Bruno Fernandes almost left Manchester United last summer but thankfully the club showed him they wanted him stick around and turned down offers from abroad.
The captain has go on to enjoy a fantastic season for the club, creating more chances than every other player in Europe’s top leagues like usual, and is in the running to break the all-time Premier League assist record.
In an interview with The Times, Fernandes has confirmed that he doesn’t believe the two trophies in his six years here is good enough, and that he has told the club repeatedly he wants to see United compete for the Premier League.
Everyone who comes to Man United wants to win every trophy. No one thinks in coming to the club, ‘We’re going to fight for just one or two trophies in six years,’ let’s say. You want to fight for all of them. We went to three [other] finals and didn’t win. That can happen. But at least you’ve been in the fight. We were close. And what I said to the club every time I spoke with them, what I want from the time I’m here, I just want to compete. Because if I compete, I will be close to winning. If I don’t compete, there’s no chance I’m going to get close to any silverware.
The expectation will always be we want to win the Premier League. I know people will think, ‘You go to get more money, better contracts.’ No, you come to Man United because you want to win trophies. Money, you can get anywhere. A lot of clubs in the Premier League pay well, a lot of clubs in Italy, Spain, pay you a lot. You come to this club because of the history, because of what you think you can achieve.
[Whether] you end up achieving or not, that’s a question of you being better than the other teams. But what I always say to the club is you can’t promise me I’m going to win the Premier League, that’s impossible, but if you promise we’re going to be competitive — that’s all I need to know. Then it’s on me to become the best version of myself, to help everyone around to become the best version of themselves, to then become the club we want to be.
Fernandes is in the running to win the PFA Player of the Year and may well feature somewhere in the Ballon d’Or list, despite a lack of team trophies. The midfielder has reflected on Harry Kane and the difference winning silverware at Bayern Munich has made to his individual recognition.
We’ve seen many Ballon d’Or winners who haven’t won the Champions League. They still won because they were the best. Obviously, it’s easier for me to say because I haven’t won many trophies. And trophies are important. But at the same time, you don’t play by yourself. It’s not tennis.
If he had stayed [at Tottenham Hotspur] another one or two seasons, he’d have been the best goalscorer ever in the Premier League. So, would he have been a legend or not? He would. He decided to go to Bayern and the decision is good because he knows he has a big chance of winning trophies. And now we’re talking about Harry Kane that is scoring the same amount of goals he was scoring at Tottenham, but he might win a Ballon d’Or now because he’s going to win trophies.
