According to reports, Manchester United have struggled to complete the deal for Frenkie de Jong due to wages owed to him by Barcelona.
Jacque Talbot recently tweeted that De Jong could not make a transfer request due to his wages, with the club offering to pay some of the €3.5m and asking him to leave the rest.
See below for a detailed Twitter thread attempting to explain the whole saga, which has been rather back and forth in recent weeks…
Told move for Man United and Frenkie de Jong is going to happen. Player was not able to put in a transfer request because he would forgo the wages owed to him by Barcelona. As reported before, the club did offer to pay some €3.5m and asked if he would leave the rest.
— Jacque Talbot (@jac_talbot) July 14, 2022
Talbot explains it has been clear from the start that the Red Devils needed the midfielder at Old Trafford, so the Spanish giants were happy for the 20-time-league winners to cover most of the owed wages.
Although it was the 25-year-old’s initial choice to remain with Barca, Erik ten Hag used his relationship with De Jong to persuade him to move to Manchester.
It appears that one of the hottest transfer sagas of the year could be a big PR stunt, presumably to get as much money back into the coffers of Barcelona as possible.
The Catalans need to cut expenditure this window, especially after the signing of Raphinha from Leeds United.
One thing’s for sure; only time will tell what is going on between Manchester United, Barcelona and Frenkie de Jong.