Manchester United bosses fly to Barcelona to push through Frenkie de Jong transfer


Stuart James
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Manchester United chiefs Richard Arnold and John Murtough have flown to Barcelona in an effort to iron out the issues with the Frenkie de Jong deal.

The club's new manager Erik ten Hag has made the signing of the 25-year-old Dutch midfielder his No 1 priority this summer.

United agreed a £46.5 million deal in principal to sign De Jong a fortnight ago but the move has stalled over a contractual issue between the player and the Camp Nou giants.

De Jong agreed to defer his salary during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, with the wages due to be repaid to him over the next four years to help the Catalan club as they struggled financially because of the loss of income.

The player is reluctant to leave Barcelona until he is paid what he feels is due.

But United chief executive Arnold and football director Murtough have now flown to Barcelona to try to break the impasse - rather than travelling with the squad to Thailand for the club's friendly against Liverpool in Bangkok on Tuesday.

It is reported that they are holding talks with Barca's director of football Mateu Alemany, managing director Rafael Yuste and sporting adviser Jordi Cruyff to try to get the deal done.

Ten Hag was asked about De Jong on Monday as his squad prepared for the meeting with old rivals Liverpool.

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"We know what we want," said Ten Hag. "We only want new players, we want the right new players. My first press conference, I already said definitely we are searching for players in midfield."

After the Liverpool game, United fly to Australia for games against Melbourne Victory on July 15 and Crystal Palace on July 19.

MATCH INFO

Everton 2 (Tosun 9', Doucoure 93')

Rotherham United 1 (Olosunde 56')

Man of the Match Olosunde  (Rotherham)

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2nd Test: Adelaide, Dec 2-6
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4th Test: Melbourne, Dec 26-30
5th Test: Sydney, Jan 4-8

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Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara

Updated: July 12, 2022, 11:48 AM`