MANCHESTER UNITED have suffered another major blow in their pursuit of Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
The Red Devils had a £70million offer accepted for the 25-year-old Dutch midfielder last month.
But De Jong’s reluctance to move to Old Trafford and Barcelona’s inability to pay him £14.5m in outstanding wages has held up the deal.
And, according to de Telegraaf podcast Kick Off, United’s offer has now expired.
This looks set to open the door for Chelsea to complete a deal for the Holland international.
New Blues owner Todd Boehly had been hoping to hijack the De Jong transfer and is now in a perfect position to do so.
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Boehly will be optimistic about completing a fourth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella.
Meanwhile, Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag is desperate to bring in De Jong after a disastrous start to the season.
United’s new manager watched his side lose 2-1 to Brighton on the opening weekend.
And they were then humiliated by Brentford as Ten Hag’s men went down 4-0 before half-time.
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He has already brought in Tyrell Malacia and Lisandro Martinez this summer – two players he worked with at Ajax.
And De Jong was also a product of Ten Hag’s management before he joined Barca in 2019.
However, Barca president Joan Laporta recently claimed both the player and club want De Jong to remain at the Nou Camp.
Speaking about the ongoing transfer saga, he said: “He is a Barca player of great quality and we want him to stay.
“He has offers but we want him to stay and he wants to stay too.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
