Bruno Fernandes delivered a withering assessment of Manchester United\u2019s leadership after insisting the club\u2019s directors wanted him sold last summer but \u201cdid not have the courage\u201d to complete the deal. The captain said the only reason he remained at Old Trafford was the backing of head coach R\u00faben Amorim, whose admiration for the playmaker is encapsulated in a declared transfer aim: “We need more Brunos.”<\/p>\n
Fernandes told Canal 11, a report relayed by Maisfutebol, that he could have engineered an exit in the same manner as other players. “I could have left as many people do and said: \u2018I want to leave, I don\u2019t want to train, I just want to leave for \u20ac20 or \u20ac30 million, so that they pay me more on the other side.\u2019 But I never did,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added: “I never felt in a position to do it, because I thought the empathy and affection that I had for the club were the same. But it comes to a point where, for them, money is more important than anything. The club wanted me to go, I have that in my head. I said that to the directors, but I think they did not have the courage to make this decision, because the coach wanted me. If I had said I wanted to leave, they would have let me go.”<\/p>\n
The timing of the dispute coincided with reports that Al Hilal offered a \u00a3100 million fee for the midfielder, a sum that would have helped United rebuild after a season in which the club failed to qualify for any European competition. United ultimately kept Fernandes and spent around \u00a3200 million on a new frontline, though the squad still requires further reinforcements in midfield and defence.<\/p>\n
Fernandes spoke candidly about his standing inside the club: “As long as you don’t win trophies, you’re not valued as much, regardless of the club and league you\u2019re in,” and “The question of loyalty is not seen as before.” He said his decision to remain was influenced by family and the coach: “I decided [to stay], also because of the family issue, but for genuinely liking the club.”<\/p>\n
He confirmed ongoing interest from Saudi Arabia, recalling contact from Al Hilal and figures connected to Jorge Jesus and R\u00faben Neves: “The president of Al Hilal spoke to me, he called me directly,” and “R\u00faben Neves sent me a message saying he wanted to talk to me.” On the emotional toll, he concluded: “I do my best. Then you see things around you, players who don\u2019t value the club so much and don\u2019t defend the club so much … that makes you sad.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bruno Fernandes says club directors wanted him gone and lacked ‘courage’ to complete a sale. Lastly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1163],"tags":[342,1006,986],"class_list":["post-5145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-transfers","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-captaincy","tag-contract-standoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145","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=5145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}