Neville accuses Barcelona of 'harassing' De Jong as lackluster Man Utd transfer saga continues

Gary Neville has claimed FC Barcelona 'bullied' Frenkie de Jong because their treatment of the Man Utd target was 'wrong'.

We must all be sick of hearing about De Jong by now. This saga even makes United's pursuit of Jadon Sancho enjoyable.

To make matters worse, it doesn't look like his future will be resolved anytime soon.

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It at least looks like United are considering pulling out of the race to sign De Jong, if recent reports are to be believed.

Reports in Spain have always claimed that De Jong is not interested in joining Man Utd but he is open to a move to Chelsea.

You have to at least feel for De Jong because there is no doubt that he was treated harshly by Barcelona.

The Spanish club owe him around £17million in unpaid wages, but they managed to spend a fortune this summer to sign Roberto Lewandowski and Raphinha.

Neville feels sorry for De Jong for being treated badly after 'helping the club':

"Barcelona fans are beating me up at the moment. But I find it unpleasant that they owe the club's players tens and tens of millions in salaries," Neville said in the final fan debate of The Overlap.

"They've spent £155m, the salaries they pay [Jules] Kounde, [Robert] Lewandowski and Raphinha are out of scale and they're selling all their TV rights.

"So they can do all those things but they bully De Jong. I don't care if he comes to United or not, really not. I want him because I think he's a good player - but for me, if he doesn't come, no problem. We'll do with what we have.

“They deferred his salary, he helped the club – well done to him, it was Covid, every club was in trouble. He obviously showed he is a team player. in his big salary to get him paid back, they basically want to try to sell him and are probably trying to kick him out.

"But they tell him he won't get those deferred wages as long as they take £55m or £75m or whatever from Manchester United. That's just not true! And then you going to spend money on Lewandowski at the same time. That's why I've been speaking up for the past few weeks.

"I love Barcelona as a football club, it's unbelievable. It's not against Barcelona… they may not have broken a rule yet, but morally they have broken the rule because that they suggested to the player that if he left they wouldn't pay him that money. The salaries he's received over the past two years are championship salaries."