'We have to' - Barcelona president admission hints at Frenkie de Jong sale to Manchester United

Manchester United have been handed a boost in their pursuit of Frenkie de Jong, with Barcelona “doing everything” in order to register their new signings.

As reported by the Manchester Evening News , United are continuing with their pursuit of De Jong. United are understood to have reservations about their fall-back options, leaving the Barcelona midfielder as their preferred target.

They’ve been continually frustrated in their attempts to get a deal over the line. Having agreed a fee with the Catalan club, Barcelona president Joan Laporta insisted the 25-year-old is not for sale.

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That stance belies the situation Barcelona currently find themselves in. Despite signing Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde, they are currently unable to register any of them of them to play in the upcoming season due to La Liga’s strict salary cap rules.

Barca likely need to offload De Jong in order to get those new arrivals registered, while more signings are likely to follow. During the presentation of Kounde on Monday, Laporta suggested the situation could soon be resolved.

"We are doing everything possible to register the signings. We have to do it before August 13," Laporta told reporters. He also suggested he was “optimistic” the issue would be resolved but did add a note of caution by saying: "Let's hope that the league sees it that way too."

Laporta’s comments come after Barcelona confirmed they had sold 24.5 per cent of their Barca Studios to Socios.com in a deal worth €100m. The sale is described by the club as an attempt to “accelerate the club’s audiovisual, blockchain, NFT