Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

[Tarrou]

He's exactly what we need, and players like this are so hard to find. There are loads of DMs we could sign to do a job next to him, but hardly any players in his mould of his class.

Would be the perfect signing to kick start the rebuild. Knows ETH already too.

The only issue I can see is his wages. WTF were Barca playing at paying him so much? I know he's class but it's absurdly high if reports are to be believed. Is it true Adidas pays some of it, or something like that?

 

[Kostov]

I have some bad news for you.

Yes I know I

It's too much to ask being smart on the market from United nowadays.

 

[Freak]

Maybe ETH wants the De Jong, Donny midfield again. Add one of Fred or Bruno in there to make it a midfield 3.

 

[Bebestation]

PSG will definitely come wanting a shiny new toy. Their midfield is anyways lacking.

Isn't this Pogba?

 

[wise_old_man]

Sneijder and Robben were forced out of Madrid and they ended up flourishing for Inter and Bayern. Eto’o was used as a part of an exchange for Ibra and he flourished at Inter. Same with Sanchez being forced out of Barcelona and becoming one of the best players in the league for Arsenal.

How long are we going to say “but but but Di Maria” and use that as some kind of basis to not want to sign players being forced out by their clubs? Players are forced out by their clubs all the time.

This is Manchester United. We have become the specialist in failure regarding transfers.

 

[DavelinaJolie]

Seems to me like Barca fed this info to Gerrard Romero to drum up interest in a player they'd like to cash in on, but the player is set on staying put. Xavi also seems to want to keep him.

Yeah, that's how I see it.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Isn't this Pogba?

They will make room.

 

[Kush]

Seems to me like Barca fed this info to Gerrard Romero to drum up interest in a player they'd like to cash in on, but the player is set on staying put. Xavi also seems to want to keep him.

Indeed. Plus, we are simply not as big an attraction anymore.

He'll probably move to someone like City and for lower fee than reported, probably something like €50m. That's how things have gone for us in recent years.

 

[MDFC Manager]

Wait, is this on ish?

@Ish please confirm

 

[Pirlo'sBeard]

Don't see this one happening unfortunately.

 

[Grylte]

Is this going to be this summer's transfer saga?

Is there anything in it, or is it just agent trying to use Barca's financial problems and that De Jong and Ten Hag have worked together before, to try to get more money from sale or new contract?

Don't think i'm ready mentally for another summer of exciting links and disappointments.

 

[Offside]

Thats the spirit! Clear sign of changes at the club, awful season practically over, new manager coming in, a reason to be hopeful and excited, naaah just carry on the negativity into a new regime

I’m pretty optimistic just been burned too many times to unzip over some Twitter Bollocks. Sorry.

 

[Ish]

@Ish please confirm

let’s just say I can confirm via an undisclosed source, close to the club, that this may or may not be on! I’m not permitted to say anything more concrete that that!

 

[Esquire]

Won’t get excited over this one. Sounds very unlikely given the way our transfers have been done these past few years.

 

[48 hours]

Romero probing the muppets defences early and finding them non existent

 

[haru krentz]

We'll have his former manager who by all accounts got a good relationship with him and made him played his best football.

1. we are yet to know if his former manager can stomp his authority at the club.
2. managers with far higher pedigree had been humiliated by our bastard of players.
3. no need to make his job even more difficult.

 

[devilish]

We could be smart and add Kamara on a free in addition to Frenkie.

Fair enough

 

[Lewnited]

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Honestly more positive than I would have expected from Stone

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

De Jong is good but lots of free options in the market today I feel we should be going for. No need to pay £69m when there’s that much free talent in the market. De Jong lacks pace

You should be expecting us to sign player that suits the manager’s system. FDJ is already proven that he suits with the manager system. If I have to choose free player that has doubt whether he can fit the manager system or 60m-69m player that has proven record fit the manager system then the logical answer would be 60m-69m player.

 

[Berbasbullet]

So this is where im spending all my time

 

[diarm]

So this is where im spending all my time

So i'm addicted to this. Not in a literal medical sense, but I don't think I can live without it.

 

[reelworld]

1. we are yet to know if his former manager can stomp his authority at the club.
2. managers with far higher pedigree had been humiliated by our bastard of players.
3. no need to make his job even more difficult.

