Michael Carrick is clear about his immediate priorities with Bruno Fernandes as the midfielder approaches the final year of his Manchester United contract. The manager expects continuity and has signalled the club\u2019s desire to keep a player who has become central to the dressing room.<\/p>\n
Carrick was blunt when asked whether Fernandes would still be at the club for the start of the 2026\u201327 season. “I\u2019ve got no reason to think otherwise.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve loved what he\u2019s done, and he loves being here. I think you can see that. He\u2019s such an influence for us. He\u2019s been the captain and led by example in different ways. He wants to stay on every single game because he\u2019s enjoying his football, which is fantastic.”<\/p>\n
Fernandes will turn 32 in September and has voiced his awareness of how age is viewed in English football. “In England,” he fretted earlier this season, “when a player starts to approach 30, they start to think they need to remodel. It\u2019s like the furniture.” That reality shapes the negotiating backdrop ahead of planned talks.<\/p>\n
Talks over a new deal are expected to occur over the coming weeks, BBC Sport report. Manchester United are thought to have the option of unilaterally extending Fernandes\u2019s existing contract for an extra year but, heading towards the World Cup, United\u2019s best player is set to be a free agent by the end of next season.<\/p>\n
With the exit of Casemiro, Fernandes stands alone as the club\u2019s top earner. His salary was inflated to somewhere in the region of $470,000 per week following the club\u2019s return to Champions League competition. That places him among the Premier League\u2019s best paid players, and any further increase would represent a major financial commitment.<\/p>\n
The relevant question for United is not whether Fernandes merits an extension; that is evident. The issue is whether the club can be confident “Will Fernandes be worth the millions he earns by the end of whatever new deal he is offered?” The article notes similar dilemmas elsewhere, where big short-term deals have carried long-term risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick says Fernandes is likely to stay as contract talks begin; wage and value questions persist .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1148,1083,1513],"tags":[983,342],"class_list":["post-14048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highest-paid-players","category-man-utd","category-man-utd-transfer-news","tag-agents","tag-bruno-fernandes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}