Jorge Mendes trying to engineer swap deal involving Bruno Fernandes and Frenkie de Jong | OneFootball

Keeping in mind FFP concerns, Manchester United first need to think about selling players before moving on to the recruitment side of things.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is plotting a large-scale summer clearout with recent reports stating that only the trio of Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund are safe from a potential cull.

Big names such as Marcus Rashford and Casemiro have been linked with exits while recently, club captain Bruno Fernandes spoke about his future.

For now, the attacking midfielder is fully focussed on finishing the season strongly for the Red Devils following which his attention will shift to the European Championships. He did not refute talks regarding a potential exit.

Bruno exit

“So, if you want me to be very honest, if I have to think about not continuing in the Premier League, it won’t be until after the Euros because nothing will be able to take my focus away from the FA Cup final and the Euros, as there’s nothing more important than that at the moment,” the player was quoted as saying.

The Portuguese is the club’s top-scorer this season and has been the best post-Sir Alex Ferguson signing by a country mile and there is absolutely no chance that he gets sold in the upcoming summer window.

But those comments were enough for the rumour mill to spring into action and one of the latest updates comes via Teamtalk who have relayed that the Portugal international could be headed to Spain.

Super agent Jorge Mendes has reportedly “persuaded” Sir Jim to let the 29-year-old leave and in return, the 20-time English league champions will receive Frenkie de Jong, a long-term target for manager Erik ten Hag.

Fernandes’ agent is actually Miguel Pinho but Mendes is often seen facilitating such moves between big clubs. The report actually mentions that United value their skipper at a measly €60 million.

Due to Barcelona’s financial constraints, they cannot hope to stump up this amount and hence, have proposed a straight swap between the Portuguese and the Dutch midfielder.

Swap deal with Barca

De Jong was close to a United move two summer ago when Ten Hag first joined. The Red Devils actually agreed a deal with the Catalan club but the player turned down the move as he was still owed a large percentage of his wages by Barca.

Once again, De Jong is on the market and Barca are seemingly trying to take advantage of United’s interest in the Dutch international by agreeing a blockbuster deal for the United skipper.

Considering his importance to the team, it is unlikely that the 20-time English league champions will agree to such a senseless deal. United can pursue De jong separately as a target and there is no reason to put your best performer on the market.

Take this report with a hefty pinch of salt as Fernandes is unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon despite Mendes’ best efforts.

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