The Athletic

So Barcelona's Frankie Diyong is expected to play a key role

in his side's Europa League game against Manchester United at Camp New tonight.

United went hard to sign Diyong 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 flatter when teams show interest in 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 Frankie De Jong and Manchester United's interest,

I'm joined by the Athletics, Andy Mitten, Carl Anka and Paul Ballas.

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

Eric Ten Haag 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 Tenhaar was manager of

Iax and he was the number one target for Eric Tenhaar was manager of Ajax and he was the number one target

for Eric Tenhawk. He identified it as a key position and as Frankie Dijon 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

...