Manchester United have opened internal discussions with Bruno Fernandes as the club seeks to remove uncertainty over the midfielder’s future. The move follows a season in which Fernandes elevated his output, breaking the Premier League single-season assist record with his 21st on the final day of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Reports from Fabrizio Romano indicate United recognise the risk of an exit and have held private talks with the 31-year-old. A release clause of around $77 million (\u00a357 million) remains active in Fernandes’s contract, and the player has attracted interest from Saudi Arabia and across Europe.<\/p>\n
Club officials have made clear they do not want to sell and wish to continue working with Fernandes, who has previously insisted he would happily stay at Old Trafford as long as he is wanted. The coming summer will test that position.<\/p>\n
The case for a sale has centred on finances rather than form. When United struggled under Ruben Amorim last year, few players carried clear transfer value beyond Fernandes, who drew offers from Saudi Arabia worth over $135 million. At that stage a broad squad overhaul appeared likely and Champions League income looked uncertain.<\/p>\n
In the space of a year the picture has changed. United have qualified for Europe and several players who struggled under Amorim have improved under Michael Carrick. The immediate squad concerns that fuelled talk of wholesale rebuilding have receded.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s pressing need is now in defensive midfield after Casemiro\u2019s departure. Targets such as Nottingham Forest\u2019s Elliot Anderson, Brighton & Hove Albion\u2019s Carlos Baleba and Newcastle United\u2019s Sandro Tonali will command large fees, and expenditure last year on Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Senne Lammens limits available funds.<\/p>\n
While selling Fernandes would raise significant money, doing so ahead of a return to the Champions League and after a season that earned him the Premier League Player of the Season award would be difficult to justify. Club decision-makers appear to accept that funds will need to be found elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United have started private talks with Bruno Fernandes to resolve uncertainty around his $77m clause<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,1513],"tags":[1637,342],"class_list":["post-14070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-man-utd-transfer-news","tag-assists","tag-bruno-fernandes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14070","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=14070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}