Huge Man Utd transfer boost as Barcelona boss Flick ‘authorises sale’ as midfielder makes U-turn

Man Utd have received a huge transfer boost with news that Barcelona boss Hansi Flick has told the club to sell Frenkie de Jong, according to reports.

The INEOS era got properly underway over the summer with the new co-owners overseeing their first transfer window after completing a deal to buy 27.7 per cent of the Premier League club earlier this year.

And it was a fairly successful window for Man Utd with the signings of Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte boosting hopes before the season.

However, following their narrow win over Fulham on the opening weekend of the season, Erik ten Hag’s side have suffered back-to-back defeats against Brighton and Liverpool.

The latter was a 3-0 home defeat to their arch-rivals and has piled pressure on Ten Hag at such an early stage of the season, with some predicting that anything but a victory at Southampton could put the heat up another notch .

But Ten Hag has received a boost over one of his long-term targets ahead of the next couple of transfer windows with reports in Spain indicating that Barcelona are ‘fed up’ of Netherlands international De Jong and keen to sell.

Man Utd have been interested in De Jong for at least a couple of years with speculation surrounding a potential move to Old Trafford ramping up when his former manager at Ajax, Ten Hag, was appointed as the Red Devils boss in 2022.

It is understood that his relationship with Barcelona president Joan Laporta and Deco is ‘completely broken’ as he ‘felt betrayed when they tried to transfer him, without warning him beforehand, to Manchester United’.

And now new Barcelona boss Flick ‘has authorised the sale’ of De Jong to Man Utd after ‘his refusal to undergo surgery has caused the Camp Nou to lose patience’ with the Netherlands star missing five months through injury.

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The ‘intention is to sell him next summer’ and attempt to recoup some of the huge €86m fee they paid Ajax for him with De Jong now ‘willing to leave and start a new adventure’.

And Barcelona are confident they can replace De Jong with Bayern Munich midfielder Joshua Kimmich, who will be available on a free transfer next summer.

Casemiro has come under fire at Man Utd this season, while he also took a lot of criticism last campaign, but Ten Hag has insisted that he needs the Brazilian.

“[I] definitely need him, for sure,” Ten Hag said of the former Real Madrid star’s future.

“Of course I speak with him about the situation, but everyone can have a bad at the office, or do you never have a bad day at the office?

“He is experienced and it’s not the first time, I guess, he has dealt with a bad game and now he has to overcome this one as well.

“But that is normal in life. You have highs and you have lows.”