Perhaps the June gloom is about to lift for Manchester United, partly indebted to the second financial quarter's end date of June 30.
That date signals the end of the financial year for La Liga clubs and a transfer fee for Frenkie de Jong would be filed among Barcelona's results, which have a bearing on their salary limits for next season.
The Barcelona president Joan Laporta said last month: “If we can sort out the club’s finances before June 30, and I think we will, then we will be able to undertake all the operations we have planned.” One day more, another day, another destiny. Les Miserables was parodied for transfer deadlines years ago.
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It was 49 days ago United first approached Barcelona about De Jong. They have "negotiated hard" but not fast. They have with Tyrell Malacia, as they were with Cristiano Ronaldo in similar but more seismic circumstances. Chelsea are bullish about the prospect of signing Raheem Sterling in the same week they are expected to submit a formal bid.
Sterling is London-raised, out of contract next year, Chelsea are seeking a proven Premier League goalscorer and City have made two attacking additions in Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez. City have few qualms about selling Sterling to another top four club as Chelsea represent their only option of obtaining a fee.
Whatever the circumstances, United's peers are generally swifter at deal-making and have been for years. Go back to 2019 and United's one-at-a-time negotiating strategy left them out of time. They roughly spent a month each concluding deals for Daniel James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire (let that sink in) yet ended a transfer window that closed before the season started devoid of a new midfielder and a striker, frantically touching base with Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic.
The inordinate negotiations for Maguire were particularly puzzling as he was priced at £75million the previous year and had since signed a new contract. United ended up paying £80m and were fortunate Maguire was an England international with five years' Premier League experience, so the assimilation was not as drastic as it would have been for some recruits.
Sean Longstaff's agent was informed they were in a holding pattern and United would start negotiations once the Wan-Bissaka deal was finalised. Newcastle valued Longstaff at £50m and he was left up in the air.
You can imagine Jose Mourinho's face when Ed Woodward tried to cut corners during negotiations for Ivan Perisic in 2017. United refused to meet Inter Milan's £50m valuation and Woodward floated the idea of waiting it out and then submitting a follow-up bid on deadline day. Mourinho reminded Woodward he would prefer to integrate Perisic into the team during pre-season.
United have a tendency to cave in as key deadlines loom, specifically a pre-season tour departure date. In the 48 hours prior to United's flight to Seattle in 2015, Matteo Darmian, Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger were driven into Carrington.
Mourinho's squad was already replenished with Eric Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2016 but still enquired whether "the third player is official" in the Old Trafford No.7 suite during his introductory press conference. "Soon," the United press officer replied. Mourinho rolled his eyes but pressed the flesh with Henrikh Mkhitaryan later that week and the Armenian was on the plane to China.
Romelu Lukaku was already in Los Angeles - United's tour destination - when they blindsided Chelsea to sign him for £75m in 2017 two days before touching down at LAX.
De Jong should, at the very latest, be a United player in time to brave the queues at Manchester Airport on Friday week with his new teammates. The understandable preference is for him to check in at The Lowry so he can participate in training with the rest of the returning internationals next week.
Bangkok, with its six-hour time difference, temperatures north of 30 degrees and sweltering humidity, is a whistlestop visit not entirely conducive to United's training preparations. Their next stop is Melbourne, currently cooler than Manchester, where they are due to be based for a week.
United could do with a July buy by then.
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