Journalist Fabrizio Romano has dismissed reports from Spain suggesting that Chelsea are preparing a formal bid for Manchester United target Frenkie de Jong.

While Romano claims that Thomas Tuchel’s side are “interested” in the Barcelona midfielder, he says that they won’t be making any offer unless it becomes clear that the player is willing to leave Spain:

“Chelsea have been interested in Frenkie de Jong for weeks, but they know that Man United have an agreement with Barcelona, and also that Frenkie as of today has no plans to leave Spain. So far, De Jong remains on the same idea – so Chelsea will not submit offers until they know that Frenkie has different ideas.”

United have agreed an €85m (£72m) fee for de Jong but the Dutchman is reluctant to make the switch. There are two theories as to why the 25-year-old is stalling on the move.

The first one, which Romano has laid out above, is simply that de Jong isn’t interested in leaving Barca but the Catalan club are pressuring him to go in order to free up transfer funds.

An alternative take is that de Jong wants to make sure he receives the money owed to him, and he won’t say he is open to moving teams until his pay dispute with Barcelona is resolved. Whatever the case may be, it seems this saga will drag on and on.