{"id":615484,"date":"2022-07-31T13:13:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T17:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=615484"},"modified":"2022-07-31T13:13:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T17:13:50","slug":"manchester-united-frenkie-de-jong-xavi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/31\/manchester-united-frenkie-de-jong-xavi\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Things Can Still Happen&#8217; &#8211; Manager Issues Exciting Update on &#8216;Amazing&#8217; Manchester United Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/30\/barcelona-are-ready-for-cesar-azpilicueta\/\" target=\"_self\">Barcelona<\/a> manager Xavi Hernandez has issued an update on Manchester United target <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/31\/manchester-united-chelsea-boost-frenkie-de-jong\/\" target=\"_self\">Frenkie de Jong<\/a>, confirming that the midfielder\u2019s future at the club remains unknown.<\/p>\n<h2>Xavi Gives Update on Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United Transfer Saga<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Xavi on de Jong: \u201cI don&#39;t know if he&#39;s going to stay here\u2026 I\u2019ve never sent Frenkie a message. There&#39;s still time and a lot of things can still happen\u201d. \ud83d\udd35\ud83d\udd34 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FCB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FCB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that he played as a central defender in the other games was not a sign that he was leaving\u201d. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KKgtkIa59L\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/KKgtkIa59L<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1553671131386855425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 31, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Personal Terms Remain the Stalling Factor<\/h3>\n<p>United&#8217;s pursuit of De Jong has been going on for some time, but it has become a little stagnant of late. Personal terms have been the ongoing issue in talks, as the clubs <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fabrizioromano\/status\/1547518992499212288?s=21&amp;t=DWoiETHM9QEjHB9l-IUkzg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agreed on a fee<\/a> for the potential transfer on July 14.<\/p>\n<p>De Jong is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2022\/jul\/07\/manchester-united-frenkie-de-jong-owed-deferred-wages-barcelona\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly<\/a> owed around \u00a317million from the wage deferral players agreed to take during the COVID pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/16\/barcelona-complete-robert-lewandowski-signing\/\" target=\"_self\">Barcelona Complete Blockbuster Signing of Goal Machine<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/30\/frenkie-de-jong-to-manchester-united\/\" target=\"_self\">intends to stay at Barcelona<\/a>, with one factor in his decision being that United failed to qualify for the Champions League last season, meaning they will play a Europa League campaign in 2022\/2023.<\/p>\n<p>When the subject was broached to Xavi in an interview, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t know if he\u2019s [De Jong] going to stay here\u2026I\u2019ve never sent Frenkie a message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of time and things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fact that someone as close to the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/watch\/video\/sports\/football\/teams\/manchester-united\/12652098\/jamie-redknapp-frenkie-de-jong-is-in-the-top-three-midfielders-in-the-world\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> &#8220;amazing&#8221;<\/a> midfielder as Xavi doesn&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going to happen should be an exciting update for fans, with many believing that this saga could turn into one like the Red Devils&#8217; pursuit of Jadon Sancho and stretch across multiple years.<\/p>\n<h3>Change in Position Adds to Speculation<\/h3>\n<p>In recent pre-season fixtures for Barcelona, De Jong has been deployed at centre-back &#8211; despite his preferred position being in midfield. This led to speculation that the star would be leaving the Spanish giants this summer, given the manager\u2019s choice to not utilise his best attributes as a creative midfielder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/26\/lionel-messis-barcelona-return-xavi\/\" target=\"_self\">Lionel Messi\u2019s Barcelona Return Still on the Cards According to Xavi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, Xavi addressed these rumours, saying: \u201cThe fact that he played as a central defender in the other games was not a sign that he was leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United: Now or Never?<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/24\/ten-hag-van-de-beek\/\" target=\"_self\">Erik ten Hag<\/a>&#8216;s side are keen to not give up in their negotiations just yet, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/caughtoffside.substack.com\/p\/will-lionel-messi-be-coming-to-the\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a>, De Jong is their \u201cplan A, B and C for their midfield.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that whilst there were no updates, \u201cUnited remain hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Romano again confirmed De Jong\u2019s decision, saying: \u201cDe Jong still has a desire to stay at Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/07\/30\/manchester-united-target-benjamin-sesko-price\/\" target=\"_self\">Manchester United Target Gets \u00a355million Price Tag<\/a><\/p>\n<p>With the forthcoming Premier League and La Liga campaigns set to kick off in August, it\u2019s really make or break for this ongoing saga at this point. If the Netherlands international remains a Barcelona player, Ten Hag will be entering the season with a considerable lack of depth in midfield, with just two central midfielders in his squad who have proven their worth in a United shirt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has issued an update on Manchester United target Frenkie de Jong, confirming that the midfielder\u2019s future at the club remains unknown. Xavi Gives Update on Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United Transfer Saga Xavi on de Jong: \u201cI don&#39;t know if he&#39;s going to stay here\u2026 I\u2019ve never sent Frenkie a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4249,"featured_media":615489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1365,6,18,3,7188],"tags":[9284,1987,7380,2803],"class_list":["post-615484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-la-liga","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-barcelona-transfer-rumours","tag-frenkie-de-jong","tag-manchester-united-transfer-rumours","tag-xavi"],"modified_by":"Joseph Howes, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}