‘We’d like him to stay’: Manchester United’s Berrada hints at Bruno Fernandes doubts

Omar Berrada has not ruled out Bruno Fernandes leaving Manchester United in the summer, though the chief executive is adamant the club wants the captain to stay. The 31-year-old Fernandes was voted the Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year after making a record-breaking 21 assists in the Premier League but has offered mixed messages about his future. When asked if he believed Fernandes will stay, Berrada said: “We’d like him to stay, of course we do. He’s had a great season on the pitch but more importantly he’s shown to everybody that he is a great leader. People don’t see what he does outside of the pitch. He understands the values of the club really well and I think we’ve seen him help a lot of the younger signings.” Fernandes’s contract expires next summer and has an option for an extra 12 months, but in November he claimed he had been “hurt” by the club. “At one point I was going to leave but I would have won many trophies that season,” he told Canal 11, a Portuguese Football Federation‑owned channel. “But from the club’s side, I felt a bit of: ‘If you go, it’s not really that bad for us.’ More than hurting, it makes me sad, because I’m a player they have nothing to criticise me for.” Yet in March Fernandes hinted he would still be at United next season. “My goal has always been to win the biggest competitions and the Premier League is part of it. And I still have that dream in me and I hope to achieve it,” he told ESPN in an interview that emerged earlier this week. …