De Gea pokes fun at his pal Mata after Fernandes takes his United number

David de Gea sent a playful jibe to his former Manchester United teammate Juan Mata after Bruno Fernandes was given the No 8 shirt that Mata had worn for the club.

United announced the change of number with a video of the Portuguese midfielder captioned 'it was meant to be.'

De Gea responded to the video on twitter, asking 'Anything to say, Juan Mata?'

It came after Fernandes, who wore the No 8 shirt at Udinese, Sporting and Portugal, joked last June that he would have to wait 'another year' for his favoured number when Mata signed a new contract.

Mata responded in an interview with Manutd.co, saying 'at least one more year!'

The popular 34-year-old recently left United after scoring 51 goals in 285 appearances for the club. He won the EFL Cup, FA Cup and Europa League in his time at Old Trafford.

His successor in the number eight shirt had worn No 18 until this season, but will now return to a number he has long had a connection to. Fernandes has a tattoo of a number eight on his arm, part of a fascination that stems from the birth date: September 8th.

The club has also confirmed that new signing Tyrell Malacia will wear No 12 next season.

It is not yet known what number Chsitian Eriksen will wear after the Danish midfielder agreed terms with United earlier this week. He does have history with the No 8 from his time at Ajax, but has more recently worn 10 for Denmark and various numbers for Brentford, Tottenham and Inter Milan.

Getting Eriksen and Fernandes on the same wavelength could be vital if United are to challenge for silverware. The Portugal star had a poor season by his own standards in 2021/2 and often looked frustrated in attacking moves.

The addition of another excellent creative midfielder could help Fernandes get back to his best.