Barcelona could force De Jong out of US Tour

The Frenkie de Jong case appears to have sunk to new depths. Barça, who decided at the beginning of May that the Dutchman was going to be the big sale of the summer - a move that would enable them to balance up their salary structure, have upped pressure on the player to leave. Club bosses know that the midfielder does not want to leave Barcelona, and according to Catalan media, will resort to other methods to make him change his mind. Mundo Deportivo reports that if De Jong doesn’t leave, Barça will not be able to register Franck Kessié and Andreas Christensen. They are also suggestions that the club will threatens to leave him out of the squad which will fly out to the United States this weekend for the pre-season tour. Such a drastic move was reported this afternoon by Sport, who also claim that the club has demanded that he accepts Manchester United’s offer and leave.

Barça is employing all its media mechanisms to push the player out of the club. De Jong has told those closest to him that no one from Barça has officially asked him to reduce his salary (a sine qua non condition) and that his intention is to continue at Camp Nou. But the pressure levels are increasing and it is difficult to think that the Dutch midfielder can maintain his position of strength. He arrived in Barcelona in the summer of 2019 as the symbol of a new era and a new decade at the club. Now, the former Ajax player may be on his way out before he made it halfway there. At the moment, the situation is getting more uncomfortable with leak of sensitive information such as his salary (which fluctuates according to sources), and threats to leave him out of the team’s pre-season tour.