The 2019 transfer window was a raging inferno as top European clubs battled for elite signings. Premium layers like Eden Hazard, Frenkie De Jong, Joao Felix, and Matthijs De Ligt were up for grabs. Frenkie De Jong, particularly after his heroics with Ajax, triggered a fierce bidding war between Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Man City. The odds on which club will successfully lure Frenkie De Jong by top-notch bookmakers on liontips.com were attractive.
Barcelona ended up pulling a mega move, securing the signing of the Dutch midfield maestro for a mouthwatering price of €75m with another €11m as performance-related add-ons. Such an ambitious signing inevitably pushed Barcelona to the top of bookmaker ratings on liontips.ke regarding favorites to win the Champions League.
Well, it has been almost three years from then, and Frenkie De Jong’s light is yet to fully beam on the Camp Nou. With his contract expiring in the 2023/24 season, it is yet tricky to classify De Jong’s signing – whether he was a success or failure.
The Frenkie De Jong Barcelona conundrum shares a strong similarity with the Pogba enigma at Man United. Indeed, both are undoubted midfield magicians on their prime days. But the issue is that those prime days are few and far between.
Barcelona fans have looked on with dread at the propensity of Frenkie De Jong to disappear in big matches. In repeated maulings Barcelona has suffered in the hands of Bayern Munich since De Jong was signed, the Dutchman was close to non-existent in the matches. This was commonly because he was outrun and outworked by the tireless German machines.
At 24, he is significantly more mature than the 21-year youngling he was at Ajax. And it was not like he has thrown into the deep end in Barcelona.
Back in Ajax, he has been sufficiently weaned of stage fright and all that anxiety that comes with performing at the big stage. He excelled in several Champions League matches back at Ajax.
As said, we definitely can’t attribute De Jong’s struggles at Barcelona to a deficiency of talents. Many behind-the-scene defects accumulate into the malaise De Jong is currently embroiled in.
The struggle to replace Sergio Busquets
When Barcelona acquired Frenkie De Jong from Ajax, the hopes were high that he would seamlessly fill the shoes of Sergio Busquets as the principal holding midfielder at Barcelona.
Three years down the line, Busquets is yet to vacate those shoes. The Spaniard yet boasts an exquisite understanding of positional play. The latter is a football technique central to Barcelona’s style of play.
At 33, Busquets is no longer blessed with youth and athleticism, but his remarkable football intelligence seems to compensate for that handicap.
What is more, Barcelona has struggled to tick when Busquets is absent – with an alarming disconnect between the defence and attack.
Busquets has also managed to keep himself fit and available for selection. And of course, just any coach would struggle to drop a football genius like Busquets when fit.
This has severely affected De Jong. He is more comfortable playing a withdrawn role, stringing the team together from the back as he does for the Netherlands and previously for Ajax.
But with Busquets innocently unwilling to pass the baton to him, De Jong has been pushed into unfamiliar waters, playing an attack role.
This has made many question the wisdom in keeping Frenkie De Jong in Barcelona when he could fetch the team some badly-needed funds in the transfer market to get the elite likes of Erling Haaland.
Management blunders throw Barcelona into a financial debacle
Ask any Barcelona fan, they will tell you in a heartbeat that the Josep Bartomeu administration was one of the most catastrophic Barcelona (if not the most) have ever seen in its 122 years of existence.
Bartomeu’s administration was littered with scandals, fraud, and gross financial mismanagement. When the COVID-19 struck, Barca was caught outside on a rainy day with no cover.
Inevitably, the club was financially battered. Heaped with a debt north of €2billion, there was so little the incoming administration of Joan Laporta could do to save the drowning Catalonian ship.
Prized jewel Lionel Messi was thrown aboard to keep Barcelona financially afloat. The likes of Antoinne Griezaman (another Bartomeu-inspired €120m misadventure) followed.
With over-bloated wage bills, Barcelona is yet reeling from the Mike-Tyson-grade punches it suffered from the previous administration.
In a bid to cut wages, Barcelona is desperately seeking to offload some of their most coveted players. This has made a gem like Frenkie De Jong be displayed in the showcase for sale.
New prospects arise in the middle of the pitch
Well, a Frenkie De Jong exit is not looking that devastating for Barcelona at the moment, given the quality of players the La Masia is currently gushing out.
The emergence of the teenage midfield wizard in the person of Gavi is making Barca executives worry so little about the damages De Jong’s exit could cause.
Already capped by the Spanish national team at 17, Gavi is one of the best talents to proceed from the famed La Masia in decades.
Barca is further spoiled with midfield riches, with Nico Gonzalez, Pedri, and Riqui Puig all providing reliable cover for De Jong.
Given all these parameters, would it be wise for cash-strapped Barcelona to sell Frenkie De Jong?
