The athletic.

So Barcelona is Frankie Deong is expected to play a key role in his side Europa League game against Manchester United at Camp Nude tonight.

United went hard to sign Deong last summer.

Could they go for him again?

Is he still a player they actually need?

I'm Mark Chapman.

This is the Athletic Football Podcast.

No, you always flattered when teams show interesting you as a player, but what you say, I think

I'm at the biggest club in the world at the moment I feel fine there so no news

So to talk about Barcelona's frankly de yong and Manchester United's interest.

I'm joined by the athletics Andy Mitten,

Carl Lanka and Paul Ballas.

Just take us back to United Interest, why they had it Andy, and why they maybe still have it.

Eric Ten Harg identified Frankie de Jong as a key player who he wanted to bring to Manchester United in the summer of

2022. That came about through meetings in Amsterdam with John Merta talking about

potential Manchester United targets.

That was still while Eric Ten Harg was manager of Iax

and he was the number one target for Eric Ten Harg.

He identified it as a key position and as Frankie de Jong as the key player who A, he felt could improve Manchester United and B, felt would come to Manchester United partly because he felt he would come individually,

but also because Barcelona's financial situation meant that they actually had few players

who they could get serious money for. So if they sold

someone like Gavi or Petri one of their really talented attacking midfielders

...