BRUNO FERNANDES

by Jude Cauchi

The January transfer window of this year, in contrast to the previous seasons seems to have brought some hope for Manchester United supporters. As a matter of fact, the club managed to conclude deals for the long awaited Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes as well as Nigerian striker Ighalo. Whilst the stakeholders associated with Manchester United hope that both signings turn out to be a success, there are much higher expectations with the former and hopefully Bruno can help the team to continue the rebuilding process.

Throughout the years, Manchester United have always had dominant midfield players within their ranks, these come in the names of Duncan Edwards, George Best, Brian Robson, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Michael Carrick and

Darren Fletcher amongst other legends who served the club so well in the past. In fact, such glorious and prestigious history means that no matter which player comes to play for the club in those positions, he will always be compared to such giants and therefore makes it very challenging to cope with the pressure of playing for the biggest club in the world. Hence, it is not surprising that during the last seasons, so many players have come to try and fill the void in that area but most of these players failed to live up to their expectations.

In life, there are always lessons which one can learn, and hopefully this new recruitment strategy at United will help players to settle more quickly. Recently, Jamie Redknapp claimed that Manchester United have a recent record of turning good players into bad ones and in spite of his Liverpool links, the pundit has a point here especially when one analyses the careers at Old Trafford of Angel Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, Memphis Depay, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez. More recently this season though, although there is still much room for improvement, the new signings in the summer have had a positive start to their careers and long may that continue. So far in 2020, the results have not been positive for Manchester United with defeats against Arsenal, Liverpool and Burnley as well having exited the Carabao Cup with some fans feeling that was the only chance to lift silverware this season. On the other hand, despite positive results against Norwich, Manchester City plus Wolves and Tranmere Rovers in the FA Cup, many will point out that some of the current players in the team are not good enough to play for Manchester United and therefore it is imperative that players with the quality of Bruno Fernandes are secured for the present and the future.

In consistency with such an approach, the latest signing had a positive debut in the Premier League match against Wolves, and most supporters felt that he produced a man of the match performance with his touches, passing and shooting, and on another day, he could have also registered a goal. Additionally, one needs to look at things holistically and see how the player would perform with more quality besides him especially given the current injuries of Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay and the controversial figure Paul Pogba who looks certain to leave Old Trafford in the summer. Moreover, a positive aspect that should make supporters feel confident is the fact that Sporting Lisbon players have tended to do well for Manchester United throughout the years.

A quick look at the Portuguese roots, the player was born on the 8 th September 1994 in Porto. Despite his Portuguese origins and spending his youth days playing for Boavista FC, the player commenced his professional career in Italy where he represented Novara Calcio in Serie B and helped them to fight for promotion. The following year in 2013 the player made another significant step in his career by joining Serie A club Udinese where he scored in two consecutive matches against Napoli. In total he made 95 appearances for the Italian club scoring 11 goals in the process. Moreover, he also moved on loan to Sampdoria in the summer of 2016 and in total he registered 5 goals in 35 appearances for the club.

Despite the importance of this experience in Fernandes’ career, his return to Portuguese football in 2017 cannot be underestimated. As a matter of fact, after joining Sporting Lisbon in June 2017, the midfielder’s career took a turn for the better since Fernandes played a vital role in the team which helped him not only to win the Player of the year on a couple of occasions (including the 2017-18 Europa League Squad of the Season) but also to become an important player in the Portugal national team and be included in the UEFA Nations League Finals Team of the Tournament in 2019. In addition to this, the player has already gained some valuable experience in international football tournaments such as the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

In terms of club’s honours, the player has already had a taste of what winning feels as he lifted the Portuguese domestic trophy (Taca de Portugal) as well as the Super Cup (Taca da Liga) in successive seasons. Moreover, the midfielder also lifted the UEFA Nations League with his Portuguese national team so hopefully such experiences will help him to become a successful player for Manchester United.

At the time of writing, the club is heading towards the business end of the season and unfortunately for Manchester United once again, there is not much to fight for apart from an improbable top 4 finish, the FA Cup as well at the Europa League which many feel is the only path towards qualifying for next year’s Champions League. Despite this, however, one hopes that with the new players being recruited as well as the departures of players who are not fit enough to represent Manchester United, the good times will come again in the future.