Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 08:52• Jeroen van Poppel

Manchester United are approaching an agreement with Barcelona for top target Frenkie de Jong, British GOAL reports. There is growing confidence among the English superpowers that a deal will be reached for the 25-year-old midfielder, with Barcelona no longer stubbornly sticking to his asking price. In England, a transfer for 80 million euros excluding bonuses is expected, but it has not yet come to that.

Manchester United have been in talks with Barcelona about De Jong for weeks. Negotiations started poorly, but both clubs have now arrived at an advanced stage, claims are made GOAL† United realize that Barcelona can use the money for De Jong and are negotiating with that approach. On the other hand, the Catalans have been able to see on the leaked video of United director Richard Arnold that the English will do everything they can to bring in the the Dutch international.

Barcelona has so far held on to an asking price of around 86 million euros, but is now somewhat accommodating United. The Red Devils opened with a bid of 60 million euros plus 10 million euros in bonuses and increased that this week to 70 million euros plus the same bonus amount. Since then, the two sides have come closer and closer and now an agreement seems not far away. After that, United will have to reach a personal agreement with the midfielder himself, who has repeatedly indicated in the media that he would like to stay at Barcelona.

De Jong would become the first summer reinforcement of Erik ten Hag, who will not stop there. United already reported to Ajax for Antony, although the Brazilian wing striker seems to be too expensive and alternatives are being looked at up front. For the positions in the back, Ten Hag received a rejection from Ajax player Jürrien Timber, which makes the coach seem to shift his attention to teammate Lisandro Martínez. Denzel Dumfries of Internazionale is in the picture to cover the right wing defensively.