Frenkie de Jong is now in the best form of his career after Manchester United missed out on signing the Barcelona midfielder.
We have become so used to seeing Erik ten Hag target his former players.
Lisandro Martinez and Antony arrived in 2022 before Andre Onana and Sofyan Amrabat came in this past summer.
Other names from Ten Hag’s past have been linked with United too, with Nicolas Tagliafico, Ryan Gravenberch, Mohammed Kudus and Perr Schuurs mentioned in the past.
The big one was Frenkie de Jong though, with United missing out on the Barcelona midfielder in 2022…
Manchester United missed out on Frenkie de Jong
Ten Hag unsurprisingly wanted to bring midfielder De Jong to United.
De Jong emerged as a superstar under Ten Hag as Ajax reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2019.
Barcelona pounced that summer but their famous financial problems meant a transfer away last summer seemed possible.
The Athletic reported that United did agree a £63million fee to sign De Jong but he didn’t fancy leaving Barcelona.
De Jong later indicated that he always wanted to stay at Barcelona, stating that his plans and the ideas of the club ultimately clashed with each other.
Barcelona wanted to sell but De Jong wasn’t having any of it, claiming that ‘things went okay’ despite the clash over a transfer.
De Jong earns huge Barcelona praise
Barcelona will now be very pleased that De Jong stayed at the Camp Nou.
The 26-year-old is shining under Xavi and was in fine form against Royal Antwerp on Tuesday night.
De Jong played a defence-splitting pass in the build-up to Robert Lewandowski’s goal to make it 2-0.
Xavi moved to praise De Jong, stating that he would now like to extend the midfielder’s contract.
As quoted by Fabrizio Romano, Xavi believes that De Jong is now in the ‘best moment of his career’, going from strength to strength in Catalunya.
“Of course I’d extend Frenkie de Jong’s contract with my eyes closed,” said Xavi. “He’s key player for us — he’s in the best moment of his career now,” he added.
De Jong is probably still a dream target for Ten Hag, but any lingering hopes of a United move can probably be forgotten about as the former Ajax star thrives.
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