*Record scratch*

*Freeze frame*

"You're probably wondering how I got here," Frenkie de Jong says with a forced smile on his face, holding up a Manchester United shirt, feigning pride as the photographers click enough pictures to give the young Dutchman a seizure.

2019 doesn't seem like a long time ago, does it? Back then, De Jong, a little blond kid, had the world at his feet, with Manchester City and Barcelona locking horns to sign the promising midfielder.

Barcelona eventually won that battle at a cost of €75 million, with a little help from the ghost of Johan Cruyff.

"The Netherlands and Barça have a great connection, thanks to Johan Cruyff," De Jong said upon signing for the club.

"Cruyff means the same thing to me as he does to everyone: He was a spectacular player with a lot of talent, and a great person."

By all accounts, the move to Barcelona meant everything to him. Every Cruyff reference you could think of, every murmuring of the threads of destiny, all of it made its way into the announcement.

De Jong was supposed to be their sun, everything would revolve around him once a certain Lionel Messi left. And you could tell he truly believed it, sweet summer child that he was.

Three years and four managers later, here we are.

Here's the lowdown.

Despite a number of "financial levers" (I swear to god, FC Barcelona come up with fancy financial terms every summer to make up for fucking around and finding out), the club are looking to sell De Jong and bring in Robert Lewandowski, who's embroiled in a (very) public saga of his own.

What that means for the makeup of the team is up for debate, but from all the reported murmurings of the transfer window, it appears De Jong doesn't want to leave the club he idolised as a kid, but Barcelona want him to leave anyway, despite the manager wanting him to stay.

Sigh. Such are the machinations of club football. It's sinister, really.

And so, it appears likely that De Jong will be a Man United player by the end of the summer window, playing for his former manager Erik ten Hag, who's been tasked with resurrecting the Red Devils, a completely reasonable task.

And while that agreement is seemingly nearing every hour, De Jong's future is essentially in a state of flux. He's a guardian angel flying into purgatory.

According to Simon Kuper's profile on De Jong for the Financial Times, then club president Josep Bartomeu sold him on the idea of Barcelona by saying:

“If you look for a coach, go with Pep Guardiola, but when he will leave City, I don’t know who is going to be the following coach. If you look for money, go to PSG. You will be a billionaire. But, if you want to enjoy your life for the next 12, 14 years, come to Barcelona.”

Hah!

Just three years after securing his dream move at 22 years of age, De Jong is being pushed out of the club as they look to repent for their litany of financial sins.

When players like De Jong change teams as they're approaching their prime, it's supposed to register in the 8s and 9s on football's Richter scale.

This, alas, is far from that.

What was meant to be a peacock-like spreading of his abilities as a player, is turning into club football's most public eviction notice.

All De Jong can do is stand by and watch as the club makes him pack his shit up and fly to Manchester to be a part of another new dawn.