Bruno Fernandes has handed Manchester United a huge boost by rejecting a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia and Gary Neville has shared his thoughts on the Red Devils captain’s decision
Gary Neville has hailed Bruno Fernandes’ character after the Manchester United star turned down a stunning move to Saudi Arabia. The Portuguese midfielder’s future has been up in the air since the end of the season.
He admitted that he would leave should he be told by club chiefs to depart, while Saudi side Al-Hilal have been chasing his services. They gave Fernandes a deadline to decide whether to accept their lucrative offer or not.
He has since decided to snub a move to the Middle East, with Gary Neville suggesting that call says everything about Fernandes’ personality given the money on offer. Speaking on Sky Sports News, he said: “It’s significant.
“I think that there was an element of this situation that meant United getting that level of money, for someone of Bruno’s age, obviously, you couldn’t say that it would have been a bad deal.
“But, on the other hand, Manchester United’s star player – only player at times – for the last four, five, six years, has been Bruno Fernandes. He’s so important.
“The fact that he wants to stay, the fact that he wants to go through this and come out the other side, because it would have been easy for him at the end of this season to say, ‘Look, I’m done here’, will endear him towards Manchester United fans even more.
“To turn that money down at a point where Manchester United are at their lowest ebb and say, ‘No, I want to fight through this, I want to see it through the other side, I want to come out and achieve things,’ I think it says a lot about him as a person, as a character. The club needs people who are going to run through a brick wall for them.”
With Fernandes spurning a move to the Middle East, he could potentially welcome a number of new faces to Old Trafford. United have already sealed the signing of Matheus Cunha from Wolves, while Bryan Mbeumo looks set to follow him.
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On that signing, Neville added: “They need players who are going to come in and hit the ground running and Cunha and Mbeumo have got obviously Premier League experience.
“I know that Ruben Amorim has this system where he plays these two players in behind a striker. If those two players are Mbeumo and Cunha then Manchester United will at least be able to travel quickly from deep positions into attacking positions because they can both run.
“We know the likes of Sancho, (Marcus) Rashford, Antony, and probably (Alejandro) Garnacho are going to leave, so they need definitely players in those positions.”