COLUMN: Frenkie de Jong has lost himself while trying to fit in at Barcelona

Barcelona splashed €85m in 2019, in the hope of finding a successor to Ivan Rakitic. They were competing against Paris Saint-Germain, and eventually convinced the Dutch midfielder to join with a better financial proposal. Six years later, the club and himself are not exactly happy with the outcome.

Sergio Busquets clashed with him, bumping up against each other for preferred zones, but his exit still did not result in the ‘Ajax Frenkie’ Barcelona hoped for either. The midfielder survived several managers (Ernesto Valverde, Ronald Koeman, Quique Setien, Xavi Hernandez, and now Hansi Flick), without ever settling. He was even proposed an exit to Manchester United, a transfer move that for as long as it was talked about, de Jong never gave a chance to materialise.  This season, he has been outclassed by Marc Casado, and it his story is still searching for one of those turns that looks so good on fellow midfielder Pedri.

It was long said in Barcelona circles that de Jong did not fit Barcelona, because he could not defend. Before that, it was posited that he simply clashed with Busquets. Even given a chance to play under Ronald Koeman, a Dutch manager who in theory knew how to get the best out of him, having spent time together with the national team. While he did have a few good months, what performances he has put in have never justified his transfer fee.

After all of it, he still has a contract to potentially renew, which likely would see a reduction of wages – a sign of his decline in reputation as much as the club’s finances. Whether the Dutchman agrees, is unknown. It was not always about style. Style can change, evolve. The team had different managers. De Jong was supposed to be a different midfielder, a prominent one. He had countless chances of redeeming himself, which to date remains at green shoots and never a flower.

One of the reasons may be that cules misunderstood the reality of de Jong, who became like Ousmane Dembele – a player stuck in utopia, without any sense of reality. It was the idea of the player, the renewal of the Barcelona-Ajax links that forced an unconditional love. However, his lack of concentration when defending led managers to bench him, no matter how good his ball-carrying skills were. There have of course been good spells, where he looked the part and gave material to social media’s compilation artists. However, those spells never lasted longer than a few months.

If the saying love hurts runs true, and perhaps then it is sometimes better to let go than divorce. Increasingly, that fits the situation between De Jong and Barcelona. Even when performing positively, such as the Valencia tie in the Copa del Rey, or the 1-0 victory against Alaves, it never felt as if the ‘Ajax Frenkie’ played. Sure, he reduced the amount of technical mistakes, but it’s a sort of ghost of his promise – soulless.

De Jong succeeds when he is allowed to control the game. However, this needs to happen with someone playing behind him, covering the ground he so smoothly leaves behind. As he holds on to the ball, he needs to feel the need to ‘dominate’ possession. He is not the type to play fast-combination football. One of the major criticisms targeting the Dutchman since his arrival has been that he slows play down by refusing to pass. Barcelona’s philosophy excels in involving multiple players who pass the ball quickly – not for the sake of it, but because it accelerates play and disorientates opponents. This, so far, has proven incompatible with de Jong’s football, creating a clash of cultures.

Both parties have since started taking different paths. Both Marc Bernal and Casado, academy graduates have been favoured ahead of de Jong at times. Undoubtedly, both parties have to come to understand that it is best to let it go – so that De Jong may enjoy playing again, while the club no longer sees him as essential to their midfield plans. Barcelona certainly do not want another high-earning player, given that the two parties are still talking about fresh conditions in any possible contract extension.