Frenkie de Jong has made it obvious that he has no interest in playing for Manchester United, hence the Red Devils’ attempts to sign him have been unsuccessful (Sport).
I believe Ten Hag has to hire Sergej Milinkovic-Savic as a quality replacement instead of wasting time trying to persuade the Dutch international.
The Serbian international has been linked with the Old Trafford outfit for a long time and even last month, reports indicated that United has shown interest in the versatile midfielder.
As per La Gazzetta Dello Sport, Man Utd was not willing to splash 100 million euros three years ago but now, the player can be lured from Lazio for a fee of just £51.2million (60 million euros).
Milinkovic-Savic is a complete midfielder. He has excelled in the DM/deep-lying playmaking role, pulled strings in the center of the park in the CM role, and scored and created goals in the AM role.
Last season, the Serbian international mainly featured in the central midfield for the Serie A side and directly contributed to 23 goals (11 goals and 12 assists) in all competitions.
On the other hand, De Jong, who has also played the CM role for Barca has directly contributed to 30 goals since joining the Catalan club (138 appearances). In the last term, he scored 4 goals and provided 5 assists in all competitions.
United have lost their most creative central midfielder in the form of Paul Pogba and Milinkovic-Savic is better suited to replace the French international at Old Trafford.
The retired footballer, Paul Merson, thinks that the 27-year-old is a top-quality player. He stated (The Daily Star):
