Chelsea have been given “absolutely no chance” of beating Manchester United in the race to sign Frenkie de Jong from FC Barcelona.
De Jong was heavily linked with Man Utd during the 2022 summer transfer window as he was identified as one of Erik ten Hag’s top targets ahead of his first season in charge.
Barcelona needed the money so they were open to striking a deal with Man Utd but De Jong made it clear throughout the window that he was not interested in leaving the Spanish giants.
The Red Devils ended up signing Casemiro from Real Madrid as a pricey alternative but Spanish media have claimed in recent days that De Jong is back on the market.
A report from Football Transfers claims ‘does not want to leave’ but Barcelona are ‘spreading misinformation in a bid to unsettle the player’ and ‘push’ him into departing in the summer.
Chelsea have already spent over £200m on Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in recent windows but Spanish outlet Sport have claimed that they are willing to spend £85m to sign De Jong.
Steve Nicol cannot see Chelsea signing De Jong, though. When asked about their chances of landing De Jong this summer, he told ESPN: “No. No, no chance. Absolutely no chance, seems more like a Man United buy. Well, the manager’s Dutch for a start.”
READ MORE: Johnny Nic’s ten favourite footballing mavericks includes Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal icons
In other Chelsea news, Fabrizio Romano has spoken out on Mauricio Pochettino’s “technical decision” to leave him out of the starting XI for their FA Cup replay against Aston Villa earlier this week.
“Thiago Silva’s position in the Chelsea starting line up may now be in doubt after he missed the game against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, but I honestly don’t know about this situation or what it means for his place in the side for the rest of this season,” Romano told Caught Offside.
“It’s not a transfer story so it’s not really my area, it will depend on Mauricio Pochettino. But they clarified the situation days ago, so it seems to just be a technical decision now up to the coaching staff.
“Conor Gallagher is another name at Chelsea continuing to attract headlines, but it’s another one that’s not resolved yet. Despite reports from some sources that Chelsea have now decided to sell the midfielder, there’s nothing confirmed yet. We will see in the next months.
“At the moment Gallagher’s contract situation remains the same; of course if he arrives to June/July out of contract in 2025, it will be again be an extend-or-sell situation for Gallagher. But nothing is concrete at this stage – in January we had 100 rumours per day but nothing happened, not even negotiations.”
