Chelsea ready to hand Manchester United huge transfer blow

Frenkie de Jong is a player Manchester United appear to have been chasing for months now. The saga is yet to reach a conclusion though. Rumours suggest that the Dutch midfielder is not keen on a move to Old Trafford, despite the presence of Erik ten Hag, as the Red Devils do not have Champions League football to offer. At the moment, he seems keen to remain at Camp Nou instead.

There appears to be a new twist in the tale though, as Chelsea might be the ones leading the race for De Jong’s signature, in case he does leave Barcelona.

In his column in CaughtOffside, Fabrizio Romano revealed that Chelsea are ready to meet Barcelona’s demands for De Jong. Manchester United already have an agreement since July for a transfer fee of €75 million plus €10 million in add-ons. The decision is now up to the player himself.

Now, it remains to be seen what De Jong decides to do. But rumours have suggested that if he was to leave Barcelona, he would prefer a move to Chelsea over Manchester United.

Chelsea ready to hand a huge transfer blow to Manchester United

It looks like the situation is not ideal for Manchester United and they might end up losing the transfer race for De Jong, who is believed to be Ten Hag’s top target for the summer and someone he could have built his team around.

Ten Hag exactly knows how to get the best out of De Jong, as he was a key part of the Ajax team that reached the Champions League semi-finals a few years back.

Ultimately, it is very possible that De Jong might not leave Barcelona at all and the Dutch midfield maestro’s situation is complicated to say the least. Thus, it would be smart for Manchester United to keep their eyes on other midfielders as well.

They are believed to have agreed a deal with Juventus for Adrien Rabiot although personal terms are yet to be finalised. On the other hand, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has also emerged as a potential alternative to De Jong.