MANCHESTER UNITED are prepared to make Frenkie De Jong their highest paid player in order to tempt him away from Barcelona, according to reports.
New United boss Erik ten Hag is desperate to bring the Dutch midfielder to Old Trafford to bolster the squad.
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De Jong, is well known to want to play Champions League football, but United are prepared to offer an eye-watering £395,000 a week in order to tempt him into a move, according to the Daily Star.
This would immediately elevate him above the likes of David de Gea (£375,000), Jadon Sancho (£350,000) Raphael Varane (£340,000), and above Cristiano Ronaldo (£300,000) in United’s books.
Ten Hag worked with De Jong at Ajax, and the pair understand each other’s qualities very well.
The 25-year-old remains a regular player for Xavi’s Barcelona side, but the emergence of Pedri and Gavi and made Barcelona reconsider their stance on De Jong’s transfer availability.
However, while this would be another costly wage for The Red Devils they are set to lose a significant portion of their wage bill this summer.
Big contracts attached to the likes of Paul Pogba, Edinson Cavani, Nemanja Matic, and Jesse Lingard are set to be wiped off as they are lost to free agency.
A host of out of favour stars are also set to move on from Old Trafford.
Anthony Martial, Eric Bailly, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Phil Jones are all set to leave, while Newcastle have reportedly submitted an offer for second-choice goalkeeper Dean Henderson.
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In total this will clear roughly £80million a year from United’s books, opening up the possibility for signings such as De Jong.
Barcelona have reportedly agreed a deal to sign Valencia midfielder Carlos Soler, which increases the possibility the Bluagrana are preparing to sanction De Jong’s exit.
De Jong has made 139 appearances since joining Barcelona from Ajax in 2019.
It was expected that Ten Hag would be given advice on the state of United’s squad by Ralf Rangnick.
However, the German revealed earlier today that he would not be taking up the consultancy position after returning the worst points p of any United manager in the Premier League era.
In a statement United confirmed the news by thanking the 63-year-old for his efforts during his interim spell in charge.
The statement said: “We would like to thank Ralf Rangnick for his efforts as interim manager over the past six months.
“By mutual agreement, Ralf will now focus solely on his new role as manager of the Austria national team and will not therefore be taking up a consultancy role at Old Trafford.
“We would like to wish Ralf the best of luck in this next chapter of his career.”
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