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Manchester United fans could be forgiven for rolling their eyeballs at yet another report linking their club with a move for Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong.
The Daily Mail are the culprits this time, claiming that United have actually lodged a substantial bid for the Dutch international.
The outlet reports that “United have reignited their interest in … De Jong after having an opening £42.7m (€50m) bid rejected, but the LaLiga giants are willing to sell, according to reports.”
The Mail does not specify the source of those reports, which hardly adds any credibility to the story.
The report further claims that “Barcelona president Joan Laporta wants to recoup as much of their initial outlay as possible and has slapped a £60m asking price on the midfielder along with an additional £8.5m in add-ons.”
It is almost certainly true that Barça are desperate to sell players and De Jong would be the ideal departure, given his extortionate wages and ability to command a decent figure.
However, the idea that United would go straight in with a €50 million bid seems highly unlikely unless it was structured, for example, €40 million plus €10m in bonuses. It also seems highly probable that Barça would snap their hand off if they did bid €50 million in cash, given the circumstances.
But what really stretches the credibility of the move is the ongoing issue of the player’s wages.
The Dutchman earns a whopping €721,000 per week at the Camp Nou and still has two years to run on his contract.
Ineos are now in control of football operations at United and are known to be keen to bring salaries down. Even if De Jong were to accept a 50% pay cut to join United, it would still put him on over £300,000 a week, second only to Casemiro.
What’s more, The Mail state that his wages “would potentially rise even further if a move to the Premier League is agreed.” Perhaps at Chelsea …
Ignoring that nonsense, there is one possible scenario that is possible. If Barcelona are desperate enough to get his salary off the books, they might use a big chunk of the transfer fee to offer the midfielder a golden parachute payment.
For example, paying him, say, 60% of the last two years of his contract would cost them around €45 million. If they pushed United toward a transfer fee of, say, €60 million, that would leave then €15 million profit, but more importantly, they would save €75 million over the next two years by getting his salary off the books.
De Jong, for his part, would not be out of pocket and United would be getting Erik ten Hag his dream player for a reasonable price.
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