Erik Ten Hag ‘rules out’ De Jong signing for Man United as ‘new £80m target’ emerges who wants Old Trafford move -Report

Erik Ten Hag ‘rules out’ De Jong signing for Man United as ‘new £80m target’ emerges who wants Old Trafford move -Report

Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag no longer wants to sign Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong and has a new target in his sights, according to reports.

To begin the INEOS era, the Red Devils added five new players in the summer: Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, and Manuel Ugarte.

Even if Christian Eriksen has started their previous three games, Man Utd still feels like they can improve a lot in the center of the pitch. Ugarte should reinforce their defensive midfield.

Eriksen is expected to go at the end of the current campaign, Casemiro has received a lot of flak, and Bruno Fernandes has been criticized for his wastefulness thus far this year.

Toby Collyer and Kobbie Mainoo may be the Man Utd midfield’s future leaders, but they’re both still young and developing.

And now reports in Spain claim that Man Utd ‘are still on the hunt for an elite midfielder to bolster their squad, and after ruling out’ a move for Barcelona’s De Jong.

The Red Devils now have a ‘new bombshell target’ in the form of Inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella – who was linked as Liverpool’s summer ‘bomb’ before remaining in Serie A – with Ten Hag convinced ‘that Barella is the ideal man to lead United’s midfield’.

Man Utd are ‘already preparing an ambitious offer’ for the Italy international with ‘talk of a figure close to 75 million euros (£63m) for his signing, in addition to a salary of 10 million euros (£8.3m) per season, in the hope of attracting the Italian to Old Trafford.’

Ten Hag warned expanded schedules are making injuries almost unavoidable for overloaded players as Man Utd prepare for their opener in the new-look Europa League on Wednesday night.

“The format I think we have to take this experience and then judge,” Ten Hag said. “But one thing is for sure, I think every match is significant and probably every goal is significant.

“First you get a split after January when the first eight teams qualify (directly to the last 16) and that can help you in February to continue.

“But when you are in the first 24 you can win this competition, so there’s always an option to win it.

“The second part of it we discuss so many times. There are too many games. It’s clear. Too many competitions.

“For the top players, they are overloaded and this is not good for football. In the end of the day it’s maybe good for commercial but there is a limit.

“It’s almost unavoidable that players get injured because of the overload from so many games.”