Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DUO COST HOLL LOT MORE NOW
United’s top targets Gakpo and De Jong add millions to value
FROM SIMON MULLOCK in Doha CODY GAKPO and Frenkie De Jong could have been playing for Manchester United if Eric ten Hag had got his way.
Now the dynamic Dutch duo are spearheading their country’s World Cup bid.
Gakpo, the 23-year-old who is being taught the goalscorer’s art at PSV Eindhoven by ex-united striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, kept himself in the frame for the Golden Boot by scoring for a third successive match.
And De Jong, the Barcelona midfielder, who was chased following Ten Hag’s arrival as manager last summer, also got on the scoresheet as Louis van Gaal’s side secured top spot in Group A.
United would not pay the £40million it would have taken to buy Gakpo, with Leeds also seriously interested.
Now, it will cost both clubs a lot more, especially if he returns from Qatar as top scorer.
Van Nistelrooy, who is now the club’s senior coach, started working with Gakpo in the PSV academy.
There was more than a passing resemblance to the man who scored 150 goals during his time at Old Trafford in the way Gakpo swapped passes with Davy Klassen in the 26th minute to elegantly glide forward and find the bottom corner from 18 yards.
De Jong sealed Qatar’s fate four minutes after halftime (right) when he fired into the roof of the net, after Memphis Depay’s close-range effort had been brilliantly saved by Meshaal Barsham.
The midfielder was Ten Hag’s No.1 target but refused to give up on the small fortune Barcelona owed him in deferred wages.
Van Gaal’s delight at going through to the knockout stages was tempered when a journalist described watching Holland as being like “grinding your teeth”.
The 71-year-old coach said: “Well that’s disappointing... but I don’t agree with you.
“Everyone would be rather proud that we’re progressing to the next round and people know why you’re asking these questions.
“I don’t think things are as bad as you say.
“Of course you can give your opinion. But I don’t agree with you and I’m not going to expand on that.
“You have a different perspective to me. Why don’t you write down
‘it’s terribly boring’. If you think it’s boring why don’t you go home?”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino was in the posh seats to see Qatar make history by officially becoming the worst team to host the World Cup.
One goal and zero points is not much of a return on a £200billion investment.
Coach Felix Sanchez said: “Talking about statistics you can use them as you want.
“The reality is we are a country with 6,000 players, so this was a likely situation.
“We never thought to set a goal of getting to the round of 16 or the quarter-finals. We wanted to see what we could do.”