Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong would be open to joining Chelsea despite concrete interest from Manchester United, Spanish publication Sport claim (page 10).
United have prioritised the signing of De Jong over the past couple of months. An initial deal worth £63 million has been agreed with Barcelona, but the midfielder has not accepted personal terms.
Amidst this, Sport report that the 25-year-old has no plans of joining United even if his deferred wages are paid by Barcelona. United’s lack of Champions League football is one of the prime reasons.
Meanwhile, De Jong is also not ‘seduced’ by the prospect of moving to the city of Manchester. The Spanish outlet add that he would prefer a move to London with Chelsea if an offer is made.
As things stand, Chelsea are yet to enter negotiations with Barcelona. If they were to join the race, it is claimed that they are unlikely to pay a similar fee as United for the Netherlands international.
Our view:
De Jong has not shown any intention of leaving Barcelona this summer, but he could make way as the club need to balance their books after the huge spending on several key players.
Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie initially joined on free transfers before huge outlays on Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. Jules Kounde is expected to join them soon.
Amidst this, they will need to make a big-money sale. De Jong seems the most likely to make way, and it remains to be seen whether Chelsea make an approach to sign him.
The Blues are currently loaded with central midfield options with Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ross Barkley, Conor Gallagher and Billy Gilmour.
A deal for De Jong could highly depend on whether they can offload a couple of out-of-favour stars such as Barkley and Gilmour. De Jong would also need to be assured regular minutes.
Hence, a move won’t be straightforward for Chelsea, but they could be tempted to make a late approach if Barcelona get more desperate to recoup transfer funds from player sales.
