On his current contract yes
Bruno Fernandes Out?
- Thread starter Berbaclass
- Start date
On his current contract yes
Where does it say they have offered 100M for him? Am I missing something?
Yup. If not then it's Mount or search for perfect system player.
Is there any reliable source for him wanting a new contract?
If true, that would be very silly. He got a new contract only two years ago that could run till 2027.
If true, that would be very silly. He got a new contract only two years ago that could run till 2027.
Unsure if it sensible to sell him this summer - assuming we can't replace him straight away with someone like Musiala or Wirtz (which is completely unrealistic). Why not wait the first year of INEOS and reconsider next summer?
There are so many players we should sell before Bruno...
There are so many players we should sell before Bruno...
Once the likes of Casemiro, Varane and Sancho are moved on Fernandes will only be behind Rashford as our top earner and whilst he finished the season well 3/4 of the season were far from acceptable.
I think he has two years left so unless the Saudi club want to pay in excess of £100 million for our club captain then it won’t happen and our players will need to understand that the days of being heavily rewarded financially for mediocrity over a whole season are over.
I’m not against selling the whole squad outside of Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund though so if a Saudi offer in excess of £100 million which is paid in one go as all Saudi transfers are then we’d be silly to not accept and would allow us to move away from being stuck in a 4-2-3-1 and being a lot more tactically flexible.
I think he has two years left so unless the Saudi club want to pay in excess of £100 million for our club captain then it won’t happen and our players will need to understand that the days of being heavily rewarded financially for mediocrity over a whole season are over.
I’m not against selling the whole squad outside of Mainoo, Garnacho and Hojlund though so if a Saudi offer in excess of £100 million which is paid in one go as all Saudi transfers are then we’d be silly to not accept and would allow us to move away from being stuck in a 4-2-3-1 and being a lot more tactically flexible.
Why? He has at most 3-5 years at the top level. People act like football is purely a sport. If another employer offered you triple your salary, you would move.
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A sort of what?
If it's true that he wants a new contract then I'm glad we're not giving him one right now. I love the guy and he has been a machine for years but that's what worries me. There's a risk that he'll spontaneously combust after being overworked for so long and then we'll be left with yet another situation where we have a very highly paid player, with years left on their contract, counting down the days until they get taken to the glue factory.
Some absolutely clueless takes in this thread.
What a player.
What a player.
Some gems from earlier in this thread
He is the worst captain we've had. (Along with Maguire)
Bruno is easily our best player
If we build a new, young team he'll be our new Cantona for the kids
If we build a new, young team he'll be our new Cantona for the kids
Usual suspects...
For him to have a good game and for us not to be exposed defensively from his positional ill discipline, he had to play false 9.
Unless that is the future there is no building around him. The structure of the team has to improve and that means he has to leave the midfield otherwise we will continue to lose the midfield battle. He is the reason for McFred.
I don't think it's a bad opinion at all to admit that whilst Bruno has been an incredible player for us, he's soon turning 30 and a big money offer would seriously have to be considered.
However, underrating him to the point where posters claim he can never even be part of a title race, and that he's a problem, and an overrated mediocre player is just silly.
It's also a myth that he cannot be part of a possession-based system. He will carry out the tactical instructions if the manager tells him to keep the ball and keep the creativity more controlled, like how Odegaard plays in Arsenal. However, we've been a transition-heavy team the whole time Bruno's been here and he's one of the biggest reasons why we've always been deadly at them.
If anything, he would have even more goal contributions in a City or Arsenal side, where they have more possession and his job would be easier IMO. Or imagine how many assists he could rack up at Bayern in the Bundesliga, or at Madrid/Barcelona in La Liga. Would be scary.
Instead of being a “told you so” merchant and quoting posts en mass, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong with my post? I still stand by it.
It would be interesting to know what the contract issue is. If it’s more money surely you can add extra clauses based on performances but extra time is the thing I feel the club is wary of, he’s under contract until he’s 32.
For starters, thinking that players will just leave if a big offer comes in for them. Bruno has never been made available for transfer at United, and neither has he expressed any desire to leave. Add to that that he's been a well-paid and crucial player for a top 3 biggest club in the world, which club did you expect to come in with a huge bid for him? We aren't a stepping stone club, and players don't move to Manchester United for the short-term, unless they're well into their 30s and/or clearly aren't good enough to be a long-term player for us, like Weghorst or Ighalo. The only two clubs in the world that could've tempted him IMO are Barcelona and Real Madrid, but they haven't exactly been swimming in riches lately, and just because they haven't expressed serious interest in him, that doesn't mean he's not good enough for them. Bruno also joined just before Covid as well, and even the likes of Barca or Real wouldn't have been able to afford him in 2020 or 2021, for example. Bruno also hasn't expressed a desire to eventually leave, like Hazard, Rüdiger, Lewandowski, and other high profile signings the two Spanish giants have made in the last 5 years.
