The modern Reds all remember when Bruno Fernandes signed for Manchester United.
He was the latest in a series of transfer sagas drawn out before the inevitable trigger pull from Ed Woodward and the Glazers, and unlike many of those it paid off.
Bruno was putting on a show from his first few matches and keeping us all glued to our screens during Lockdown.
There is no other way to describe Bruno at that time than Box Office.
It’s sad to think a whole year of his best football had to be played behind closed doors, but it’s even more sad to think why. It was a time of fear and panic during the pandemic, a time when many people experienced loss and longing for better, safer times. Bruno Fernandes helped many of us United fans through that, and he helped inspire hope in the change that was happening at the club under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
A little under a year after his arrival, I welcomed a new companion into my life. A small, scared little brown and black cat with white boots. He was one of a litter of kittens from cats left abandoned at a property that was purchased by a friend of a friend, and when word got to me that they were looking for safe and caring homes, I decided to volunteer to take one in.
He spent much of his first week in his new home, understandably scared, hiding under furniture and running away from me and my roommates. He spent much of the time hidden under my bed.
On the first weekend when he felt a bit more adventurous, Manchester United played Liverpool in the FA Cup, Bruno Fernandes marked the almost anniversary of his arrival with the winning goal against our biggest rivals.
I must admit, I was already fond of the name Bruno for my new friend, but when I walked back into my room after the game and saw him resting comfortably on top of the bed instead of under it, I made up my mind.
From then on, his name was Bruno.
Yes, he’s a Red too.
Bruno the cat
He became my favorite desk buddy, my favorite keyboard stomper, my favorite armchair hogger, my favorite laser chaser and furniture scratcher. My pal, my homeboy, my rotten soldier, my sweet cheese.
“Hey, down in front!”
I had plenty of people think it was a reference to “We don’t talk about Bruno,” and all of those people then got a lesson on who Bruno Fernandes was, the new talisman of Manchester United who was going to lead us to glory.
Until he didn’t.
The Solskjaer project unraveled, the ten Hag project unraveled, and now, five years on from Bruno’s arrival, there was suddenly debate over whether it was worth it to keep him in the team. Was he still the unsellable talisman in this changing team, or a relic of a failed project?
Last year, Bruno the cat suddenly went missing after being let outside accidentally while maintenance work was being done. I spent the following days switching between panic and depression, to determination to find him. I had no concern about any of my work, only finding him. It was a foreign state to me, facing the unknown of his whereabouts and well-being while being powerless to do anything more than put up posters and spread the word.
It was an experience that I don’t wish on anyone, but thankfully, it had a happy ending.
Bruno came home a week later, meowing in a panic at the door after finding his way home, and he slept like a rock, finally safe again in the bed that was once his panic shelter.
The idea of letting him go was incomprehensible. If he hadn’t found his own way home, I’d still be here, hoping that he’d walk back up and I’d hear his squeaky meow again.
Bruno is back in his spot on my desk as I write this, and he is probably why I felt so compelled to reflect on the ordeal on today of all days, as his namesake announced his intent to stay at Manchester United.
I had no intention of reliving the trauma of almost losing him forever when I began the day, but I say all of this not only to demonstrate why Bruno the football and Bruno the cat are forever linked for me, but to highlight the power that hope has on us. As United fans, we all hope for the return of glory, of trophies, of identity, of pride, and through Bruno, we’ve had a glimpse at that. He is the sort of player who would have a role in any of the great Manchester United sides, and was nearly the driving force of the next great United side. Maybe we should let it go and fund a new team, but for now, we can still hope that Bruno’s hands will be the ones to lift the next trophy.
Bruno the footballer is still magnificent. You could see as much in the way that he propelled United through the UEFA Europa League and into the final in Bilbao, where the Reds unfortunately fell as flat as you could in a final. It wasn’t a great game from Bruno either, who struggled along with the rest of the team against a packed Spurs side with no intention of risking their precious lead by leaving space.
After all, Bruno is most dangerous when there is space to attack, but that is no longer the preferred method of attack for United.
In that regard, there is a rightful question of his role in a practical sense in Amorim’s squad. There is, however, no question of his quality and where he ranks in that regard in Amorim’s squad.
Bruno the footballer is still the leader at Manchester United, the one who hasn’t been sacked or sold, or loaned away throughout the many changes at the club.
The decision was his; he could have gone to Al-Hilal and made his great-great-grandchildren wealthy, but he knew where home was and where he could continue his career on his terms.
“I want to play at the highest possible level,” he said on Tuesday. “I want to play major competitions. I know I still can, and I want to be happy doing the thing I love the most. For better or worse, this is how I see football, and I’m passionate about football, and this is the decision I’ve made.”
On the podcast this week, recorded before the news that he would stay, Nathan, Pauly and I discussed the positives of letting Bruno go, and from an emotional standpoint it would have marked the end of a team and project we wanted to see succeed more than anything, to revive this big, beautiful, stupid club that led all of us to writing blog posts and subjecting ourselves to torture every week. Bruno is a big part of that, and will remain a big part of that for better or worse.
Maybe we should be ready to let go, no matter how much it will hurt, but even if we do, there is always a hope that we hold onto that things will come together. We hope that Manchester United will play like Manchester United again someday, and just maybe Bruno will still be here and play his part when that happens.