What Frenkie de Jong would and wouldn’t bring to Manchester United

Frenkie de Jong said it himself. It is not hard to connect the dots between him, his former manager Erik ten Hag, Manchester United’s desperate need of a midfield and Barcelona’s many creditors. In theory, swapping Camp Nou for Old Trafford makes a lot of sense. “I understand that that link is made,” De Jong admitted when asked about the speculation while away on international duty with the Netherlands earlier this month. “That sum is not that difficult, it is logical.”

To actually pull off a deal in practice has proved somewhat harder. United’s interest in De Jong has been public knowledge for more than a month now. Talks are ongoing but a compromise over the fee still needs to be found. While Barcelona are keen to extract as much as possible to ease their debt worries, United will not pay over the odds. The budget at Old Trafford is described as “sizeable” - and able to be supplemented by proceeds from player sales - but it is far from limitless.

Midfield is United’s priority in the summer market. It is an area of the pitch that was in need of attention at the start of the season and has since lost Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic as part of an end-of-contract exodus. Old Trafford officials are comfortable with the number of players leaving for nothing this summer, with an admission inside the club that they have been guilty of carrying too big a squad in recent years and have paid the price on the pitch as a result.

De Jong, meanwhile, has made no secret of his desire to stay at Camp Nou if possible. If economic reality dictates he must be sold, the chance to work with Ten Hag again appeals and could override any desire to play in next season’s Champions League, but the 25-year-old’s claim this week that he “feels fine”