Barcelona's president has admitted the club need to clarify the situation with Manchester United target Frenkie de Jong.
Erik ten Hag made De Jong his priority target this summer and United agreed a €55million fee with Barcelona to sign De Jong two weeks ago. But the deal has been stalled by the wage deferral De Jong agreed to as part of a contract renewal in 2020.
Barcelona have endured financial difficulties for some time now and that was exacerbated by Covid-19. De Jong took a pay cut to help the club out during the pandemic, on the proviso he would then earn that money back over the next couple of seasons, which means if he were to leave this summer, he would still in theory be owed the money he is entitled to.
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Barca say they don't want to sell and the player has indicated he wishes to stay. However, United remain persistent with their interest in De Jong and Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough were in Barcelona last week.
De Jong has gone on pre-season tour with Barcelona since that visit from United's executives. That means the transfer saga looks set to continue and Barcelona's president Joan Laporta spoke about the deal on Saturday night.
"Frenkie de Jong is our player, we really like him," Laporta told ESPN. "We received some offers for Frenkie but we didn't accept as of now, as we want to talk with him and know exactly what he wants. We need to clarify some aspects of his situation".
United begin the new Premier League season against Brighton in two weeks' time on August 7.
The transfer window for Premier League clubs will close at 23:00 BST on 1 September.
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