1,2 doesn't relate with the fact that ten Hag was probably the best manager de Jong had in his career. Not talking about anyone else on the team
On 3, I don't think trying to fit in a player as good as de Jong wouldn't be as hard as trying to make this United team played as a unit.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

If, by DM, you mean a destructive holding midfielder ala Makelele, I would say the opposite is true - De Jong will never truly work with one!

De Jong is at his best as the first function midfielder. Ideally he has a defensively oriented player alongside him in a deep midfield pair, just not another first function midfielder. Someone like Vieira, Essien, Gattuso, Herrera, Khedira, Javi Martinez. Kante is the most complimentary player I can think of for pairing him with. Fred and McTominay would not be perfect but both would work I think. Reservations would be a pairing with Fred would be a bit lightweight and McTominay just isn't quite good enough. Van de Beek would be unsuitable. Would make it difficult to integrate Mejbri.

Answers a question I never asked.

In short I’m aware of how he plays. I’m aware of our DM need for an ETH system. I’m merely pointing out this won’t be a guaranteed success given his development since Ajax.

 

[#07]

I find it hard to believe that, if Barcelona needs cash and forces him, De Jong is going to end up at Man Utd.

Ralf said we are six years behind Liverpool, which is right. In Klopp's first few years they weren't buying players like Thiago, which is the level De Jong is at. They were picking up the likes of Wijnaldum. We may well end up in the Conference League, we can't be expecting to bring in big names. Regardless of how much De Jong might personally like Ten Hag.

If there's a chance, of course, United should explore it. However, we should not get distracted from identifying other players who suit the profile of a Ten Hag midfielder. The last thing we need is to spend all summer chasing someone who's never going to come, again.

 

[cyberman]

I find it hard to believe that, if Barcelona needs cash and forces him, De Jong is going to end up at Man Utd.

Ralf said we are six years behind Liverpool, which is right. In Klopp's first few years they weren't buying players like Thiago, which is the level De Jong is at. They were picking up the likes of Wijnaldum. We may well end up in the Conference League, we can't be expecting to bring in big names. Regardless of how much De Jong might personally like Ten Hag.

If there's a chance, of course, United should explore it. However, we should not get distracted from identifying other players who suit the profile of a Ten Hag midfielder. The last thing we need is to spend all summer chasing someone who's never going to come, again.

Ralph has said there is no reason why we cant get the players we need in 1 summer.

 

[flappyjay]

You a barca fan? How has de jong been?

United fan. Popped into their forum to find out how reliable this Romero guy is and from their reaction he is reliable. The consensus is that he's up and down

 

[Superman123]

De Jong hasn't been in place at Barcelona. At Ajax/Dutch squat everyone gives him the ball to build the game. At Barcelona he had never given that trust. Everyone tried to make him an 8/10 and even that he did decent at times. Whenever de Jong went to the Dutch squat it seems like he unleashes his true power. His match against Germany in march was absolutely unreal.
When de Jong plays to his potentional he is one of the best in the world at his position and might become the best.
For United and ten Hag he is the perfect player right now. The only job for the defenders is to position them well in the build up game. The central defenders have to go wide and the backs have to go forward so de Jong can pick up the ball between the defenders. He can be trusted to do the dirty work there.

 

[Conor]

I find it hard to believe that, if Barcelona needs cash and forces him, De Jong is going to end up at Man Utd.

Ralf said we are six years behind Liverpool, which is right. In Klopp's first few years they weren't buying players like Thiago, which is the level De Jong is at. They were picking up the likes of Wijnaldum. We may well end up in the Conference League, we can't be expecting to bring in big names. Regardless of how much De Jong might personally like Ten Hag.

If there's a chance, of course, United should explore it. However, we should not get distracted from identifying other players who suit the profile of a Ten Hag midfielder. The last thing we need is to spend all summer chasing someone who's never going to come, again.

When he said that he was saying that Klopp has had 6 years to build Liverpool into their current state, he then went on to say that it does not have to take that long at all for Utd if they make the right signings.

 

[JPRouve]

When he said that he was saying that Klopp has had 6 years to build Liverpool into their current state, he then went on to say that it does not have to take that long at all for Utd if they make the right signings.

If Liverpool couldn't do it, we can't.

 

[VP89]

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Honestly more positive than I would have expected from Stone

Its a fair summary since City can easily walk in and drop 80m on him if they felt like it. They'll see Fernandinho going out the door this season.

 

[Adnan]

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[#07]

Ralph has said there is no reason why we cant get the players we need in 1 summer.

