Reportedly (football today), Barcelona owe €115 million in outstanding transfer payments to some players, one of these players has spoken. Frenkie de Jong downplays the severity of Barcelona’s crisis, though they seemingly owe Ajax €32 million for his 2019 transfer.
Frenkie de Jong, a midfielder of Barcelona, has claimed that media outlets have exaggerated concerns about the club’s present condition.
Barcelona has had a rocky start to the season after a summer full of rumours about their financial woes.
They are currently tenth in La Liga after a run of two victories in their last six games’ football scores.
The Catalan club suffered 3-0 defeats in both of their Champions League group games’ football results thus far as well.
It’s a run of form that has increased the pressure on the players and Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman. Indeed, his job at Camp Nou was on the line until president Joan Laporta had a late change of heart.
Frenkie de Jong Downplays the Severity of Barcelona’s Crisis
Despite all this turbulence, Barcelona midfielder Frenkie De Jong is confident that things are not as bad as they appear.
“Calling Barcelona a sinking ship is too far, it’s exaggerated a lot, we are not in a hole,” De Jong said, according to De Volkskrant.
“The results are bad, nobody can ignore that. You notice that there is a negative feeling at the club, but that makes sense when you have such bad results at a club like Barcelona. The results drive me crazy but what happens around them does not.
“It’s good that we’re on a break now. When we go back to Barcelona after the internationals, I think normality could return. People exaggerate when they say that the season is already lost. Sure, we don’t have as many points as Real Madrid or Atletico, but we still have 30 games to play, so nothing has been lost. At all.
“We have a very good squad, especially when the injured players come back. Those points we have lost so far, it’s not good, but people are exaggerating enormously. In La Liga, everything is still possible. We started the Champions League very badly as well, but nothing has been lost there either.”
There’s the pressure on Koeman, who was almost seemingly fired before the international break before Laporta made a surprise U-turn.
And De Jong also talked about him.
“It’s relentless,” he admitted. “There is a lot of pressure on the manager. Every day there were messages, ‘Koeman’s days are numbered. He’s going to come. He’s going to replace him’. I couldn’t tell you what that does to him. You’d have to ask him.”
