Bruno Fernandes 'agrees terms' with Manchester United but only a disaster will stop him playing against Benfica tomorrow

It has been reported on Thursday that Bruno Fernandes has agreed personal terms with Manchester United ahead of a prospected move before the closure of the January transfer window later this month. This is not the first time this has been reported and if you followed the saga in the summer, you would have seen multiple claims of this. However, this time it seems a lot different and it is clear that United need some strengthening in the midfield to continue this season.

The Mirror have a story which claims the agreement has taken place with the club and the player although United still need to agree on a fee with Sporting CP, something the newspaper claims will see United trying to pay around £17 million less than the Portuguese club actually want for the player. If this is true, it continues the clueless nature of the hierarchy of the club in trying to get deals across the line. United should pay the fee that is being demanded to get the transfer done.

The Sun, who have written a story concerning a ‘cryptic tweet’ that Fernandes, 25, had posted showing him balancing a ball on his head, which funnily enough is not really anything cryptic, in my opinion anyway, they further talk about a £60 million deal being completed by the end of the week for the player to head to Manchester and sign for United. If this ends up being true, it will be a massive relief for United supporters who desperately want to see the midfield reinforced.

Another claim has been made in The Sun which concerns the match between United and Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday. Despite the fact Fernandes would not be part of the squad, it has been suggested that he could be in the stands for the game, cheering on his new teammates which seems too good to be true and just another wild claim that could come and go. However, if it is true, there will be lots of anticipation in the deal to be completed.

The sooner all of this talk surrounding Fernandes is solved, preferably with United signing the player, the better. A transfer saga tends to take so many turns when they involve United, and sometimes the soap opera scripts become laboured which in turn becomes criticism as supporters on social media react and instantly blame whoever they can for their desire not being solved at that particular time. I like to ignore the saga, reading into them to see why people have taken them in that direction.

Every other club seems to manage to get their transfer business done without much involvement of the media. However, not every club has the pull that United has with the media, which keeps them speculating as most people want to read about United – whether they love the club or hate the club. That gives the media an ultimate platform to write as many transfer articles as they like, never really giving any insight but selling a story as if it was written by script writers of soap operas.

In Portugal today (Thursday), Sporting manager, Jorge Manuel Rebelo Fernandes, known as Silas, held a press conference ahead of the Primeira Liga clash with Benfica, the Lisbon derby if you will, which is being played at the Estádio José Alvalade on Friday evening, also tipped to be Fernandes’ last game at the club before his speculated transfer to United and in that press conference things were said in an aim to scupper talk of the transfer but also suggest it could be happening.

“The only certainty I have is that Bruno will be there [at the derby]. We prepared the game with Bruno and he trained very well, as always.

“He’s the best player in the league and the most valuable since last year. He’s not worth this money, he’s worth so much more.

“In addition to attacking also he sacrifices himself to defend. Bruno is the best and the most valuable.

“When we have such a player it’s normal for everyone to want him. Only if there’s a disaster he won’t be there.”

The above seems to suggest that Fernandes will play in the Lisbon derby, which was a suggestion at the start of the week, also suggesting that the player is worth a lot more than the money stated, talking about the players’ worth to the club in terms of his attacking, and his defensive abilities. Whereas the below quotes give the impression that Silas is seeking to find a replacement for the player, which might be a suggestion that he is about to lose him?

“We have good players, but to find a replacement for Bruno we need three players.

“One that scores, one that organises and one who defends like him. There are none in Portugal.

“At the moment we have none like Bruno, but we have to look for alternatives, dynamics and systems. But I don’t know if we’ll lose him.”

This saga could well continue into the weekend and possibly into next week but in terms of something happening, an indication has been made that despite Silas not wanting the player to leave because of what he offers the club, it may be something out of his control that he may have to work around to get his team heading in the right direction again. Could Bruno Fernandes be days away from making a long-awaited move to Manchester United?

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About editor 2098 Articles
I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.