When he said that he was saying that Klopp has had 6 years to build Liverpool into their current state, he then went on to say that it does not have to take that long at all for Utd if they make the right signings.

Yes, we can get the players we need but it doesn't necessarily have to be De Jong. If you find the right profile of player for your system you don't need to go shopping in Barcelona.

Liverpool built their team shopping at Southampton for the most part. De Jong is a great player but he's not the only player in the whole of world football who can fill the role of an #8 in Ten Hag's team.

Ralf himself said if you know what you're looking for the transformation needs to only take 2 or 3 windows. I don't want United to spend all summer long flirting with De Jong and then resort to a deadline day supermarket sweep, as we've seen so many times in the past 10 years.

Talk to De Jong, is he interested? If so, see what can be done. If not, move on. Find someone else who can be signed up and ready for preseason so Ten Hag can integrate them into the squad.

Bissouma and Caicedo would walk into our starting XI. We don't need to be looking as high up the list as De Jong to improve our midfield. We could sign anyone of literally hundreds of players who would come in and instantly level up our midfield.

 

[Vapor trail]

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If that fee is correct that's 87 million euros quite a fair amount of money and a profit for Barcelona.

 

[Conor]

Yes, we can get the players we need but it doesn't necessarily have to be De Jong. If you find the right profile of player for your system you don't need to go shopping in Barcelona.

Liverpool built their team shopping at Southampton for the most part. De Jong is a great player but he's not the only player in the whole of world football who can fill the role of an #8 in Ten Hag's team.

Ralf himself said if you know what you're looking for the transformation needs to only take 2 or 3 windows. I don't want United to spend all summer long flirting with De Jong and then resort to a deadline day supermarket sweep, as we've seen so many times in the past 10 years.

Talk to De Jong, is he interested? If so, see what can be done. If not, move on. Find someone else who can be signed up and ready for preseason so Ten Hag can integrate them into the squad.

Bissouma and Caicedo would walk into our starting XI. We don't need to be looking as high up the list as De Jong to improve our midfield. We could sign anyone of literally hundreds of players who would come in and instantly level up our midfield.

Yeah, I agree with that sentiment, I have made similar points in the Tchouameni thread, just wanted to confirm the context of the quote.

 

[Billy Jim]

It's the hope that's going to hurt the most on this one.

 

[cyberman]

Yes, we can get the players we need but it doesn't necessarily have to be De Jong. If you find the right profile of player for your system you don't need to go shopping in Barcelona.

Liverpool built their team shopping at Southampton for the most part. De Jong is a great player but he's not the only player in the whole of world football who can fill the role of an #8 in Ten Hag's team.

Ralf himself said if you know what you're looking for the transformation needs to only take 2 or 3 windows. I don't want United to spend all summer long flirting with De Jong and then resort to a deadline day supermarket sweep, as we've seen so many times in the past 10 years.

Talk to De Jong, is he interested? If so, see what can be done. If not, move on. Find someone else who can be signed up and ready for preseason so Ten Hag can integrate them into the squad.

Bissouma and Caicedo would walk into our starting XI. We don't need to be looking as high up the list as De Jong to improve our midfield. We could sign anyone of literally hundreds of players who would come in and instantly level up our midfield.

He is a player who has worked with Ten Hag before and is available from a club who is in financial turmoil who cant hold us to a ransom. Klopp went to Bayern and got their best midfielder to finish off their midfield, if the player and circumstances are there then why not take advantage? This isnt being reported as a saga, its being reported as if its already done and in May as well. That would be outstanding work.
For me, I dont see why we should go for lesser options just because they play for lesser sides. Where is the logic in that??

 

[Vault Dweller]

@Judas @Acquire Me is this going to be where we are camped for the next few weeks??

 

[yumtum]

If that fee is correct that's 87 million euros quite a fair amount of money and a profit for Barcelona.

I'd steer clear at that price, he hasn't been great for Barca and he really doesn't want to leave, he'll be here a year before leaving for PSG for half the price.

Anything around £50m would be logical for both sides.

 

[Smores]

He'd have to really believe in Ten Hag to move here. If it wasn't for the manager link I'd have said it was another player just looking for easy money.

 

[Pronewbie]

I'd steer clear at that price, he hasn't been great for Barca and he really doesn't want to leave, he'll be here a year before leaving for PSG for half the price.

Anything around £50m would be logical for both sides.

Yeah with recession looming £50m is a fair deal considering his wages. This assumes the likes of PSG and City do not bite.