The reason why Manchester United should reject the signing of De Jong

Since his arrival at Manchester United, Erik Ten Hag has maintained a recruitment policy of prioritizing players he already knows from his previous experience at other clubs. For example, he asked the club's chiefs to bring in several former Ajax stars such as Lisandro Martinez, Andre Onana and Antony, as well as Sofyan Amrabat, with whom he had worked at Utrecht.

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With the same criteria, the manager targeted one of the best Dutch players of recent years and who was a key player in that remembered Ajax team that reached the Champions League semifinals in 2019: Frenkie De Jong. He is an obsession for Ten Hag, but in the 2022 and 2023 transfer windows he refused to go to England even despite the insistence of the Spanish chiefs, who needed the money.

Now that situation seems to have changed. According to reports, Barcelona made a renewal offer months ago to the midfielder, who has since not responded. That is why there are rumors and speculation about what may happen, as it seems his desire to stay in Catalonia is no longer as strong as it was years ago.

This could be the ideal opportunity for Manchester United to make a move and persuade him to join the squad, but not everyone agrees with his arrival. The club's former defender, Mikael Silvestre, gave an interview to Bettingexpert.com and gave an unexpected opinion on the signing of Frenkie De Jong.

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What did he say?

"If a player like Frenkie de Jong is available, he should be considered," Silvestre began. But then he clarified: "He's a top player but putting him in a midfield where the manager likes to play with two defensive midfielders, if you play with three, it could be a different proposition". He added: "You look at Kobbie (Mainoo) and we talked about Scott (McTominay), and we have Casemiro here. Will De Jong be an upgrade? Of course. Ahead of Kobbie but if you want to continue developing Mainoo and give him the time, I don't think De Jong should come in."