Frenkie de Jong’s agent tells Manchester United to give up on transfer and he won’t join

Frenkie de Jong’s agent has told Manchester United’s hierarchy to stop trying to convince the midfielder to move to Old Trafford even though they have agreed a fee with Barcelona, according to reports.

United CEO Richard Arnold as well as football director John Murtough have been in Catalunya this week to meet with their Barca counterparts, finally agreeing a fee after weeks of negotiations.

A deal worth around €85million (£72m) has been accepted by the Spanish side, with around £63m set to be paid up front and a further £10m heading to Barca in various add-ons.

However, the deal has remained in jeopardy due to De Jong’s reluctance to join United, with Barcelona’s hierarchy even meeting with the Dutchman on Thursday to ask him to accept the offer.

But their pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears, with Spanish newspaper Sport reporting that De Jong’s agent, Ali Dursun, has told Arnold and Murtough to give up on trying to convince the Netherlands international to join.

The trio met in Barcelona with United hoping to persuade De Jong to finally accept their offer now that a fee has been agreed.

But they met only further resistance, with Dursun making it clear that his client does not want to join the Red Devils.

De Jong – and particularly his girlfriend – do not want to swap Barcelona for Manchester, with the 25-year-old unwilling to uproot his family or drop down into the Europa League.

Despite the presence of his old Ajax boss Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford, the midfielder also has significant doubts about the project on offer at United and how close they are to competing for silverware once again.

Dursun has therefore told United to stop ‘wasting their time’ because De Jong’s position is clear: he does not want to join the Red