Manchester United’s most unexpected transfer saga of the summer window involved their captain Bruno Fernandes who was the subject of interest from Al-Hilal.
The Saudi Pro League club were willing to break the bank for Bruno Fernandes, much to the tension and frustration of many Man Utd fans.
However, Fernandes further solidified his legacy at Old Trafford by rejecting the move, albeit with a hidden message to Man Utd.
Now, Al-Hilal CEO Esteve Calzada has broken his silence on his club’s transfer chase of Fernandes that ended in failure. He made a clear point.
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Al-Hilal CEO on Bruno Fernandes transfer
Al-Hilal were extremely ambitious in the early part of the transfer window in their bid to make a statement signing before the Club World Cup.
Coincidentally, a window that started with ambition for them ended in borderline embarrassment, as Fernandes was followed by Theo Hernandez and Victor Osimhen in rejecting Al-Hilal.
Their strategy of going for elite players remained consistent but the growing trend of players rejecting the Saudi Pro League was supercharged by Fernandes.
However, speaking to BBC, club CEO Esteve Calzada remained undeterred in his pursuit and vision for the club.
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He said: “I cannot confirm nor deny that we’ve been interested in him [Fernandes]. He’s a big player, it fits the profile of a player that we think would be good for Al-Hilal, just like many others. We’re not refraining from contacting players because we feel they would say no to us.
“The names we are linked with demonstrate the ambition of the club. We believe that we are in a position to pitch [to] any players nowadays.”
Man Utd missed the Saudi train
Bruno Fernandes is a player who the Saudi Pro League was interested in but United didn’t want to sell, and that will hurt the club because they’ve missed the Saudi train.
When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr, the Saudi Pro League went into overdrive and made various moves for players that didn’t make sporting sense.
At that time, many clubs in Europe managed to offload their high-earning underachievers for an unexpectedly big fee, taking advantage of the Saudi Pro League’s desperation to make a splash.
Now that they’ve got their house in order to some extent, even they are not willing to splurge on players who don’t make much sense from a sporting perspective.
It is likely that three years ago, United would have been easily able to shift someone like Casemiro or Jadon Sancho, which looks impossible now.
It’s another area to thank the Glazers for and a mess inherited by Ineos. United did their best impression of a Saudi club when they needed to be the ones selling to them.
Now they’re stuck with a huge wage bill and zero contribution to show for it.