Why did no one try to buy Mbappé other than Real Madrid? Why has no one tried to get Rodri or any key player out of Man City? Why did no one bid for Mané until the player himself specifically told Liverpool that he wants to begin a new chapter in his career? It doesn't work like that. And I can mention many more examples. Leao seems content at Milan, hence there not being dozens of clubs offering 9 figures for him. De Jong at Barca, etc. Sporting wise, City are more attractive than us at the moment, but Manchester United aren't just a stepping stone club either, we've never been that. We're one of the biggest destinations for players in world football even in these last 11 years. Players also each have their own preferences. We're probably lucky that Bruno truly loves United and probably wouldn't be interested in the likes of PSG or Bayern Munich. Italian teams cannot really afford him. Going to United from Sporting isn't like going to Dortmund, or Tottenham, unless your ultimate goal as a player is Real Madrid or Barcelona. Bruno doesn't seem to be that guy, though.
If he did want to leave, there would suddenly be a lot of interest in him, I can guarantee you that.
The points you make regarding how he disrupts any kind of game-plan or that he's just having a purple patch is just baseless, so I won't go into that deeply.
Edit: You need to consider in the case of the two Spanish giants, that the only two big money transfer fees Madrid have paid in the last 4 years are Tchouameni for 80m euros and Bellingham for 103m. Mbappé's sign-on bonus will be the third time they truly splash the cash since Covid. Barcelona has been even more modest on the transfer market since 2020.
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"To accommodate him, the manager has to throw any collective game-plan out of the window"
Sorry but this is simply incorrect and also laughable given what happened yesterday.
"He has frustrated more often than not"
is also untrue and an example of confirmation bias on your part.
Fair post, would say Real did try to get Mbappe for 200 million, but PSG obviously got him to sign that crazy contract.
I think some of the posts earlier in the thread were justified, for 50-60% of the season Bruno was poor, the last couple of months and yesterday especially he was fantastic, but this could be said of the majority of the team.
I still feel if a crazy offer came in of say 100 million, we should still cash in as it’s good business and we could reinvest it into someone like Wirtz (the dream) potentially.
I probably also wouldn't use the wording of the other poster because it sounds way too absolute to have connections to real life but using yesterdays game as counter argument is also probably not the best idea. I mean, our gameplan was very effective and all and we won deservedly but we don't want that to be the template going forward, don't we?
Thanks for replying to my post with good intentions.
I don’t want to draw false equivalence with top 4-5 players in the world and their clubs are regularly playing CL and competing for top honours unlike Bruno’s club. He may not want to leave (even though the media narrative at that time was to the contrary) but the reality is that he will never have the same influence at a CL club as of today. Neither of us know if there will be interest from CL clubs if he is suddenly in the market but my guess is still no.
If you call video evidence baseless then I will not debate that point with you. Game after game, we have seen this season that he does disrupt game plans. It is not necessarily a bad thing because we need mavericks who can create something out of nothing and he has saved us with his individual brilliance from time to time. But this season our lack of coherence has resulted us finishing 8th and clearly he was part of the problem.
Part of it could be him being played lower down the pitch and him being knackered but that’s part of the problem too that he is undroppable, even when he has no gas left in the tank. He has almost 0 competition for his place too.
He is actually one of my favourite players but if we need to beat the likes of City at their game, we need more coherence and system players who are consistent across the length of an entire season.
A 100 million offer would most certainly be considered. Would be foolish not to even entertain the idea of selling him in that case. My issue is with how severely some posters underrate him as a player.
Is it so? For this season? Maybe we were watching different games then but let’s agree to disagree. Frustration is subjective. For me, he has frustrated more often than not this season.
While that is probably mostly true, we also have to make sure that we don't cling onto truths, that may or may not don't apply anymore. We surely have been a destination still but probably mostly for the wrong reasons, like handing out fat contracts and being lax in terms of deadwood and underperformance. The best players make moves that help them adding to their trophy cabinet and/or for the money. Manchester United offered only one of that.
Don't get me wrong, overall I agree with your post. I just think that some of the things you list aren't laws of nature, they were/are correct for reasons of success but as the success fades away, some of the things will fade away too. United mostly tried to tackle that by handing out more and more money, which didn't work.
While being a legit standpoint, I am sure you agree when someones says that your guarantee doesn't really carry much more weight then the opinion from another person who thinks there is no interest in him. (And no, I am not that person, I think, there would be interest in him but probably not as much as some people think. But thats were debating becomes a bit pointless as nobody can know those things for sure)
We finished 8th. Do you realise that? You are going to use one cup final game where players were pumped and wanted to salvage a horrendous season as proof that supersedes what we have seen game after game this season?
If yes, then let’s agree to disagree.
I think pretending that Bruno has performed like this all season is much worse than the posters who have rightfully criticised him. He has switched between being very bad and mediocre for the majority of the season, and been very good to excellent these last three months.
He has benefitted extremely from not playing three games a week, and we absolutely can't do that next season. He needs to be rotated, or we'll run him into the ground and he'll just be another Eriksen/Özil etc within a year or two. High energy players like Bruno who play almost every game can regress very quick, as seen with Rooney previously, Kanté recently and now Casemiro.
He has benefitted extremely from not playing three games a week, and we absolutely can't do that next season. He needs to be rotated, or we'll run him into the ground and he'll just be another Eriksen/Özil etc within a year or two. High energy players like Bruno who play almost every game can regress very quick, as seen with Rooney previously, Kanté recently and now Casemiro.
