Gary Neville has urged Manchester United target Frenkie de Jong to take legal action against “immoral” Barcelona over the way the club are “bullying” him.
De Jong’s proposed move to United has reached an impasse, with the summer transfer window’s longest-running saga continuing to take new twists and turns. United thought they had agreed an initial transfer fee of £56.2million at the end of June, and despite Barca dragging their feet, the club will not give up on a deal yet.
Barcelona have signed Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski for a combined total of £103.3m but, despite huge amounts of debt, remain publicly insistent that De Jong is not for sale. Recent reports from Spain say Barca manager Xavi has personally reached out to the 25-year-old in an effort to get him to stay on reduced terms.
De Jong has reportedly been presented with a proposal which would see him stay put on nearly half of his current wages. His difficult situation is holding up Barca’s attempts to hijack Chelsea’s move for Sevilla defender Jules Kounde. According to The Independent, De Jong is standing his ground, partly because he is owed €17million (£14.4m) in deferred wages due to an agreement struck during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
De Jong has been placed in a difficult position by his employers and former United defender Neville thinks what Barcelona are doing amounts to a breach of contract. He tweeted : “De Jong should consider legal action v Barcelona and all players should be behind him! A club spending fortunes on new players whilst not paying the ones they have under contract their full money is immoral and a breach. @FIFPRO should be all over bullying like this and stop it.”
According to AS, De Jong is in line to earn around €30m (£25.5m) in wages across the rest of his current contract; a sum far higher than the €20m (£17m) that Barcelona president Joan Laporta is trying to encourage him to accept.
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De Jong has been United’s priority transfer target ever since Erik ten Hag took over as manager at the beginning of the summer. The Dutch manager worked with his compatriot at Ajax before he was sold to Barcelona for an initial fee of £65m back in 2019.
While United have brought in Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen and Lisandro Martinez this summer, progress on De Jong has been fraught with difficulties. On Sunday, Laporta reaffirmed his stance that De Jong is not for sale and the club had not even accepted an offer.
"Frenkie de Jong is our player, we really like him," he said. "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."
