Bit weird you quoted my point about Neves to reference that, haha
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
- Thread starter davidmichael
- Start date
- Status
In French it doesn't mean literally approach, the headline reads in English as 'De Jong is getting closer to United and Ten Hag'
Player worked with the manager before, the player and manager know each other, and the player has evidence that the player fit the manager's system. I can't think any better reason than those to spend big money on a player. If those money we spent for someone who never play with the manager and never has evidence the player fit the manager's system then the manager and the board would need to think twice again. If we want to spend big, make sure we spend on the player that fits the manager's system. The only risk of this signing is if ten Hag is sacked, will the next manager able to use him? That's not something we should worry at this point.
Yes he’s a world class player and I’d say one of only 5 world class CM playmakers in world football.
Last edited:
No chance ? What do you think his price would be if we do end up signing him ? I reckon it would be between £65-70m.
He has said he prefers the Dutch NT to his role at Barca (pseudo-box-to-box/false DMF-CMF/false-AMF-SS/whatever). For some reason, he has been a decent player at best with Barca; not an abject, recent failure (Arda Turan and Coutinho come to mind), but he really should move to Man Utd, if only because of Ten Hag, and the competition with Pedri, Gavi, Nico, Kessie, etc.
It's the same thing!! He didn't rule out the potential of answering a call from other clubs. Because if he is insisted to stay, he wouldn't pick up other clubs call and instead, makes it clear he's staying no matter what Barcelona told him to. Good example is when Enrique was asked the question about coming to United, he replied ''Is it April Fools Day''. That's what I call ruling out the move to Manchester United.
Kessie and Guimaraes were bought when we still didn't have a manager for this season in place. Barella, is not available, I am pretty sure about this.
The others are not on the same planet. De Jong is the big fish and a gem, and we have a manager who knows that as well and knows how to use him.
I dont think Frenkie is a good fit for Liverpool. Their midfield has been full with pretty unspectacular players for years tbh. Their midfielders are just pressing beasts. They force the opponent into mistakes and then capitalize via Salah/Mane. Worked pretty well obviously, but in all those years Klopp never played with any player even remotely like Frenkie. Although Thiago has kind of been a change of trend in that respect. If Klopp really wants to change the shape of his team, Frenkie could be interesting for him but it would really change their game.Because there's only a few clubs who could be.
I think Nagelsmann wants/wanted a Frenkie type at Bayern, but they don't tend to spend that kind of money and are already bringing in Gravenberch for 20m as someone they can form into that player instead.
I'm sure PSG wouldn't mind him, but he does overlap quite a bit with Veratti.
Juve could obviously use him considering their midfield but they're going after the free Pogba instead.
It just leaves premier league sides, of which Chelsea have too many players of his ilk already (with De Jong falling somewhere in the middle of Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante in terms of skillset)
It basically just leaves City, who are the only ones I can see coming in for him (I think he'd be great alongside Rodri, but it would require change of shape by Pep) but as a club it seems like they only go after a player when it fits exactly into some plan/place they have for him, rather than simply because the opportunity's there (Although maybe not so much with Grealish?)
But yeah you honestly have just one potential rival for his signature and that's a picky City.
In terms of other United rivals: he'd be a good replacement for Xhaka but why would he want to go to Arsenal right now? And why would he believe that Conte of all people would finally let him play his own game?
Edit: completely forgot Liverpool exists
would be an interesting player for Liverpool but only if for some reason they decided to move on from Thiago
Other than that agree that City, PSG and Bayern are the most likely contenders. Don't see Frenkie going to France/PSG. Bayern and City could be a real threat for United, but so far it doesn't seem they are really making an effort. If you ask me, United really is the likeliest scenario now. Might all be concluded just after the international games.
Literally none of the players you mentioned plays like de Jong. Listing and lumping them all together at once won’t explain anything.
Last edited:
I hope people know what type of player de Jong is and show some faith in ten hag especially when he knows the player so well.
They’re desperate to sell and there are about 3 clubs on the planet who can afford his wages let alone a fee on top. He’s not even a guaranteed starter - they have Busquets, Gavi, Pedri and Kessie incoming. We aren’t paying 70m quid for him. This is the very definition of a buyers market.
He's on 350K/W at Barcelona, why the hell we're going to offer him more than what he earns there ?
Is that wage verified?
But on the other hand, he isn’t interested in signing for us and we are desperate and Barca knows this. So we have to come to a compromise and won’t be getting him for cheap at all, plus we have to massive wages to de Jong too.
Your point would be more valid if de Jong would be desperate to leave them and sign for us. That would weaken Barca’s hand massively. But as things stand I don’t think this is a case where we hold all the cards and who’s to say PSG won’t jump in if we keep dilly dallying and pay top dollar to Barca and sign him ? Especially when de Jong is not that keen on us.
With Pogba, Cavani, Mata, Lingard and Matic gone, there should be plenty of wages freed up.
What you’ve said makes no sense. If he has no interest in signing for us then it’s irrelevant how much we offer - he isn’t coming. The fee has zero relevance on De Jong’s interest. Nobody is giving Barcelona 70m quid for a player who earns what he does, who won’t be a starter and who they desperately want to sell. It’s a total pipe dream. Just like Madrid getting 60m for Varane last year was cuckoo land stuff yet we still had people on here screaming PAY IT.
