Barcelona’s President Joan Laporta has further strengthened the club’s financial position by selling a part of ‘Barca Studios’ to socio.com for €100m, which could have a huge impact on Manchester United’s pursuit of Frenkie de Jong.
The Spanish club have found themselves in financial mire recently and have activated what’s been known as ‘levers’ to bring themselves back into a positive bank balance, as reported by as.com.
These ‘economic levers’ are essentially the President Laporta selling certain assets owned by the club, in order to bring in funds immediately. So far the club has sold TV and other licensing rights allowing them to bring in the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Raphina.
This latest ‘lever’ which has been activated means they can now register their five new signings and could well impact Dutchman Frenkie de Jong’s future.
United manager Ten Hag is a known admirer of the playmaker and it’s well known now that United and Barca had agreed on a fee, with Barca eager to sell the player in order to raise more funds.
However, with this latest financial boost, it may just be that the Catalonian club have no need now to sell the 25 year old, which could leave United scratching around for a plan B.
Laporta was speaking during the unveiling of Jules Kounde and didn’t mention any future transfer activity during the conference, however did still offer slight words of encouragement to United.
‘We are working on the exits but it is not easy,” said Laporta. It was not clear as to who these exits may be, with several other players potentially leaving such as Memphis Depay and Sergino Dest.
United’s pursuit of Frenkie de Jong has been an ongoing saga almost as soon as the transfer window was open.
The deal appears to have stumbled due to deferred wages that the Spanish club owe the player due to missed payments during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It will be interesting to see whether this latest ‘economic lever’ will allow Laporta to pay De Jong these wages now, or if the large bulk of the released cash has already been used on the new signings and reducing the clubs debts.
Ten Hag and United will be hoping that it is the latter as that would still leave the door ajar for De Jong to become a Red Devil.
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