Manchester United need to add €20m up front to secure deal – Club have lowered price a bit

Manchester United are just €5m or so away from Barcelona’s asking price for Frenkie de Jong as negotiations continue over a deal.

That’s according to Sport, who back up the latest claims from Marca regarding negotiations around the Dutchman.

The latter reported last night that Manchester United had made their first bid for De Jong, offering €60m + €20m in objectives for a deal worth a sum of €80m.

It was reported that this figure was closer to what Barcelona were looking for to sell De Jong, although it was still short of their preferred selling price.

Sport now pick up on that and say that while the amounts offered by Manchester United are ‘close to the Culés’ pretensions’, they still don’t ‘satisfy them’.

Their initial position was €100m, but the financial situation at the Nou Camp and the interest from Old Trafford has seen Mateu Alemany ‘lower his intentions’ slightly.

The Blaugrana are now willing, at this moment in time at least, to accept an offer of €80-85m up front plus variables.

That means Manchester United are €20m or so off in terms of the fixed price at this moment in time, meaning there is a need to restructure things a bit.

There are still negotiations to be done, then, to bring the two sides closer together, but De Jong is ‘moving further and further’ away from the Catalans and closer to United.