end up joining.

 

[Brophs]

He has defo strung us along. What were people saying? There's no way United would be in for him this long unless we didn't know he'd come. We'll FDJ has indeed strung us along and we've wasted all summer on his bullshit

I disagree with that. He’s just doing what’s best for himself. He hasn’t got any loyalty to us. We approached him and the noises around him have been pretty clear: ideally he’d like to stay at Barca. If he doesn’t sign, whatever fault there may be lies with us, split between the manager and the recruitment side of the club, whose judgement will have been shown to be poor. They’ll have allowed themselves to be led up the garden path yet again. We’re at what now, 14 weeks?

I have some sympathy for ETH here. He may have taken FDJ or his agent at face value. Equally, he may have chosen to positively interpret what they were saying or believed he could persuade him, all other things being equal. Either way, history will be written by the victor and all that. If it goes wrong he’ll rightly have been made to look naive, in my opinion.

 

[Judas]

I have close to zero sympathy for Ten Hag, still think he’s the right man for the job, but yeah this saga hasn’t shown him in the best light especially with how it’s looking like it’ll pan out.

 

[Yagami]

The thing that’ll make missing out on him worse is that we’ll sign another lightweight player instead. If we went for Arthur who is the spits of him as a player, and is available, I wouldn’t be as bothered.

 

[Massive Spanner]

He has defo strung us along. What were people saying? There's no way United would be in for him this long unless we didn't know he'd come. We'll FDJ has indeed strung us along and we've wasted all summer on his bullshit

Every single bit of noise coming out of his camp was that he wants to stay at Barcelona and has no interest in joining us. Even that EtH isn't the big draw that the English press make him out to be and that he wants CL football. The guy couldn't have done any more to make it clear he didn't want to come. We are the ones constantly leaking to the press that we remain confident in the deal, not him, not Spanish press, not Barca, us. If this doesn't come to fruition now the only ones who've been strung along are Man Utd fans by their own inept club. We're a laughing stock.

There's been a blind refusal by a number of posters in this thread to accept reality, they only believe stories when they're from the English press and paint the transfer in a positive light as if it'll still happen. Even now they're still harping on that it's going to happen because Andy Mitten said he's more confident it'll happen. What the feck does he know about FDJ? Nothing.

 

[reelworld]

Don't you think De Jong would of told Ten Hag if he's got not intention of coming here? He doesn't need a last resort if he's staying at Barca irrespective of the deferred wages

there are few reports that they have a nice working relationship, but not particularly close.
He wanted to leave and he only wanted to move to a Champions League club, but the one that come for him is United. Once Chelsea make their concrete offer, I'm pretty sure the deferred wage issue got resolved pretty quickly

 

[reelworld]

Every single bit of noise coming out of his camp was that he wants to stay at Barcelona and has no interest in joining us. Even that EtH isn't the big draw that the English press make him out to be and that he wants CL football. The guy couldn't have done any more to make it clear he didn't want to come. We are the ones constantly leaking to the press that we remain confident in the deal, not him, not Spanish press, not Barca, us. If this doesn't come to fruition now the only ones who've been strung along are Man Utd fans by their own inept club. We're a laughing stock.

There's been a blind refusal by a number of posters in this thread to accept reality, they only believe stories when they're from the English press and paint the transfer in a positive light as if it'll still happen. Even now they're still harping on that it's going to happen because Andy Mitten said he's more confident it'll happen. What the feck does he know about FDJ? Nothing.

I believe de Jong camp was feeding us assurance that he'd like to join.
The stupid part is that United bought it and didn't move quickly once it was clear many weeks ago that his camp was lying

 

[McGrathsipan]

This is fecking tiresome at this stage.
I voted embarrassment from us weeks ago - its only worse now.

This should have been killed by United weeks ago. Have we no pride at all left?
I wish we had briefed that we were pulling out weeks ago.

All this posturing and desperation for the whole summer from the supposedly biggest club in the world!!

Its pathetic.

