Frenkie de Jong is TOLD to leave Barcelona for Man United after the clubs finally agree £71.5m deal… but a row over £17m owed in wages and bonuses means he’s REFUSING to go, while Raphinha and other new signings wait to be registered
- Barcelona have agreed a £63m fee with Manchester United for Frenkie de Jong
- However, De Jong is blocking the transfer over owed wages and bonuses
- If he stays, this could leave Barcelona with a problem with registering signings
- The club have agreed to sign Raphinha, but registering him could be an issue
Barcelona have told Frenkie de Jong they need him to leave the club after agreeing a £63million fee with Manchester United.
The deal could rise by a further £8.5m in add-ons and is crucial to Barcelona’s finances, but De Jong is in a stand-off with the club over the £17m in deferred wages and bonuses that they owe him.
Barca need to sell the Dutchman to reduce their excessive wage bill, which has led to complications in registering signings such as Raphinha from Leeds.
The Spanish club still want Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta, Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, too.
Frenkie de Jong has been told by Barcelona to join Manchester United after a deal was agreed
United football director John Murtough and chief executive officer Richard Arnold were in Barcelona on Monday to agree the fee for the 25-year-old midfielder.
United are also on the verge of signing Argentina centre back Lisandro Martinez, 24, from Ajax for £46m – but it is De Jong who has been their top target this summer.
Earlier this week, Barcelona chiefs told De Jong that he would either need to take a pay cut on his £5m-a-year wages or leave the club due to their financial issues.
It emerged that Barcelona have asked De Jong to defer £17m of his wages, and this has become another sticking point for a potential move as the Dutch international is not happy about this and wants the matter resolved out of principle.
De Jong does not appear to have a future in Xavi’s team, with the Barcelona boss not viewing him as a defensive midfielder, while he feels that he has sufficient options to pick from to replace the 25-year-old.
Xavi does not appear to have a place in his team for De Jong, but the Dutchman wants to stay
Barcelona unveiled Franck Kessie as a new signing last week, but he isn’t yet registered to play
However, De Jong still seems to want to stick around and fight for his place in the side.
If Barcelona cannot convince the Dutchman to change his mind on leaving, they could be left with a problem with regards to registering new signings this summer.
The club have been busy in the market, signing Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen on free transfers once their contracts had expired at AC Milan and Chelsea respectively.
The duo were unveiled last week, and the club have since moved for Leeds winger Raphinha, announcing that they have agreed a deal in principle with the Premier League outfit on Wednesday.
They also unveiled former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen as a new summer signing
Barcelona have also agreed a deal for Raphinha, but cannot register him until De Jong leaves
However, registering these players could be a different matter altogether as the club have banked on offloading De Jong to get his wages off their books.
Barcelona had similar issues last summer as they had to wait to register Memphis Depay, Sergio Aguero and Eric Garcia until they slashed their wage bill.
They eventually had to bid farewell to club icon Lionel Messi, who joined Paris Saint-Germain as they could not afford to keep him due to his lucrative wages.
This problem with registering players appears to be resurfacing, and unless they can come to an agreement with De Jong, it is not easy to see how they will solve it.
