According to some reports from Spain and England, Chelsea and Manchester United will fight for Barca midfielder De Jong. Some media claimed that United's offer for the Dutchman had been rejected, but now they were ready to raise the offer. Meanwhile, British media confirmed Chelsea's bid of €40 million. From Barcelona's perspective, there are several reasons why they would allow the sale of the team's workhorse. The main reason is economic reasons. Barcelona is saddled with more than €1.3 billion in debt and desperately wants to raise cash and cut costs. Barca have been struggling to sell players who are well paid and useless – even if they just loan Coutinho to Aston Villa – and even if they make a lot of progress on this, they don't bring much transfer fees for players they don't want. De Jong, according to the assessment of some European websites, he is the most valuable player in the whole of La Liga, so he was able to raise the most cash at the time of sale.
The second reason Barcelona are willing to sell is that they already have two of the best young midfielders in the history of world football: Pedri and Garvey. Barcelona's new manager Xavi is a big fan of the two rising stars and he believes they can fill the void if De Jong leaves. Barcelona's new manager Xavi is a big fan of the two rising stars and he believes they can fill the void if De Jong leaves. As a result, Barcelona could use the cash de Jong sold to ease their debts and use it in areas of the team's more pressing needs, such as forward positioning and defensive reinforcement. According to Spanish media, when Barcelona officials traveled to England to finalize Manchester City's Ferran Torres, they also met with the Manchester United boss and talked about De Jong.
From United's perspective, their midfield core has been a glaring weakness over the past few years. Signing at least one new midfielder is a top priority this month. As for Chelsea, given the presence of top players such as Giogenho, Kante and Kovacic, the need for a midfielder is still debatable. But given the uncertainty and age of Jorginho and Kante's future, and the possibility of the latter being injured, that possibility cannot be completely ruled out – even if there are more pressing areas of concern.