For now, rumours of a potential Barcelona exit for Frenkie de Jong have abated following the close of the transfer window last week. However they could come back with a vengeance in the lead-up to the winter window.
That is according to Fabrizio Romano, who spoke to Caught Offside as part of his exclusive column. De Jong had been part of significant speculation this summer as the Blaugrana looked to fund their squad revolution through a major sale. Manchester United and Chelsea showed interest but de Jong’s insistence on remaining in Catalonia meant that the Director of Football Mateu Alemany had to find other ways of financing deals.
Romano is of the belief that United and Chelsea will be waiting patiently for de Jong should his stance change.
“So far the situation is totally quiet. Frenkie wanted to stay at Barca and therefore there are no immediate updates.”
“Certainly Man United and Chelsea will monitor the situation but they know that De Jong only wanted Barca with great clarity all summer. It will take months before we understand the next developments.”
“He’s happy with life in Barcelona, his girlfriend is happy there. He made it clear he wanted to stay.
“United were just hoping that Frenkie would change his mind. Sometimes to sign top players you need to be patient, to wait and see if Frenkie was going to change his mind. But it never happened, and this is why they decided to invest big money on Casemiro.”
The signing of Casemiro may in fact impede United from coming back for de Jong. Both Chelsea and United brought in midfielders in Casemiro and Denis Zakaria, if those midfields begin to function well then they may not see the need to make a major investment down the line.
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