Ayer Gerald Romero confirmed what is beginning to be an open secret: Frenkie de Jong is very close to leaving FC Barcelona.
It is an absolutely logical operation from all points of view. Manchester United has a lot of money and Ftbol Club Barcelona lacks even more. Frenkie de Jong still has a big poster and the red devils haven’t had a bossy midfielder since paul scholes. It is true that De Jong has never been able to show the best version of himself in Can Bara, that is, the version he had in the Ajax from Eric Ten Hagbut it is precisely Ten Hag who will be the manager of Manchester United next season. the puzzle fits. It’s logical. But to me it seems like a great lost opportunity for FC Barcelona.
Frenkie de Jong arrived after being indisputably the best midfielder in the Champions League 2018/2019 with only 22 years. At Ajax he had shown himself to be everything a 21st century midfielder should be. Demonstrated technical and physical quality, determination and hierarchy, intelligence and personality. Frenkie was the compass of a team that played very fast but always knew where to go. Just remember the match of the Santiago Bernabu.
Ajax football, yes, had a big difference from the Bara style. While positional football prevailed at the Camp Nou, with more rigid demarcations and more automatic decisions, at Ajax everything was movement and creative freedom. De Jong had to adapt, change the chip, but he didn’t. And I don’t think Barcelona did much to help him either.
Sometimes he placed it too high, other times it made him a mere finisher. And he never gave him the baton of the team. It was never Bara’s compass. Frenkie de Jong needs the game to go through him, hence his future seems to lie in the midfield, but there Sergio Busquets it remains immovable. And as an interior he has never revealed himself and, therefore, has not managed to be what the Bara probably expected. He has not managed to be what Pedri has been from day one.
It is not a matter of seeing who has been more to blame, who has been more responsible for the signing not having been a success, but the truth is that in the end hunger has come together with the desire to eat.
As much as it seems like one more now, in reality there are not many players like Frenkie de Jong. And of course none of them is within reach of Barcelona right now. That is why its sale will represent a missed opportunity. Because although it’s logical that Bara will transfer him now, it’s illogical that Frenkie de Jong’s time at the Camp Nou will be so easy to forget.
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