Rumours of Tottenham interest in Frenkie de Jong have been hyped up in the Catalan media because Barcelona spent much of the summer being linked to the Ajax player.
The story goes that Barca wanted to sign the 21 year old and have him arrive at the Camp Nou this summer. De Jong himself, initially hesitant about such a big leap so soon, was said to have come around to really wanting the move.
Ajax, on the other hand, simply weren’t willing to sell, and their directors, including Marc Overmars, were aware of the sort of backlash they’d be facing if De Jong left Amsterdam so early in his career.
So everything goes on pause until next summer and the Catalan media can publish endless stories about it. The whole things gets stale, and that’s why they’re happy to grasp to Spurs claims and run with them.
In their Sunday edition, Mundo Deportivo have two ‘top secret’ claims. One is that Eric Abidal offered €30m on behalf of Barcelona, and the other is that Tottenham pushed 
€50m forward.
Of course, the Catalan media believe De Jong would much prefer a move to the blaugrana.
