Manchester United suffer two fresh injury scares ahead of Brighton fixture as one star ruled out
The Man Utd captain has reflected on his time at Old Trafford and revealed how close he came to leaving in the summer.
Bruno Fernandes will make his 300th Manchester United appearance when they face Brighton in the Premier League this weekend. It is approaching six years since he joined the club in the January transfer window of 2020, and yet he remains as integral to the United side as ever, despite a new head coach and a new position.
Fernandes proved his doubters wrong once again as he orchestrated United's famous victory over Liverpool a week ago, but it could have been so different had he left in the summer. The Portugal international held conversations with Saudi club Al-Hilal over a potential transfer and gave it serious consideration.
There were talks with Ruben Amorim, Omar Berrada, and even Cristiano Ronaldo about what he should do. The fact that he and his family are still in Manchester is a testament to his immense talent and how vital he is to their latest attempt at a rebuild at Old Trafford.
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"I spoke with Cristiano about the situation, about Saudi, and everything. I wouldn’t say what he told me, but we spoke about it," Fernandes told reporters at Carrington on the eve of his historic 300th appearance. "Obviously, he now has a manager who also spoke with me at the time (Jorge Jesus). He was at Al Hilal three years ago. The first thing he said to me was, ‘Are you too expensive for the club?’ I said, ‘There is no expensive players for that club!’
"But I told him the same, I wasn’t eager to move, to go to Saudi because I wanted to stay at the club. And he’s a manager I have a big relationship with. He was the one who trusted me to go to Sporting and to play in the biggest stages. But Cristiano told me he had his opinion on what I should do. It was important for me, obviously, with all the experience he has and everything, it was important for me to hear what he thought. But obviously, the decision will always come to me and to the club."
Fernandes did not shy away from the 'massive' offer he received during the half-hour interview, as well as interest from Europe, but is adamant that as long as United wants him, he will remain at the club. Few would begrudge the 31-year-old if he ever did decide to leave Old Trafford, though he insists his sole focus is on making this season a success.
"Everyone knows my aim is to win the Premier League and the Champions League with the club. If I'm going to do it or not, I'm not going to be able to tell you because if I would be able to tell you, I would be very happy at this moment that I know that I'm going to win in some moment in these three years, [that] I'm going to win either the Premier League or the Champions League, but I can't tell that. If that's my aim and also the aim for the club, as they say, that's the truth."
The success of this season will not only dictate whether Fernandes will stay for another year from a sporting sense, but the potential success could also have a financial bearing on the club and determine whether they need to raise precious funds next year. In that situation, Fernandes could be a target for Saudi again.
"The manager spoke with me. He said I was still part of the project. He wanted me to stay. The club said the same. And I always said that if the club was like ‘Bruno, we want to cash in, you are 30 years old. We want to make some money. We don't think you can be part of the future project’ or whatever. I would be like, OK, I have to find a solution for myself, whatever is best for me and my family. And I will leave. But obviously that wasn't the case. I felt that I was still part of the plan, that I could still help the club to achieve whatever was our aims. And that's what made me stay."
There were also conversations with Berrada and Jason Wilcox during the post-season tour of Malaysia, as Al-Hilal rushed to get a deal over the line before they participated in the inaugural Club World Cup.
"Jason said, like Omar said, we won't say no, but obviously we want you to stay at the club. But if you want to go, we won't say that it's not a good offer for us, because it's massive money.
"The club's last biggest sale was probably £20m for Daniel James, I'm not very sure. Scott (McTominay) went above that. But to go from that to the big amount that Al-Hilal was … they could offer £80-100m. They were more than eager to pay for the player to go. And from there on, I spoke with the manager also. I said, ‘look, this is what I have. This is the offer I have on the table. I have to think about if the club says we want you to go because we want to get a different player. We need money to get more players or whatever’. That was not the case from the club. They always said to me that they would buy, they would reinforce the team, and they wanted players.
"The manager said to me, like, ‘no, we want more players to help you to become a better team, so we don't want you to go, because then if we bring some people and then we lose you, we're still going to lose something’."
Amorim was backed with over £200 million in the summer window, as United refreshed their attack with the additions of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko. It was the type of backing Fernandes wanted to see, though it also meant he would have to adopt a new role in the United side and drop deeper to accommodate their new star signings.
"I think at this club, every time I spoke with anyone, they were asking we need to sign good players. We need to sign big characters, not good players, because at this club, being good players sometimes is not enough because of the pressure, because of the attention we get.
"I think we brought in players are very aware of the dimension of the club. Cunha has that good arrogance to do the good things and the right things. Bryan, also the same. He's not afraid to take the ball, to do his play, to do his things. We brought two players who were aware of the Premier League. Then we brought a very young goalkeeper and a centre-forward, they hit the ground running.
"Obviously, we know Ben will be judged by scoring goals or not. But a part of that, he's been doing great, whatever he's being asked to do. He's got his goals already, and I think now it's going to come more and more because he's more than capable of scoring goals. Senne came probably with the intention of being the number one. He had to wait for his moment. The moment came and he was ready for that.
"So this is what this club is about. You come, the moment will be there straightaway, and you have to take it. I think these four players were very good in taking that opportunity of ‘I want to be the one that is playing every week’."
Fernandes might have to wait a while longer if he is to achieve his dream of a Premier League or Champions League triumph with United, but if they can play like they did at Anfield last week, with him at the heart of their revamped squad, it might not be so far away.
Most important, though, is the happiness of his friends and family. If his career ended now, Fernandes would soon be sitting in a coffee shop with his father, looking back at just how far he has come and just how much he has achieved.
As for his long-term plans, it is down to United to match the elite mentality and ambition of their modern superstar. "As I've always said, I feel good here. I want to achieve my dreams still. But obviously, I can't talk by the side of the club. I've seen a lot of news. I've seen a lot of people talking that I had an agreement to go already next season.
"If the club has done that agreement, it wasn't made with me. So I haven't spoken with anyone. I could tell you that there are still people talking to me and saying that they will be very eager to have me next year, of course. But from my side, that's not talked about. Because my agent also knows how I work, if he wants to talk to me, it will be after the World Cup. Because until then, I won't speak to anyone."
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