He's been poor by his standards this season, but we're not just talking about this season are we?
Don't worry, me quoting back older posts is often just banter, although I do heavily disagree with all the posts I quoted back in this thread.
By the way, it has been reported that Inter and Bayern are interested in Bruno if he was to leave this summer. Whether those reports are reliable or not, I think Bruno would be a very influential player at Bayern in the #10 behind Kane, and he would pretty much be Inter's best player if he went there. The latter wouldn't be able to pay a hefty transfer fee and make him their best paid player at the same time, though. So I disagree that he wouldn't have the influence he has at United at a club that's regularly in the CL. He would also be PSG's main man post-Mbappé, as I don't see another attacking player in that squad who's more influential and clutch than him.
I still don't believe he disrupts things. He's obviously tasked with taking a lot of risk and creating big chances for the players around him. If he was at City, Pep would task him with way more ball retention and he would have a higher pass completion percentage, in exchange for less chances created. A lot depends on what you're asking from your players. I really don't buy this notion that Bruno is somehow incapable of keeping the ball or he's just straight up disobeying the manager's instructions, similarly how I don't believe Rashford can be one of the first names on the team sheet for ETH and previous managers as well, despite apparently not tracking back enough out of possession every game. Not every player is tasked to do that at all times, in order to preserve energy and to already be in advanced positions up the pitch when we win the ball back.
Well, not against most teams, but which teams managed to overcome City or any Guardiola team in the last 15 years by not taking a defensive-minded, organized approach that concedes possession and relies on counter-attacks and transitions? Maybe Enrique's Barcelona in 2015 (and how many all-timers, and previously Guardiola-coached players did they need for that?), but other than that, the first teams that come to mind are Mourinho's Madrid, Mourinho's Inter, Madrid this season, basically every team in the CL in the last 5 years, Ole's United, ETH's United, etc. Klopp's Liverpool was probably the closest team to being an even match for City, but away from home they also usually let City have the ball and dictate the game. All the others I mentioned beat or knocked out City by a very pragmatic approach that relied on pacey, transitional monster players with incredible individual brilliance up front
I agree with you, but in these 11 years of struggle we've still qualified for the CL most of the time, won the Europa League, won the FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield two times each, and had two second place finishes. It's not what United and their fans consider real success, but we didn't fade away to the extent that AC Milan did, for example. It also massively helps that we are playing in the de facto Super League with very high revenues, and we are able to compete with anyone in the transfer market, not to mention that returning Manchester United to the top of club football isn't just the biggest challenge in football for managers, it's also one of the most exciting and most prestigious projects for players. Casemiro is a good example of that as I really don't believe he only came the money, because he could've had that somewhere else too.
As I said, I don't think it is wrong to set up like this - but it still isn't a template. How many games per season are there against City? Not too many. And we already have been at a point where we were compact and good on the counter under Ole... And ran into a brick wall because while it can be an effective game plan, it isn't cutting it anymore agains the best teams in the world and in the Premier League over the course of a season. It isn't a deliberate decision that Liverpool, Arsenal and City play differently. This is the template we have to get to. Again, not the slightest issue with making use of it in a final or an important one-off game. But we shouldn't draw the wrong conclusions from it.
I agree with most of it. I just think that the acquisitions of Varane and Casemiro are indicators of what has been going wrong. Both players were great and when they joined, they were on big money and in the case of Casemiro on a pretty long contract as well. This is something, that probably wouldn't even had happened under SAF.
Overall of course: we are far from oblivion but this limited success came for huge outlays. Spending crazy amounts in wages for players or fees. Our behaviour therefor might be a reason that Brunos now is trying to force an extention with wage increase as well. Why wouldn't they - over the last years, we made such mistakes on a regular basis. Over the years, players were able to have it quite comfortable here, everything is true in your post but we shouldn't ignore that.
Bruno not being capable of keeping the ball has nothing to do with tactical set up, it has to do with what qualities he has. You can't just put any player into City's team and they will magically be a possession player. City buy the players they do because they have certain qualities.
Bruno has a lot of qualities, but he lacks important ones you need to be a midfielder for City. If De Bruyne's only real quality was creating chances and vision, he would not play for City.
Bruno does not have body strength or press resistance to protect the ball and he doesn't have the ability to use his body to manipulate the ball, make body feints or drive forward with the ball like City's midfielders do.
Bruno would definitely have better numbers for City, but like I asked in another thread; would he improve the team? The goal of a signing should be to improve the team, not just improve personal output. Haaland scores a ridiculous amount of goals, but I wouldn't say he made City better. In fact, I think they got worse.
I also noticed you mentioned you disagree with all the posts you quoted, and a few of them said Ødegaard was the better footballer. Do you think Bruno is a better footballer than Ødegaard?
Well they're wrong then
Love Bruno, so really hope he's here next season
The statement and his performance yesterday. Just earned himself a new contract.
Maybe just maybe coming 8th wasn't down to Bruno but more to injuries, stubborn management and others like Rashy and Casemiro dropping off an absolute cliff.
Absolutely correct