Manchester United have reportedly received a boost in their efforts to sign Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
Since the arrival of Erik ten Hag as the club's new boss, United have been strongly linked with a player who used to play under the former Ajax head coach.
However, there have been conflicting reports regarding whether De Jong would want to move to Old Trafford and whether Barcelona would be prepared to cash in on the Netherlands international.
More recently, though, it has been claimed that De Jong and Barcelona are more open to engineering a transfer which would see the 25-year-old move to the Premier League giants.
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According to Sport, the Catalan outfit are willing to do business at £70m, rather than the £85m including add-ons which has previously been suggested.
The report claims that Barcelona are not willing to go as low as £60m, club officials keen to ensure that a loss is not recorded in their books.
The alleged development comes after it was reported that United would likely end their interest in De Jong if Barcelona were not prepared to lower their valuation.
De Jong has naturally been quizzed on speculation regarding his future while he has been on international duty with the Netherlands over the past two weeks.
However, he was reluctant to disclose much information, hinting that he was more likely to remain at Camp Nou over completing a transfer to United.
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Should De Jong ultimately decide to take on a fresh challenge under his former boss, the expectation is that he will become first choice in the centre of the pitch.
That would replicate De Jong's regular game time under Xavi at Camp Nou having made 40 starts in La Liga, Champions League and the Europa League during 2021-22.
In total, De Jong has contributed 13 goals during his 140 appearances for Barcelona, but he would leave with just one Copa del Rey trophy to his name.
Barcelona are only open to a sale because it will allow them to boost their financial position and accommodate other summer arrivals to the first-team squad.
Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie are waiting to seal free transfers from Chelsea and AC Milan respectively, while there is interest in Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves and Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski.
Darren Plant
