Following the surprising news that Tottenham have made a €60m bid for Frenkie de Jong to take him away from Barcelona, Sport bring some more news regarding the situation.
The initial report came from Jijantes, who added that Spurs had offered a four-year contract to the Dutchman that could see him match his wages at the LaLiga side if he met certain conditions.
Sport relay all of this, and then add a few bits and bobs from some TV and radio shows to explain the wider view and what the bid from Tottenham could mean.
Firstly, it’s made clear that Barcelona are not willing to let De Jong ‘escape’, and would rather he sign a new contract that would see him adapt to ‘the new economic reality’ of the club.
That would see him more than half his wages, taking his salary from over €30m/year (they still owe him delayed payments from the pandemic) to ‘close to €15m/year’, as reported by RAC1 and relayed in the article.
However, they have received ‘no news’ from either the player or his entourage regarding the negotiations of a new contract, meaning the Catalan club are ‘considering other scenarios’, such as transferring him.
They would do so because they know they could fetch a ‘good price’ and get rid of a player who has the biggest wages at the club.
There is also the midfielder’s wishes to take into account, and those were recently reported by TV3 journalist Lluis Canut, relayed by Sport.
It’s said De Jong is ‘disappointed by the current reality’ at Barcelona and he would be willing to change clubs, as long as he can sign in one ‘with aspirations of winning the Champions League’.
Now, we’re not sure Tottenham fall into that category these days, as they still need to ensure they qualify for the competition for next season, but there’s no denying how much has changed at Spurs in the past few months since Ange Postecoglou took over.
A good discourse from the manager and Daniel Levy could perhaps be convincing enough to lower De Jong’s ambitions, at least for next season, but we’ll first have to wait and see what comes from this reported €60m bid and whether Barcelona take it under consideration.
