Man Utd have offered Frenkie de Jong a huge signing bonus to leave La Liga giants Barcelona for Old Trafford, according to reports.
The Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag at the end of October after Man Utd made a terrible start to the new campaign with three wins from their first ten matches in the Premier League.
Man Utd moved quickly to appoint Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim – who had been linked with a number of other Premier League clubs – with the Portuguese coach joining on November 11.
Ten Hag was known for buying a number of players who had played under him at Ajax with Andre Onana, Matthijs De Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, Antony and Noussair Mazraoui all signing.
Netherlands internationals Joshua Zirkzee and Tyrell Malacia were also signed by Ten Hag and there were rumours throughout his tenure that he wanted to sign another compatriot in the form of Barcelona midfielder De Jong.
However, a move for De Jong never materialised because the Dutchman made it clear that he wanted to remain at the Camp Nou with Man Utd struggling to attract the top players to Old Trafford.
A previous report has described De Jong as a ‘hot potato’ at the Camp Nou with the Barcelona’s future always up in the air after making just two La Liga starts under Hansi Flick this term.
And now a report in Spain has claimed that Man Utd ‘are still keeping their eyes’ on De Jong and ‘is still considered an interesting signing for the board’ despite Ten Hag’s departure.
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Amorim now ‘believes that he could be a very useful reinforcement’ and Barcelona president Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco have decided that the ‘best thing for everyone’ would be for De Jong ‘ to leave Camp Nou soon’.
But because his contract runs out in 18 months, the report adds that Barcelona ‘will have to settle for a really low compensation, of around 45 million euros (£39m) at most.’
Barcelona have ‘even considered the idea of offering him a renewal’ to get more value for the Netherlands international but De Jong ‘does not want to sign anything, and his strategy consists of waiting for his contract to expire’.
Man Utd ‘have already contacted’ the Barcelona midfielder’s agent to ‘ask him to reject all the proposals that Laporta and Deco present to him, and to leave Barca completely free.’
They have ‘offered’ De Jong a ‘signing bonus’ of €15m (£12.6m) if he follows through and joins on a free transfer and that would allow Man Utd to ‘maintain an incredibly high salary’.
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