First transfer target for Manchester United's new boss Erik ten Hag is Barcelona's Frankie de Jong

With Erik ten Hag joining Manchester United to replace Ralf Ragnick, changes are expected in the red side of Manchester as the Red Devils finished the 2021/22 season with the worst points tally ever in the history of the club with 58 points. Cristiano Ronaldo joined Manchester United last summer and scored 18 goals in the Premier League but that wasn't enough for top a 4 finish. Their UEFA Champions League campaign ended in the round of 16 following a 0-1 defeat at home and a 1-1 draw away at Atletico Madrid. Many fans and commentators pointed the finger at Ronaldo as being the problem at Manchester United, even though he scored the most goals, many of them very important, and was named player of the year at the club.

"Of course", Erik ten Hag answered when asked if Ronaldo will have a role in his Manchester United and when asked for his plans with the squad he answered:

"I analyse and I think we are in the process now with this start before the season starts, we have a couple of weeks of break, so I analyse, I observe and I will settle conclusions but I keep it for myself. It's the previous season and we have to go to next season.

"The confidence is that I have a good feeling from the people around, I have a good feeling from the meetings and now it's about to get the plan done, to get it into process, to cooperate, to be consistent in our plan and we have good people around with the right connection and the right commitment, we will achieve the success we want to."

The first order of business for Erik ten Hag is a push to sign Frankie de Jong from Barcelona. Erik ten Hag and Frenkie de Jong worked together at Ajax, and now they have the opportunity to reunite in Manchester. One of the first setbacks for this transfer is that Frankie de Jong sees competing in the Champions League as a priority, with Manchester United only in the Europa League, Frankie would need to be persuaded to join the English side. Frankie de Jong's situation in Barcelona is complicated and even though he started 29 of the 32 matches he was available in, he completed 90 minutes in only 13 of them. Often times we could see Frankie whistled by the fans as he was coming off and heading to the bench as he looked unhappy with the situation he was in. Even with this happening, Frankie de Jong is still keen on staying at Barcelona. In an interview with ESPN, he said:

"I prefer to stay with Barcelona,"

"Barcelona is just my dream club. Also from a young age. I just said it too. I've never regretted my choice despite the fact that I had hoped for more in terms of prizes than I've achieved so far. But I have never regretted my choice".



Jong, who is valued at around €75 million, is one of Barca's most expensive assets, but Barca might have to offload De Jong as the club continues to suffer from financial difficulties. Their spending limit has been reduced to minus -€144 million by La Liga - it is the only negative cap in the league - and they can only spend 25 percent of any savings on wages or transfer fees until they are operating within their limit.