A perfect Frenkie de Jong transfer story for the Catalan media would be Barcelona having long term interest in the Ajax player, and then other clubs coming in to battle them.
The Premier League’s big spenders would be there, offering De Jong more money, and other big clubs from around Europe. It would see Ajax start a bidding war, but De Jong would insist he only wanted Barcelona, so all the other options would be dismissed, and the Catalan club would win against the nasty big piles of cash from elsewhere.
It’s not going too badly in that regard.
The long term Barcelona interest is ticked, and now the claims of interest from elsewhere are building. English and Spanish newspapers have been batting Tottenham claims between them, adding bits each time, and Thursday’s edition of Mundo Deportivo brings Manchester City and others into the picture.
Mundo state: ‘At the same time, other powerful clubs from Europe such as Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain, Tottenham and Bayern Munich have become interested in his situation. In addition, these clubs are presenting very substantial offers for De Jong and are trying to seduce the midfielder.’
If the Catalan newspaper want stories of big bad money, then Man City and PSG are an essential ingredient.
All this extra interest is pushing up the price to potentially over €70m, much more than Barca wanted to pay.
And here comes the crux.
Despite De Jong being contacted by City and the others, he’s currently worried. That’s because Barcelona haven’t contacted his advisors for six weeks, and it’s the move he really wants.
