Man Utd will find it easier to find a new manager than a new Bruno Fernandes

Manchester United may claim to be a little tied up right now while they faff about with managers. But even an ‘omnishambles of a club’ cannot let slide what seems to be unfolding around their best player in over a decade.

Reports suggest Bruno Fernandes is looking to move on the summer. And United appear to be idling on as if that isn’t a massive f***ing problem.

You wouldn’t blame Fernandes if he felt like a change of scene. Since he arrived at Old Trafford from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020, just as the world was about to get very weird indeed as Covid took hold, the Portuguese playmaker has been the one (positive) constant United fans could cling to during an unsettling six years.

Unfathomably, though, many still don’t recognise his genius. Sure, antipathy from outsiders is to be expected but even some who root for United have spent far too much of Fernandes’ time thinking that somehow he’s A Problem. When, in fact, he has been the single thing United haven’t had to fret over in the last half-dozen years.

Even with one of the most creative forces of the Premier League era, United have still been tough to follow or fathom. It doesn’t bear thinking about how bad things would have been without Fernandes, last season especially, when he scored more goals and offered more assists than any team-mate in a side that finished 15th. Take Fernandes out of that sorry team, and only the wretchedness of the bottom three might have spared United from relegation.

We can only hypothesise over that outcome, but we do know for a fact that Fernandes is one of the top 10 most creative players ever in the Premier League. This is the company he’s keeping…

There are reams of stats to highlight Fernandes’ importance, in a wider Premier League and European context, but most startlingly, to United.

In all but one of his full seasons at Old Trafford, he’s led the way for assists, usually by a long way. In the only season he was second for creativity, in 2020/21, he was United’s top scorer with 28 goals in all competitions, seven more than anyone else. During the darkness of last season, he scored eight more goals than any team-mate and created nine more, 19 of each in total. This term, from a deeper position that doesn’t play to his strengths, he’s had a hand in 14 goals – six more than any other United player.

If his current form was out of the ordinary for Fernandes, it might be suggested that the captain is being fuelled by the ‘hurt’ he felt at United’s apparent willingness to sell him to Saudi last summer. That, above all of the other rotten decisions Ratcliffe, Wilcox and co. have made, would have been the worst of their calamities.

And even a year later, it seems a prospect too stupid even for this leadership group. But you just know that if Fernandes decides he wants a different environment, something perhaps bordering on functional, United would only look at the fee being banked rather than the cost of losing the skipper.

As has already been highlighted, his form is hardly diminishing, and his reliability has never been an issue. Actually, he has showed superhuman levels of robustness, missing three games in nearly six years to injury or illness prior to his recent hamstring injury. From which he recovered in double-quick time.

Fernandes is 31. He’ll be 32 in September. On a spreadsheet, that might be a red flag to any of Ratcliffe’s bean-counters but the Portugal star is far from finished. It’s weird that it even needs to be pointed out. Yet seemingly it does to those at Old Trafford who really should know their skipper better by now.

No wonder Fernandes feels affronted. Not only by how dispensable he is viewed at United, but by the assumption that he will be off to Saudi. Sure, the sheikhs will be queueing up, but so too will be big hitters across Europe. And if the likes Bayern Munich are eager to take him, that in itself ought to prompt someone – anyone – at Old Trafford to suspect that they might be missing the bleedin’ obvious.

MORE: Ian Wright would take Bruno Fernandes at Arsenal ‘tomorrow’

Fernandes’ will, seemingly, is the only reason he remains at United. As he said just last month: “I decided not to go, not only for family reasons but because I genuinely love the club.” But you can push anyone only so far.

Wilcox and Ratcliffe ought to be love-bombing Fernandes, or at the very least, making him feel the appreciation that was sorely lacking in the summer. Because hiring a new head coach, especially one of the calibre required, will be even more difficult when candidates learn that the one and only player five of his predecessors have all been able to rely on is being discarded for no good reason.

United are already facing a summer in which they need a new manager and at least one new midfielder. Perhaps the board will surprise us all in those processes. But finding a new Bruno, replacing his attacking contribution amid the other upheaval, is almost certainly beyond them.