Manchester United have a back-up plan in their bid to land Frenkie De Jong following an opening rejected offer of £52million (€60m) from Barcelona.
The Old Trafford officials are under pressure to seal a successful window, starting with De Jong who is said to be Erik ten Hag's prime target this summer. A forward and a defender is also amongst top priorities with United wanting to compete hand in hand with rivals across town Manchester City.
With the summer transfer window already officially open, new CEO Richard Arnold and football director John Murtough remain confident they will fulfil Ten Hag's wishes as he remains an admirer of the Dutch midfielder. "He is always calm and always has the solution," Ten Hag previously said. "He scans so well that he always knows how to go forward. You can hardly put him under pressure – that is such a great gift."
The club have a back-up plan to convince crisis-hit Barcelona to sell their star. They are prepared to launch a second bid of around £60m (€70m) plus add-ons for him after being turned away the first time around.
United appear to have no competition from other clubs in their pursuit of De Jong and therefore remain calm about the situation. And Barca are in a delicate financial situation and are in need to sell, in order to also strengthen their team.
The ideal outcome for the 52-year-old boss, however, is that the signing is sealed before they fly for their pre-season tour in Thailand on July 8. Ten Hag, who will be overseeing his first match in charge against Liverpool on July 12, is hopeful De Jong would already be integrated in the squad.
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But if that does not happen, then the club will need to ensure the 25-year-old is with the squad before the opening game of the new Premier League season against Brighton on August 7 at Old Trafford. Arnold, Murtough and Ten Hag are desperate for history not to repeat itself as nine years ago Ed Woodward left United's tour in Australia to attend an urgent transfer business in an attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas.
However, the only signing that arrived that summer was Marouane Fellaini from Everton which was completed post-deadline, with the club risking losing out on the player. This is something United officials will take into consideration this time around, after Arnold gave an honest assessment of the club's recent transfer history.
"We spent a billion pounds on players. We have spent more than anyone in Europe," Arnold said frankly. "I’m not thrilled where we are. It doesn’t sit easy with me and I worry how we get this sorted for the future.
"What’s happened is we have f****** burned through cash. You can’t go to our training ground and say 'show me where the £1 billion is' because we haven’t spent money well historically.
"I’m not here to defend (chairman) Joel (Glazer). He must speak for himself. We’ve blown through an enormous amount of money."
So far the Red Devils have seen the likes of Paul Pogba, Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic, Jesse Linguard and Edinson Cavani all exit Old Trafford as free agents.
