Gary Neville summed up the mood of Manchester United fans by laughing at the club's drawn-out transfer pursuit of Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
Erik ten Hag made De Jong his priority target at the start of the summer window and United were eventually able to reach an agreement with Barca. The Red Devils are willing to pay an up-front fee of £56million for the 25-year-old and the total sum could rise to £72million with add-ons.
In an encouraging fresh update, the issue of the £17million owed to the player in unpaid wages has been resolved, with United willing to take on Barca's debt. However, it remains to be seen whether De Jong will eventually agree to move to the Premier League, having put up a bitter fight to stay put at Camp Nou.
He has previously described Barcelona as his dream destination and is understandably reluctant to swap the Catalan giants for a club which cannot offer him Champions League football this season. Nonetheless, with less than a week until United begin their Premier League campaign by taking on Brighton on Sunday, there is growing hope they can get the deal over the line after months of speculation.
Old Trafford legend Neville could not help but poke fun at the situation and took to Twitter to write: "Have we signed De Jong yet?" The player-turned-pundit added a crying-laughing emoji for good measure, encapsulating the exasperation of many supporters that negotiations are still taking place.
Although his future with Barcelona is uncertain, De Jong was selected by Xavi to travel on the club's pre-season tour of the United States. The former Ajax prospect was named in the starting XI as the Blaugrana defeated New York Red Bulls 2-0 on Sunday.
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Speaking after the friendly victory, Xavi provided an uncertain update on De Jong's future and hit back at the criticism he received for playing the central midfielder in defence earlier in pre-season. "I don't know if he's going to stay here. There's still time and a lot of things can still happen," the Spaniard said of De Jong.
"At the moment, he's part of the team, like everyone else. The fact that he played as a central defender in the other games was not a sign that he was leaving. I don't need to send signals on the pitch. I can speak directly with my footballers." Barcelona conclude their pre-season with a fixture against Mexican side Club Universidad Nacional at Camp Nou next Sunday.
