Frenkie de Jong was left out of Barcelona's starting line-up for their opening pre-season clash against Inter Miami, just days after slamming the club on social media.
The Blaugrana ran out six-goal victors against Phil Neville's side but De Jong was not included in the starting line-up after the club agreed an initial transfer fee with Manchester United. The two clubs have struck a £56.2million upfront fee, with add-ons taking a prospective deal to £72million – but that move has yet to be finalised.
United will not give up on a deal and will continue to push for the player for the remainder of the window with the belief that De Jong wants to join the club and be reunited with his former boss Erik ten Hag, who is driving the Red Devils' interest.
They will have been given a boost by De Jong not being included in Barca's opening pre-season clash against Inter Miami. The club's new signing Franck Kessie started in De Jong's midfield spot alongside Nico Gonzalez and Pedri. De Jong was a second-half substitute, alongside fellow midfielders Gavi, Sergio Busquets and Pablo Torre.
Barca boss Xavi Hernandez was not able to join his players on the flight to the United States and has not been able to oversee the club’s training sessions as he has not yet been given the green light to enter the country due to travelling to Iran three times while at Qatari club Al Sadd. However, his brother Oscar has been overseeing first-team affairs and the Barca boss will have had input over the starting line-up against Inter Miami.
One factor that may have been relevant in him not starting the clash was that he had starred across four matches for the Netherlands in the Nations League action in June and returned to pre-season earlier this month, but his absence from the starting line-up was notable.
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Barca are said to be privately open to De Jong's departure despite their stance of insisting he is not for sale and the understanding from United is that a deal is being held up by outstanding payments owed to the Dutch international.
This weekend, the player liked a post on Instagram from a Barcelona fan who wrote: "I dislike the way we have handled Frenkie's situation." The Dutch international is one of the highest earners at the Camp Nou and, additionally, he is also owed a series of payments through amortizations and other clauses that are part of his deal.
However, the club have yet to indicate their stance to the player and have signed a quartet of new arrivals this summer – Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. United's pursuit of De Jong has gone over for over two months and it is a long-running saga that shows no sign of coming to a close soon.
