How Manchester United Missed Out On Serie A Midfielder Who Was Considered Alternative To Frenkie De Jong

Written By Onyeka Daniel

Right until the end, English Premier League side, Manchester United were very much interested in signing Barcelona midfielder, Frenkie De Jong, but the Red Devils seem to have now given up on him.

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They’ve since signed Real Madrid midfielder, Casemiro, while De Jong’s stay in Spain seems to have been confirmed, but the English side also missed out on a player that they considered his alternative in the transfer market.

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Napoli midfielder, Fabian Ruiz has agreed to join French club, PSG for a fee of about €21 million, but his club is said to have rejected a bid from Manchester United for the player.

According to Italian publication Il Mattino, United submitted a bid for Ruiz but Napoli turned down their offer because they considered it ‘too low’. Meanwhile, the Red Devils also targeted another top midfielder in Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, but negotiations failed to take off either.

There are talks that the reason for these rejections from De Jong to Ruiz and Sergej is because the Red Devils won’t be playing in the UEFA Champions League this season, which is also being touted as the reason why Cristiano Ronaldo is pushing for a move away from the club too.

Considering the fact that Ruiz wanted a return to Spain but then opted to join PSG, we could assume that he wanted to play in the Champions League and that’s why he wasn’t interested in joining United.

Moreso, the Neapolitan club are looking to sign PSG second choice goalkeeper, Keylon Navas, hence, they’ve every reason to want to push the transfer, considering the fact that the Spanish midfielder has refused to sign a new contract at the club, with just one year left on his current contract.

Meanwhile…

Barcelona will have to sell their Bosnian midfielder, Miralem Pjanic if they eventually confirm the stay of Frenkie De Jong as they would have way too much player for the midfield.

Yesterday, reports had emerged that Spanish side, Sevilla, were interested in signing him and negotiations could begin in earnest in order to reach an agreement before the closure of the transfer window and the player could be spending another season on loan after spending last season in Turkey on loan.

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While he’s much appreciated by Xavi Hernandez, he would find it hard to dislodge the likes of Busquets, De Jong and even Franck Kessie in the midfield, while Gavi and Pedri remain almost untouchable.

Saudi Arabian club, Al Nassr are also said to be interested in the player and they would be willing to sign him permanently, which would suit the Blaugrana better than a loan deal, but it’s left to be seen if the player himself will choose to leave Europe.

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