No, that's in dollars.
He makes £278k per week, and Barca want to cut all salaries in half so they want to offer £140k. If we offer more than £200-240k and keep ruining our wage structure Murtough hasn't learned anything from his decade of failure.
For the price we will be getting him for he will be on more than £240 and his current Barca contract.
Afaik FdJ already makes less as all Barca players had to reduce their salaries due to Corona.
Cant believe the people in here complaining about the price. This guy IS WORLDCLASS and would transform your entire team. Pay the feck up.
I still think we’d be silly to force this through now. It’s only June, pre season doesn’t even start for a few more weeks. They’re desperate, make them sweat a bit.
Holla sènior Laporta.
@Ajaxsuarez
I'm curious about your Ajax 18/19 so I would like to ask few questions.
I'm curious about your Ajax 18/19 so I would like to ask few questions.
- Every team has issue or weakness. So I would like to know what was the issues that happened in the match when you played with de Jong and Schone partnership in 18/19? Is there even an issue with those two played together as partnership?
- I know Schone was attacking mid before 18/19 so can VDB be deployed in Schone's role?
Pereira won’t be a like for like replacement for matic.
Frenkie will be a class signing in a ETH system.
350K is not a crazy wage. Especially with what the likes of De Gea, Sancho, Varane earn. I think that's what Bayern pay their top players as well.
He won't transform the team, he isn't that good, and we should move away from that kind of thinking, because it places huge and an unnecessary expectations on the player, but yes, FDJ is very talented, but isn't a "transformative" level player, at least not yet
If the club signs him, then the expectation is that ETH makes it work with him, of course the player must work hard and give it his all, that's a given, but I hope that ETH makes it work, with his coaching and with the right style of play.
We haven't had a player remotely like him since Carrick. Still no surprise to me that we haven't won a thing since he retired.
Really hope we get him. Not because I rate him highly but because 1) we haven't had a midfield playmaker for centuries who can provide some class in the buildup phase and 2) if ETH really really wants him, it's important we give him his main man to build his possesion oriented team around.
The way he can pick up from deep and carry to the attacking players is very much transformative. We haven't had this ilk of player in 10 years.
Oh yeah, I think they would have had a better season just letting Nico play as an 8 and building the team around Frenkie as their 6 and dominating possession, especially when their forwards were trash pre-January. I thought you meant Busquets in his prime.
I can talk myself into a De Jong-Rabiot partnership or a De Jong-Fred partnership real easily, whereas if we don't sign him I'm not sure how the hell we'll build a working midfield partnership. Partnership.
I agree, he is different from the players we had, but I don't think him alone will transform this team.
1 thing I'll say though about him, is that he is a far superior footballer than McFred, and on that fact alone, yes he would transform the midfield of the team, I can't bear another season of McFred, literally anything but a McFred combo
We offered more to Pogba. We have just freed almost a million per week in salaries. 300-350k is easily doable without even causing any issue with our salary structure. He will instantly become our best player when he joins us ( apart from 37 year old Ronaldo) . Thats how bad our squad is
I’m not saying that, every reliable reporter and news outlet have said it. Your second part isn’t true either that if he isn’t interested then he won’t be coming. I assume you have been watching football for many years so you would know that this is very common. A player not interested in joining initially can be persuaded or convinced by the coach or by the club to join them. I would be very surprised if you don’t know that.
The fee does have relevance on de Jong’s interest in joining us. It weakens our hand compared to de Jong desperate to leave Barca and sign for us. Your point about Barca desperately want to sell doesn’t hold that much ground either. If they were that desperate they would have sold him by now. If that desperate you know. The reality is they are still working their way around their finances to sort out this whole mess. If they can’t then they would sell de Jong but not for peanuts as you are thinking.
And no body is paying £70m ? Either you think 70m is a lot or you think de Jong is a piss poor player not deserving that amount of money. 70m is nothing for a club like psg and for most of top clubs. It might not even be 70m tbh. Could be 65 or even 60 but not less than that. You say it won’t be 70m but you didn’t tell how much he would go for in your opinion ? As you are so sure what do you think his selling price would be ?
As of now, anything but a McFred combo will do, even Garner+Fred (GarFred?)
He's a different beast in his proper position, mate. It's night and day watching him for Holland and Barcelona. With ten Hag, I'm 100% confident we'd be getting his Holland performances ourselves.
Thing is, as good as he was last night, it was nowhere near the best I've seen him play (consistently) for Holland. I've seen him control games singlehandedly against England, Spain, Germany, France, dominate Verratti when playing against Italy, etc. I thought he was the best performing cm at Euro 2020/1 before getting knocked out, too.
We are in for a treat if he joins. I think he'd go down as one of our best central midfielders ever. I rate him that highly.
The point holds, Barca is in a desperate financial situation, they can't even register players they signed on a free, and they are given by LaLiga a spending budget of approx (-140m).
Yes, -140m euros, meaning they are required to make savings/cut costs of 140m, by either selling players or by selling their share of TV rights (they are or were opposed to the CVC deal).
I dont know if you have talked about this, but who do you pair him with? Fred? Or would we need a Neves too?
Isn't that going to be 175k next year or was that 50% pay-cut story bs?.
I don't believe for a second that EtH is keen on Pereira
- Status