Sell Bruno Fernandes? Man Utd need him to lead rebuild, not pay for it…

Manchester United have been treading on rakes in the transfer market for a decade now; selling Bruno Fernandes would be the most catastrophic mis-step yet.

Apparently, the clock is ticking on Al-Hilal’s offer to make Fernandes their marquee player ahead of the Club World Cup. That in isolation is not an offer that you would expect to tempt the United captain. But £700,000 a week is a sweetener few could simply dismiss without serious consideration.

If Fernandes is turned on by the prospect of selling his wares in Saudi, then United could expect to receive an offer of around £100million for their skipper. The response should be a firm and final ‘no’.

No doubt the prospect of immediately filling the black hole in the books dug in Bilbao will appeal to the bean counters at Old Trafford. But at some point amid the scrimping and saving, they have to remember they are a football club. And without Fernandes they might have been a football club playing Championship football next season.

The skipper’s influence cannot be overstated. Not only does he make this iteration of United something close to watchable, but he was involved in 40% of their goals last season, continuing his frankly ludicrous consistency with 19 goals and 20 assists in a team that for large swathes of the season had forgotten how to score.

How would United replace Fernandes’ productivity if they took the Saudi cash? Lord knows the answer doesn’t lie within. They would have to spend the same again to gamble on getting anything like the same output from a new recruit, completely defeating the purpose of the sale. And would you back anyone at Old Trafford to pick a winner these days, let alone one to produce on Fernandes’ scale?

There can be no ignoring United’s need for cash this summer. These days, stories of cutbacks rival transfer gossip for sheer volume. INEOS and the Glazers have shown that anyone is fair game, but assuming they wish one day to be taken seriously again as a football club, a line has to be drawn somewhere in the dressing-room, even if only around the pegs of Fernandes’ and Amad Diallo.

You could make a reasonable argument for selling any other player. If Ruben Amorim really thinks so little of Kobbie Mainoo, or United were offered a profit on Leny Yoro, you might pick through the logic while saying goodbye through gritted teeth.

So with almost a squad’s worth of players to take to market, United for the first time in over a decade need to sell smartly. And there’s nothing remotely clever about selling your best player and severely weakening Amorim’s ranks in one misguided motion.

Amorim stated his case when he was asked about selling his captain earlier this month…

“No, it’s not going to happen. He’s not going anywhere because I’ve already told him! I want Bruno here because we want to win the Premier League again, so we want the best players to continue with us. He’s 30, but he’s still so young, because he plays 55 games every season. Between assists and goals, he’s there for 30 at least, so he’s the type of player we want here and he’s not going anywhere.”

The beleaguered boss is already having a hard time asserting his authority while hiding his disdain for the group at his disposal. If United vetoed Amorim over Fernandes, the manager might as well follow the captain through the exit door.

During his seven months in charge, Amorim has repeatedly backed Fernandes in the face of criticism from outside Old Trafford, most strikingly when it came again from one of the current captain’s predecessors. Roy Keane is among the many who take issue with Fernandes and his flailing arms. But if Keane was leading this mob, blood would spatter the dressing room walls. Actually, Keane would most likely have walked away long ago in fury at his team-mates’ inability to match his standards. And few would blame Fernandes for doing the same. He really is better than this.

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If he is to leave United, it certainly should not be for Saudi. Fernandes, aged 30, remains at his peak and merits a stage like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich – or a post-banter era United should they ever emerge from it – before easing into retirement in an exhibition league if that path appeals.

But, for now, it seems like Fernandes is keen to stay and be part of the rebuild. Selling him would be the clearest signal yet from United that they are no longer a serious football club.