Erik ten Hag must do what Barcelona did to sell Manchester United dream to Frenkie de Jong

05.08.2022 - 09:55 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

As Chelsea join the race to sign Frenkie De Jong, Manchester United fans will be panicking at the prospect of one of their potential Premier League rivals for the coming season beating them to a big signing.

De Jong's career at Barcelona seems to be up, with the Catalan club needing to cut their wage bill in order to accommodate the signings of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Jounde, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen. De Jong appears to be one of the high earners at the Camp Nou deemed surplus to requirements alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Memphis Depay.

Barcelona have even been unable to register new signings this summer given their struggles financially in recent times and despite investment are still beholden to financial fair play. This is the reason that the sale of De Jong is so critical going forward to the Spanish club.

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At one point, one of the most exciting young players in Europe, De Jong is a midfielder who can also play in the centre of defence and has previously worked with Ten Hag at Ajax. However, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel is believed to be an admirer of the Dutchman and tried to sign him for PSG before his move to Barcelona in 2019.

However, on that occasion he was persuaded to join Barcelona for the challenge - this is something which Ten Hag will need to do this time around in order to persuade the 25-year-old to snub Champions League football with Chelsea in order to join United.

Speaking to Voetball in 2019, the Netherlands international and graduate of the famed Ajax academy explained his decision making process for joining Barca which could give an insight into his next move this summer. He revealed that he