Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

[DavelinaJolie]

Frenkie not wanting to leave Barcelona doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't want to join Utd. Now I'm not saying that he did want to join either, it's just that I think some people see FdJ trying to stay at Barca and think "Oh, Frenkie obviously rejected Utd, he clearly didn't want to come" whereas I think it's more of a case "Oh, Frenkie wants to stay at Barca, he'd be ok with joining Utd if he left Barca but Barca are his dream club, he has a contract with them that they have to honour, why would he leave?"

So again it comes down to the communication. Is that what was communicated to United, and if so why continue to pursue it? If his priority was to stay at Barcelona, why put all the eggs in that basket for so long to the point it affected the start of the season?

I think there's been a failure on the part of United to establish a clear limit to how long they could wait on this. Even now the reports coming out, though they are essentially saying the game is up, still seem to suggest a small possibility. Meanwhile the club is rushing to get Antony, a back up GK and potentially a couple more in.

Whilst I understand De Jong could be used to his best by Ten Hag, I don't believe for a second that Ten Hag can't run his system or a variation of it with a different player in place of De Jong.

 

[sewey89]

6 more days

 

[Igor Drefljak]

If it came down to Frenkie or Antony, I really hope it's Frenkie.

Antony would definitely be a crowd pleaser, but I still think the price is a bit crazy.
Frenkie is a great player, and in todays market, the price suggested comes across as a steal, compared to Gordan, Richarlison etc

A midfield of FJD and Casemiro would be awesome and gives us such a solid foundation.

 

[Ramshock]

he doesnt want to come here, dont know why people cant understand that

 

[OrcaFat]

I can’t see that we’ve done anything wrong in this saga. For all we know it could still happen so we don’t rule it out. Meanwhile we signed some good players. No problems. Not too many anyway (some, obviously).

 

[OrcaFat]

he doesnt want to come here, dont know why people cant understand that

Come on. That’s lazy.

 

[DavelinaJolie]

Come on. That’s lazy.

It was lazy on page 400 as well. But posters kept coming in to say it, or variations of.

 

[Hoof the ball]

Will you just calm the feck down, people? Damn.

David Kent said the deal will be tied up and medical done on Saturday.

Sheesh......

 

[pocco]

he doesnt want to come here, dont know why people cant understand that

It's without a doubt the strangest transfer thread I've ever seen and actually a good, if sightly scary, insight into the human psyche. I said this a while ago but it's followed the same trajectory as those wacky conspiracy theories, where if it's said enough times in a self perpetuating way, it becomes a fact for many people. Even when reality is smacking them in the face.

 

[Bastian]

Yeah it really would, so if Mitten says he believes De Jong never had any intention of coming then why not move on to Casemiro right at the start

Yeah, I'm not buying that from Mitten, who does preface it with "to my knowledge", but what's glaringly obvious is that ETH spoke with FDJ - likely a number of times - and he wouldn't have created this transfer bottleneck if he didn't believe he'd join. I'd much rather go on that than what Mitten may or may not know.

 

[Volumiza]

he doesnt want to come here, dont know why people cant understand that

How do you know that?

 

[Volumiza]

What a joyless dweeb

Perfect

 

[Volumiza]

You s-s-s-summoned 'her'?

Hello!

 

[OrcaFat]

Andy Mitten saying on TOTD pod that Frenkie doesn’t and never has wanted to come.

I’m sure Mitten has never had anyone tell him that FDJ wants to join Utd. Frenkie has always wanted to stay at Barca and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that literally everyone who has taken any interest in this has always known that.

He doesn’t want to come here, he wants to stay there. That is not (and never has been) news.

It doesn’t change the fact that Barca have been trying very hard to get rid of him. If they make him a sensible offer to leave, he might accept it rather than sit on the bench. If he agrees to leave, he very well might end up here but that absolutely does not mean he’s going to go about telling everyone. The first step to him thinking about moving is a huge pay off offer from Barca.

 

[Devilyouknow]

The only thing that Frenkie said about this all summer was the interview where he was laughing saying ‘I can’t…’ His agent has basically gagged him for 4 months. It’s insane how little actual info has come out from his camp - muppets been surviving on tiny scraps and fecal matter from fake itk’s.
Barca have maintained they wanted to keep him just that they had to renegotiate his salary and get him to drop the deferred wages. Right from the start his side have said he won’t. He’s at his dream club, just built a house and doesn’t want to move so maybe his agent lets us know he would be interested in a move to scare barca over these renegotiated terms. Only his agents fecked up the last contract and Barca think they can get away with not paying the deferred wages.
So we keep pushing the deal and get an agreement with Barca but there’s been nothing since from his side. Why? Maybe because his agent wasn’t expecting Barca to call his bluff and tell him he can just leave but he’s not getting that money.