 

[Berbaclass]

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[Berbaclass]

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Spoiler

 

[ClosetDevil]

This is the saga that will never end.

1444 pages in, just let it rest folks.

 

[romufc]

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I know we all have a look at Barca here, but there has been no indication that he is actually dissapointed.

He defered his wage and chose to sign the deal to do so. He is been told to stay he needs to reduce his wage. He is also telling Barca how desperate he is to stay at the club.

Like I have said all summer, I cannot see him leaving Barca, a solution will be found.

 

[JJ12]

Hopefully he stays and fecks them - best case for us it seems

 

[davidmichael]

@SportingCP96 i haven’t seen a lot of Nunes at Sporting but would he be a good alternative seeing as this De Jong deal looks dead ?

For any Juve fans or regular followers of them what about Arthur ? I think given a fresh start and an important role he’d be a good shout especially alongside someone like Fred who know each other’s game.

Obvious one is Bennacer who I’d be very happy with and apparently has a release clause, if we’ve agreed a £55 million plus add ons deal and the £17 million in wages with Barca for De Jong then there’s around £90 million sitting there that’s available and could bring in a couple of the names I’ve mentioned or one plus a defensive minded high intensity press machine to play alongside one of them.

 

[Skills]

I have some sympathy for ETH here. He may have taken FDJ or his agent at face value. Equally, he may have chosen to positively interpret what they were saying or believed he could persuade him, all other things being equal. Either way, history will be written by the victor and all that. If it goes wrong he’ll rightly have been made to look naive, in my opinion.

Maybe this and the whole Arnautovic saga is the type of early humbling that he needed, so he'll keep his nose out of the clubs transfer business from now on?

Seems like he's way out of his depth when it comes to recruitment and should stick to the training ground. The entire thing feels like Moyes and Fabregas, and Arnautovic was gonna be his Fellaini.

 

[Berbaclass]

I know we all have a look at Barca here, but there has been no indication that he is actually dissapointed.

He defered his wage and chose to sign the deal to do so. He is been told to stay he needs to reduce his wage. He is also telling Barca how desperate he is to stay at the club.

Like I have said all summer, I cannot see him leaving Barca, a solution will be found.

Apart from him liking the Instagram post saying he was disappointed

 

[Edwards6]

there are few reports that they have a nice working relationship, but not particularly close.
He wanted to leave and he only wanted to move to a Champions League club, but the one that come for him is United. Once Chelsea make their concrete offer, I'm pretty sure the deferred wage issue got resolved pretty quickly

We had our bid accepted ages ago so the next step would of been personal terms, if he's told us no because we're not in the Champions league then why haven't we pulled out of the deal?

 

[MinGin]

Maybe ETH thinks someone in current squad can be catered that position before game 1, no matter FDJ come or not, ETH can wait. Maybe ETH changed his mind in game 1 when he saw a shit performance on that position and after game 1, the club agree the transfer fee with Juventus for Rabiot immediately.

 

[Mailo]

A saga worse than Sneijder, and the perpetual links with the Portuguese guy from Benfica year on year.

 

[Trex]

I know we all have a look at Barca here, but there has been no indication that he is actually dissapointed.

He defered his wage and chose to sign the deal to do so. He is been told to stay he needs to reduce his wage. He is also telling Barca how desperate he is to stay at the club.

Like I have said all summer, I cannot see him leaving Barca, a solution will be found.

It comes across like he knew about the shadiness of his deal with Bartomeu, and he's playing the good guy, loyal cule now.
Larporta and Xavi comments have been very confident, considering the Oinstein report it seems they know when push comes to shove they have the ultimate leverage in all this.

 

[hellhunter]

It comes across like he knew about the shadiness of his deal with Bartomeu, and he's playing the good guy, loyal cule now.
Larporta and Xavi comments have been very confident, considering the Oinstein report it seems they know when push comes to shove they have the ultimate leverage in all this.

Not sure about that. Even if they manage to void his new contract for legality reasons, I'm not convinced they can force his old contract back on him. Not an expert on these things, of course

 

[DWelbz19]

Maybe this and the whole Arnautovic saga is the type of early humbling that he needed, so he'll keep his nose out of the clubs transfer business from now on?

