United have been linked with a move for the Barcelona star ever since Erik ten Hag took over at Old Trafford at the end of April.
Fabrizio Romano provided a key update regarding De Jong and the Red Devils on Wednesday morning. The transfer expert revealed that United have ‘opened direct talks’ with Barca, who want €85m for the midfielder’s services.
De Jong reportedly wants to play Champions League football, something United can’t currently offer, however, they are still looking to ‘push’ for a move.
Sheth took to Twitter hours on from Romano’s claim on De Jong to share what he knows regarding a possible transfer.
The Sky Sports reporter stated that United have indeed ‘held initial talks’ over a transfer, but he’s been ‘told’ there are ‘significant obstacles’, name-checking a fee and will of the player as two.
As Sheth claims, agreeing on a fee and persuading De Jong to move to Old Trafford could prove tricky. However, something that could work in United’s favour is Barcelona’s ‘financial issues’.
The Catalan giants ‘need to solve’ their problems off the pitch, according to Romano, so selling De Jong for a big fee would certainly help their situation.
It appears as if a move could be extremely complicated, and with United looking at a ‘number of midfielders’ and making it their priority area to bolster, it’ll be interesting to see how long they pursue De Jong before moving on to alternative targets.