 

[Plant0x84]

I’m sure Mitten has never had anyone tell him that FDJ wants to join Utd. Frenkie has always wanted to stay at Barca and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that literally everyone who has taken any interest in this has always known that.

He doesn’t want to come here, he wants to stay there. That is not (and never has been) news.

It doesn’t change the fact that Barca have been trying very hard to get rid of him. If they make him a sensible offer to leave, he might accept it rather than sit on the bench. If he agrees to leave, he very well might end up here but that absolutely does not mean he’s going to go about telling everyone. The first step to him thinking about moving is a huge pay off offer from Barca.

You are right, but I did follow up with another post about how it was the stark difference in his stance on this deal from where he was. It’s interesting that Mitten, Whitwell and Ornstein (all athletic reporters) have all adopted the deal off stance.

 

[davidmichael]

How the feck is this thread still going ? I feel like the machines that wanted to kill their own creation in Agent Smith in The Matrix, going to be a long 6 days on here.

 

[OrcaFat]

You are right, but I did follow up with another post about how it was the stark difference in his stance on this deal from where he was. It’s interesting that Mitten, Whitwell and Ornstein (all athletic reporters) have all adopted the deal off stance.

Yes, their line is very much “off” now and most of them had been saying it was likely at the beginning.

Mostly they changed to quite strongly “off” after we signed Casemiro. Which, of course makes sense because he’s a no6 and we don’t have endless money. I just don’t think any indications one way or another ever came from FDJ. And the worst of the speculation was the stuff centred around what FDJ wants (prefers London, Mikki hates northerners, wants to play CL, prefers blue to red etc).

I like Mitten, he’s got an easy style and he’s a fan but he doesn’t need to come out with that kind of bollocks - it’s not interesting if it’s not based on anything concrete.

Funnily enough I like Mitten more when he’s giving us positive bollocks.

 

[tomaldinho1]

This saga is honestly phenomenal, there are so many angles.

Barcelona trying to convince a player to leave and getting more and more desperate, including trying to rip up contracts for ‘criminality’, trying to force him to take massive pay cut and playing him at CB. United ready to stump up the cash for a player who doesn’t want to leave his dream club but, with tears in his eyes, knows they have done him wrong. The ex boss offering respect and a like for like WC role. The fiancé who has zero interest in Cheshire but will follow Frenkie if he puts his foot down. Chelsea sniffing around, Bernardo wanting to move to Barca, Auba financing other players to get registered. It’s pure chaos.

 

[SalfordRed18]

Said earlier in the thread, this will get done in Jan or next summer. There'll be absolutely no hiccups if we get CL too.

 

[Withnail]

It's literally just idiotic spam making it impossible to actually know what is going on. Makes Santi look like an amateur.

Not doing anything to change my opinion

 

[Posh Red]

This saga is honestly phenomenal, there are so many angles.

Barcelona trying to convince a player to leave and getting more and more desperate, including trying to rip up contracts for ‘criminality’, trying to force him to take massive pay cut and playing him at CB. United ready to stump up the cash for a player who doesn’t want to leave his dream club but, with tears in his eyes, knows they have done him wrong. The ex boss offering respect and a like for like WC role. The fiancé who has zero interest in Cheshire but will follow Frenkie if he puts his foot down. Chelsea sniffing around, Bernardo wanting to move to Barca, Auba financing other players to get registered. It’s pure chaos.

I’m glad you’ve seen the fun side of it. There’s a lot of miserable sods around here.

 

[Plant0x84]

It's literally just idiotic spam making it impossible to actually know what is going on. Makes Santi look like an amateur.

 

[Dominos]

This is a weird saga because it seems pretty definitive in the English press that this is not happening for either United or Chelsea.

Surely there would be some noise coming out of Barca that he's definitively staying? What is their action plan at this point with less than a week to go, force him out to where? If United and Chelsea have accepted he's staying and they've got no hope, surely Barca can't be under the illusion that there's still a good chance he's leaving to one of said clubs who have given up.

