Bruno Fernandes has given an insight into the conversations he held with Manchester United’s football director and technical director before signing a new deal with the club in 2022.
At the time of the talks, in April 2022, interim manager Ralf Rangnick was in charge of the club and was seeing out United’s worst Premier League season to date. Morale, results and work ethic amongst the squad were at an all-time low.
Fast-forward to now and things have changed significantly; Erik ten Hag has the side playing outstanding football, in all competitions and has bolstered positions that had been crying out for signings for several years. United have picked up 20 wins this season so far, which is all that they managed across the 2021/2022 campaign. Ten Hag also became the fastest manager to hit 20 victories, doing so in only 27 matches.
He has set a new standard of discipline in Manchester and has the Old Trafford faithful feeling as optimistic as ever that he is the man to bring the glory days back to M16.
United’s No.8 will be more than thankful he stayed, as he has unsurprisingly continued being the key man at the heart of the Reds’ midfield under the new manager.
He often dons the captain’s armband given the frequent absences of Harry Maguire and is a fan-favourite amongst the United faithful for his leadership, creativity, pressing, passion for the club and contributions in both attack and defence.
Luckily for fans, he penned a four-year deal in 2022 that keeps him at the club until 2026.
Fernandes contemplated his future at United
It wasn’t that easy of a decision for him to make, though.
Speaking to The Athletic, the 28-year-old reflected on the talks he held with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher last year. He said: “I always said, it’s such an honour and a dream come true (to play for this club). But obviously I came to the club and my aim is winning trophies, because I know how big this club is and I know how big we can still be and achieve good things and big things.
“So I had a conversation last year with the club when everyone knew that Ralf (Rangnick) was not the coach for the future and when the club decides that I spoke to the club and I said I want to be a solution for the club, I want to be helpful for the club, but I also want to know where we are going. Is there a plan, is there a future? This was before I signed my new contract because I said to the club, obviously money is important, no one can hide that, it’s always important to earn more and more and more in football or life, whatever job you do, you always want to have the best for yourself.
“But at that time, for me I said I’m on good money, I don’t want a new contract without knowing that we have a good future in the club. I want to know where we are going, I don’t need to know who the manager is, but I want to know just as a club, do you think we have a future? Do you have a plan for the future? What are your thoughts on where we can go? What does the club want? Does the club want to achieve trophies or does the club want to build something to go to the Champions League?
“Because for me, that’s not enough and the club demands more, the history of this club, the quality of the players we have, it demands more than just being here and fighting for fourth place. It demands trophies, it demands at least fighting for trophies. We don’t have to win all the trophies but we have to fight for the trophies and as a club and the quality of players, we have the quality to do that and we’ve been showing that, so I just want to know if this is the future.
“And the club has said they have a plan, this is what they want, we agree with you that the level of the club has to be better than it has been in the past, we can achieve much more, we can do much more and that’s why I have never had my head out of here but just making sure the club is still in the same direction that it was when I signed.
“(I spoke to) John (Murtough) and Darren Fletcher because they’re the people who are closer for the players to talk to. So that was the conversation I had with them, to understand that the aim for the club is still the same they said to me when I signed in 2020.”