Seems like he's way out of his depth when it comes to recruitment and should stick to the training ground. The entire thing feels like Moyes and Fabregas, and Arnautovic was gonna be his Fellaini.

100% — as should almost every manager. Tuchel himself said it best:

"I want to be a coach and I'm so happy to be a coach here. I don't want to get involved in all the things that are needed to have a transfer,"

Get the rondos going and leave the transfer dealings to the right people. Whether we have those in place is another matter altogether, I get that, but still…

 

[sewey89]

Calm before the storm

 

[Berbaclass]

Calm before the storm

Storm before the calm

 

[romufc]

It comes across like he knew about the shadiness of his deal with Bartomeu, and he's playing the good guy, loyal cule now.
Larporta and Xavi comments have been very confident, considering the Oinstein report it seems they know when push comes to shove they have the ultimate leverage in all this.

Ofcourse they do. They have accepted United's offer and Chelsea interested and he does not want to leave, which gives Barca the upper hand.

If you dont like the deal, leave.

People keep talking about this owed wages, Barca are happy to give him 3/4m but not 17m. However, if De Jong wanted to actually leave, I am sure United or Chelsea would offer him 12m signing on bonus that would cover those.

The fact that there has been 0 willingness from De Jong's side to even look for a solution, says it all.

 

[Trex]

Not sure about that. Even if they manage to void his new contract for legality reasons, I'm not convinced they can force his old contract back on him. Not an expert on these things, of course

I'm no expert either on legal issues, just putting 2 and 2 together, they've literally been pushing him around all summer and made him look bad in front of their fan base and he's been quiet and when his spoken shown loyalty, no man is that weak unless he fears what he has to loose is bigger than what he'll gain.

 

[Castia]

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Stay and refuse the pay cut feck em

Spending 200m on players and asking their current squad to take cuts...disgrace.

 

[hellhunter]

I'm no expert either on legal issues, just putting 2 and 2 together, they've literally been pushing him around all summer and made him look bad in front of their fan base and he's been quiet and when his spoken shown loyalty, no man is that weak unless he fears what he has to loose is bigger than what he'll gain.

Like we discussed earlier, it's really weird how they can seemingly can do what they want with him and his main goal is still to remain there. We can only speculate about the reasons, but think we can all agree that money plays a significant role in this, one way or another

 

[roonaldo78]

He has defo strung us along. What were people saying? There's no way United would be in for him this long unless we didn't know he'd come. We'll FDJ has indeed strung us along and we've wasted all summer on his bullshit

Completely agree and all the noise just shows that the moment that Chelsea came in, his preference would be Chelsea and London.

Saying that, this once again highlights the inexperience of the recruitment team. We should never have gone three months putting aside other business to focus on this. FDJ and his agent should have been set a deadline and we should have moved on to other targets. Instead, we are sat here scrambling around for the leftovers having seen so many midfielders sign for other clubs. Everytime you think that things cannot get worse, this club surprises you by taking it to another level.

 

[Brownie85]

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Groundhog day is upon us... again.

All the news is just recycled week after week. Nothing new, nothing different, just the same stuff reworded to make it seem a little different.

Is that proof that there really isn't anything happening at all or proof that journos know feck all about this

 

[Trex]

Ofcourse they do. They have accepted United's offer and Chelsea interested and he does not want to leave, which gives Barca the upper hand.

If you dont like the deal, leave.

People keep talking about this owed wages, Barca are happy to give him 3/4m but not 17m. However, if De Jong wanted to actually leave, I am sure United or Chelsea would offer him 12m signing on bonus that would cover those.

The fact that there has been 0 willingness from De Jong's side to even look for a solution, says it all.

I think Barca are confident they'll have their way with him, and I feel he thinks the best thing he can do is to be quiet and show loyalty. Odd in this day and age were player power is really big.

 

[Plant0x84]

Storm before the calm

Calm before the more calm followed by further calm