 

[Charlie Foley]

The heavy traffic in this thread is driven almost entirely by people congratulating each other on making the thread such a success.

Indeed. It makes the “wow such a long thread” stuff nonsensical

 

[lex talionis]

Don't forget the daily "shut this thread down" post.

 

[Charlie Foley]

Don't forget the daily "shut this thread down" post.

Aye, that adds a lot to it as well.

I avoided this thread most of the summer because so much of it was/is filler. Now it seems like this really isn’t happening, I find the jokey bs stuff less problematic because there aren’t updates to get in the way of just the silly “wow how long can we actively try to make this thread” stuff is pointless

 

[sglowrider]

I don't think anyone would be expecting any different, i.e. if we were to sign Antony and de Jong I don't think people would be expecting as big an outlay next summer. But it would make perfect sense to do it now as it will help us qualify for top 4, it will immediately improve ETH's ability to transform the team's style of play, and it will thereby make the team better, raising the overall value of the team which may help next summer if we're in a stronger position to sell, as oppose to finishing way down the table again with a goal difference of zero.

Buying him now and decreasing the budget for next summer would be sensible long-term planning.

We could spend big this summer to make it to the Top 4 intentionally. Then the Glazers can sell the club... and backload this summer's spending onto the new owner.

It would very like the Glazers -- get things for max benefts without ever once having to pay the price.

 

[Charles Miller]

You need to be fast and bump this thread in january or people are going to create another one and you lose your title-changing powers.

 

[RedRonaldo]

he doesnt want to come here, dont know why people cant understand that

Is this thread a joke to you? We are on page 1722 and don’t you think there’s a reason for that?

We will sign FDJ this summer, unless we don’t!

 

[SWE-Chucky]

Right now I believe that the best for Man United, is to leave him alone this summer if we want to bring him over next year. I don't think he was anywhere ready for a move this summer, he probably even thought that he might stay there for another 7-8 years, i mean why wouldn't he? Barcelona bought him to replace Xavi/Iniesta and to be a starplayer for them, earn a lot of money, win titles, live in a sunny city etc etc. But this summer a lot changed for him and it probably came as a surprise that Barcelona were ready to get rid of him for the same money that they bought him for and also not paying all of his wager. I believe that he needs time to sort things out - both the economical part and his private situation with his wife loving the city and not so happy about moving to Manchester. Give them both a year to except the fact that Barcelona want to sell and that they have problem paying his wager, but also Man United needs to get top 4 this year to secure CL for next season and present a plan for the next 4-6 years so that he feels confident that he is making a move in the right direction. That with ETH being our manager and a good contract should be enough to have him here next year when we really go all in and try to fight for top 3, CL, FA and the league cup.

If not, then just move on.

 

[HayabusaUtd]

What is this about Liverpool in for him? **** Off

 

[Michael T]

We could spend big this summer to make it to the Top 4 intentionally. Then the Glazers can sell the club... and backload this summer's spending onto the new owner.

It would very like the Glazers -- get things for max benefts without ever once having to pay the price.

I'll take that..

 

[RedTiger]

We could spend big this summer to make it to the Top 4 intentionally. Then the Glazers can sell the club... and backload this summer's spending onto the new owner.

It would very like the Glazers -- get things for max benefts without ever once having to pay the price.

This is exactly what they're doing, not necessarily for top 4 but more to bump the price of the club up on borrowed money.

 

[sglowrider]

I'll take that..

But knowing the bastards, they will ask for an exorbitant price based on this season's results or squad's potential ... and then make it less attractive for the right kind of buyer.

Earning maximum profit off the back of others.

 

[DarkXaero]

This is headed for the Sneijder saga ending.

 

[Red Company]

So what’s the consensus lads? Something has to happen in this saga right? I mean there’s no way Barca would be willing to pay Frenkie’s wages going forward or would they?

 

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

What is this about Liverpool in for him? **** Off

The loser from last match would get Frenkie. That was the deal.

 

[DevilRed]

So what’s the consensus lads? Something has to happen in this saga right? I mean there’s no way Barca would be willing to pay Frenkie’s wages going forward or would they?

Well its either they pay him off, or he stays and they pay him EVEN MORE (over the course of a season).

I think they are waiting to offload some other players, and maybe then they will up their compensation for FDJ to leave.

 

[mitchmouse]

Going out on a limb here (yeh, right) and saying he ain't coming...