Remember when we thought Frenkie De Jong was close? We loved those days. Now he will cost about £9m more up front. Blame Pep.
DE JONG PRICE RISING
Remember when we all thought Manchester United had agreed a deal with Barcelona for Frenkie De Jong? That was fun, right? It seemed like an initial £56m plus add-ons would do the trick, but speaking on his Twitch show Jijantes FC, Spanish journalist Gerard Romero claims that the Catalan club are holding out for closer to £64m up front with another £10m in add-ons.
Why so much? Well, Barcelona want to bring in Bernardo Silva from Manchester City and Pep Guardiola has said that the Portuguese midfielder is worth £70m, so that money has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere is Manchester United. As for De Jong himself, it now seems that he has come round to the idea of the transfer and is in ‘daily’ contact with Erik Ten Hag.
WHERE NEXT FOR RONALDO?
Ronaldo is still not back in Manchester United training and it’s now being called ‘indefinite leave’ as if that were a thing. The news out of the club – according to Sky Sports – is that Erik Ten Hag does not want this to overshadow and define this season so wants it done as quickly as possible. But there will have to be a suitable offer made first.
We know he has been offered to Chelsea and we know that he has been offered to Barcelona, but the latter has been ruled out; there’s no way they can afford his extravagant wages. The former is interesting but the talk on Tuesday was that Thomas Tuchel was really not interested. With Napoli also ruled out, we are no closer to knowing where he could pitch up next. Will Manchester United just ‘biff him off‘?
What next?
“Manchester United remain in talks with Ajax winger Antony and the situation with Cristiano Ronaldo informing the club that he wants to leave means they need to go all out in strengthening the attack.
“Even without Ronaldo’s desire to leave, United have had to remedy their attacking output for a long time,” says Sky Sports reporter Melissa Reddy.
PAVARD TO CHELSEA?
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel would prefer the club to buy some defenders, thank you. And one option might be Benjamin Pavard, who would be available from Bayern Munich if they complete a deal for Matthijs de Ligt (who seems reluctant to join Chelsea). But they will face serious competition from Juventus and Atletico Madrid. The French international is predominantly a right-back but can also play at…
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