Alex Crook has dropped a positive claim on Manchester United’s pursuit of Frenkie de Jong while speaking on TalkSport.
The Red Devils have been on a summer-long pursuit of midfielder De Jong, with United having reportedly agreed a fee with the player’s club. However, De Jong is seemingly against joining Erik ten Hag in Manchester.
This could primarily be down to the fact he is still owed millions by Barcelona for taking a pay cut during the pandemic.
Crook, however, believes that people within the club are still confident of landing their midfield target this summer.
Will Man United sign De Jong?
Yes!
No!
He said: “I have maintained the stance all window that they wouldn’t have wasted three months of their summer chasing a player who didn’t want to come, and I know there’s still a confidence from within the corridors of power at Old Trafford that that move will still happen.”
TIF Thoughts on Man United’s De Jong pursuit…
It is a good point that Crook makes in terms of Man United not wasting so much time trying to sign De Jong if they hadn’t been given an indication of being able to pull a move off.
However, things could be about to take a turn very quickly, as David Ornstein has reported that the Red Devils are looking at making a move for Adrien Rabiot, although it’s unclear as to whether he would be instead of or as well as De Jong this summer – though it certainly now looks as if the latter isn’t their only midfield target at present.
While United have added Christian Eriksen to their midfield options, they saw plenty leave earlier in the summer, including Paul Pogba, Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising if De Jong was not the only midfielder on Ten Hag’s shortlist.