Transfer News: Frenkie de Jong

de Jong to Manchester City?

Another day and another Dutch player being linked to Manchester City. Its clearly that time in the season where journalists have little to write about – desperately trying to fill the vacant column inches in the dry season of the international football window. Now I should start this by saying I have struggled to make up my own mind about the strengths and options posed by de Jong and whether or not he would be a good signing for City.

I think I have reached a saturation point of watching Youtube highlights reels, where even Georgios Samaras could look like Lionel Messi in a 60 second clip. I mean, by the time you type the name of the player into the search engine you know you will encounter a procession of show clips supposedly detailing their brilliance. I struggle with these, in much the same way as its impossible to tell whether a game was any good just from the highlights on Match of the Day. In order to understand a player I always feel as though I need to see them in a game in person – where you can really get an understanding of their positional role on the pitch and the impact they have on the surroundings. Its difficult to watch a player without a ball when the camera only follows the ball.

More from Man City Editorials

Frenkie de Jong is a 21 year old midfielder. He plays for Ajax and has so far amassed a career total of 99 appearances and 9 league goals. So from this we can deduce he is not a Frank Lampard style midfielder. Journalists always describe de Jong as versatile in their pieces about him given he plays as centre midfielder but can also operate both as a defensive midfielder and a centre back. I have watched some Ajax games with him in central midfield where its fair to say he looks comfortable.

He is quite a powerful player, keen to scamper and tackle and capable with the ball. He retrieves possession well and seems able to occupy some different spaces on the pitch. I haven’t managed to watch him at centre back so feel that’s probably more of an emergency option rather than part of his coherent career strategy.

De Jong is under contract at Ajax until 30 June 2022 so it would appear Ajax hold all the cards regarding the players immediate future. In fact, Ajax are in no particular need or hurry to part with an asset given their relatively strong financial position, so any bid will probably have to be sizeable to encourage his departure.

Barcelona have held some long term interest in de Jong as a midfield option and were seemingly the destination of choice. Indeed de Jong even made some comments to the media about playing alongside Messi, but the initial interest has not materialised. Instead rumours regarding interest from Manchester City have started to appear with regularity. Its fair to say Manchester City spent much of last summer pursuing Jorginho to supplement their midfield but this never worked out. Rather than rushing with a purchase once that move had broken down, it seems Manchester City went back to revisit a number of other players.

Whilst De Jong would appear to match the profile of players who are likely to interest Manchester City I can’t help but think positionally he does not represent the gap City do have in their squad – cover for Fernandinho at defensive midfield. Therefore any Interest from City would appear to obfuscate the path to the first team for local talents like Phil Foden and for that reason I cannot see this deal happening.

Of course there could be other factors at play here – it could be that Gundogan is moving on to another club in the summer and so City are insuring themselves by planning early. Certainly in these kind of circumstances it would seem possible City could even loan De Jong back to Ajax for a period as a sweetener to the deal. Although of course loaning out a player who may command a purchase price in excess of 70 million euros may prove to be a risk.

I wrote earlier regarding the potential interest in Matthijs de Ligt and said it would appear there is a chain of players whose movements may be linked in the transfer window and I consider De Jong to be another part of this chain. If Pogba does indeed move to Barcelona then De Jong may most likely end up at Manchester City and de Ligt at Manchester United.