Bruno Fernandes signed for Man Utd six years ago and he remains as important as ever but his future is once again in the spotlight.
Bruno Fernandes
Bruno Fernandes has just brought up six years at Manchester United
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Michael Carrick was a young coach on the backroom staff at Manchester United when Bruno Fernandes signed for the club in January 2020. Six years on, the then former player and new boy have been reunited as head coach and captain in what is another Old Trafford reset.
Fernandes completed his initial £47million move from Sporting six years ago on Friday and made his debut two days later in a draw with Wolves. Now he is the beating heart of the team and, restored to an attacking midfield role by Carrick, is still proving himself as the club's most important player.
The 31-year-old has 103 goals and 97 assists in 312 games for United, but he came close to leaving last summer when there was interest from the Saudi Pro League. His future is again uncertain heading into this summer.
But Carrick has no doubt how important Fernandes is at Old Trafford, having seen the immediacy of his impact in January 2020 and the quality he still has now that the 44-year-old has returned as the club's sixth head coach since Fernandes joined.
"I've seen the impact he had as soon as he got here. I was obviously here, so I've seen it at close quarters," said Carrick. "He had a huge impact straight away in so many ways. You could see the passion and how much he wanted to do well straight away.
"You've seen the quality and that's carried on all the way through and his consistency really of performances, his level of performances, his willingness to always put himself out there and physically be able to do it. So credit him for it in that respect."
Fernandes has won just two trophies in his six years at United, the Carabao Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup in 2024, and there is no doubt that the quality of his performances deserves more silverware.
He reopened the debate over his future recently, suggesting that United wanted to sell him last summer but lacked the courage to tell him, and that he has a clause in his contract that could see him leave again this year.
Carrick insists the club captain is happy and committed to United at the moment and said any discussion over what comes next will wait until towards the end of the season.
"We all want to win things. We all want to get better. We want to we want to improve as a team," said Carrick. "We want to be successful and that's something we've got to work towards together, but Bruno's been fantastic since I've been here. He was fantastic when I was here before, so I've got nothing but good things to say about him.
"That's not to get too far ahead, you know. That's [his future] on the agenda a little bit, but my main agenda is getting through the game on Sunday with Fulham and Bruno's fully committed.
"There's absolutely no issues at all with that. Things further down the line [will be] addressed towards the end of the season or whatever. But now everything's positive at the moment."