Erik ten Hag could prove his Manchester United doubters wrong with Frenkie de Jong transfer

When Frenkie de Jong signed for Barcelona in January 2019 a picture his girlfriend posted on Instagram went viral. It was a snap that revealed just what this transfer meant to the midfielder.

Mikky Kiemeney shared a photo of herself and De Jong at the Nou Camp in December 2015, when the Holland international was just 18.

At that stage he had played just 42 minutes of first-team football for Willem II and had only signed for Ajax a few months previously. It was the infancy of his career.

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But the picture revealed the esteem in which De Jong held Barcelona, a club that is close to the hearts of a lot of Dutch footballers, given the role Johan Cruyff played there and the flow of talent from Holland to Catalonia.

Kiemeney said in the caption of photo that the visit in December 2015 was to watch "a game of your dream club". Just over three years later De Jong had put pen to paper to sign for that club.

His desire to sign for Barcelona was why he turned down overtures from Pep Guardiola and Manchester City. Guardiola is a dream coach for most midfielders, but De Jong's fantasy was to play for Barcelona.

He officially arrived at the Nou Camp three years ago but the move is yet to pan out in real life as it did in those dreams.

There have been 13 goals in 140 appearances, but only a Copa del Rey to show for those efforts. It still feels like his role in midfield isn't truly defined and while he was the exciting newcomer three years ago, he has since been overtaken by Pedri and Gavi as exciting midfielders at Barcelona.

He completed 90 minutes in La Liga in 17 of his 30 starts this season and was often one of the first players to come off after Xavi took