Bruno Fernandes Out?

Bruno’s our best player, no doubt, but the reality is his wages and age go against him now that we’re clearly heading into a phase of properly changing things up. We’re not going to be winning anything in the next few years, so why spend big money on a player who wants to win right now, at this stage of his career?

In the US, where teams play in closed leagues, they often go through rebuilding phases — letting go of big stars to bring in young talent for the future. I think that’s exactly where we are. Players like Bruno, Maguire, Shaw, Casemiro, Lindelöf — they’ve all had their shot as the core of the team, and they haven’t delivered. So the more of them we move on, along with the ones already out on loan, the better chance we’ve got of actually building something new. They haven’t been able to deliver so far, and they’re only going to get older — so the chances of success with them just keep getting slimmer.

We should try to shift them and stay on the path of players like Yoro, Dorgu, Amad, and let next season be one where fresh faces step up and take responsibility. Right now, it all depends on Bruno performing every match just to keep things ticking — and the other players start relying on that too.

We need to build a new core, not patch up the broken one we’ve got.


That said, Bruno is still a fantastic footballer.
 
Idxomer said:
He isn't good enough for the type of team that allows him to do that.
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Precisely. In an all-conquering trophy side, he would be a squad player and an also-ran rather than top dog. He might win league titles in lesser leagues like Italy but in the big time, he is small fry. Bruno is not leading any team to Champions League or international glory because he just isn't that player. Yet he is somehow paid like one who is. Why are we paying premium for a player who is nowhere near premium?
 
Should have played him in AMC or False 9 like FA Cup final where he was fantastic.

Casemiro and Ugarte provided a solid foundation but instead we ripped that apart and forced him to play deep again.
 
cpresc said:
Should have played him in AMC or False 9 like FA Cup final where he was fantastic.

Casemiro and Ugarte provided a solid foundation but instead we ripped that apart and forced him to play deep again.
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We've seen a Casemiro and Ugarte midfield put under pressure by high pressing PL sides and the results weren't pretty. We were shit, but it doesn't mean every team selection decision was automatically wrong.
 
VP89 said:
Considering he was pivotal in almost every good game weve had, I don't think it's a stretch to say that we'd lose. In the few games he's not on the pitch we look far worse.

The post asked where he carried us to, it's a disingenuous post.
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We don't have anywhere near a big enough sample to know how we would look without him for an extended period. I mean, we also scored more in the last PL he didn't play than in his last 7 PL games, that's also not an indication of much.
 
Idxomer said:
We don't have anywhere near a big enough sample to know how we would look without him for an extended period. I mean, we also scored more in the last PL he didn't play than in his last 7 PL games, that's also not an indication of much.
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I think its abundantly clear we are considerably worse without Bruno. We don't need a sample size to flesh that out.

Bruno is the type of player you build around, not demolish to get more funds in. There's plenty of players who can get us some cash and our situation isn't so dire that we need to offload our best player.
 
Ish said:
Agreed about him being our best player, but I guess the conversation is if we sign Cunha & a CF, we’re probably going to be using Bruno as an 8 mostly, in that deeper position.

He definitely has it in him but it doesn’t come naturally to him to “control” a game (as we saw last night by him giving the ball away all the time) and we’re literally taking away his biggest assets (goal involvements) by playing him deeper.

Again, this system by Amorim just displaces so many of our squads strengths. So there’s a conversation to be had about selling him if a massive offer came in. But I share your sentiment around not being able to replace him etc.
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Yeah this is all absolutely fair. I would love to see us put a team around him that fitted but agree that the current system isn't a great match for the squad as is.
 
VP89 said:
I think its abundantly clear we are considerably worse without Bruno. We don't need a sample size to flesh that out.

Bruno is the type of player you build around, not demolish to get more funds in. There's plenty of players who can get us some cash and our situation isn't so dire that we need to offload our best player.
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I disagree. We had a few good periods with him, but the 5-year period before his arrival was considerably better. We also have seen the worst of United with him in the team. I think United have gone as far as possible with him in the team in both directions and need to figure out a different way to play without him.
 
Unfortunately, I think that if a big bid comes in this summer, he'll be off. It makes sense for him to go somewhere else where he can win and not have the weight of the world on his shoulders. It also makes sense for United to cash in due to his age and the fact that he just doesn't fit into this formation.

Personally I would not want to lose Bruno, but I think the money men will be itching to accept an offer for him. We have no money and we need players.

The problem is, without Bruno this season we'd have been relegated. I don't trust United to make good decisions in the transfer window either so that could become a reality next season.
 
Pickle85 said:
Yeah this is all absolutely fair. I would love to see us put a team around him that fitted but agree that the current system isn't a great match for the squad as is.
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It's all a bit of shitshow currently and I had much higher hopes for Ineos and all their 'best in class' mumble jumble...it feels like they're trying so hard to fit a potential Pep successor into the role at our club - to hell with considering the squad 'fit' for such an appointment.

I honestly shudder to think what next season holds - unless we're able to bring in at least 5-6 players for Amorim.
 
VP89 said:
I think its abundantly clear we are considerably worse without Bruno. We don't need a sample size to flesh that out.

Bruno is the type of player you build around, not demolish to get more funds in. There's plenty of players who can get us some cash and our situation isn't so dire that we need to offload our best player.
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What’s considerably worse than 16th? I’m willing to bet lots of money that if we sell Bruno we will finish higher than 16th next season. I love Bruno but a team sitting 16th in the league can’t be turning down 80m plus offers for 31 year olds.
 
VP89 said:
I think its abundantly clear we are considerably worse without Bruno. We don't need a sample size to flesh that out.

Bruno is the type of player you build around, not demolish to get more funds in. There's plenty of players who can get us some cash and our situation isn't so dire that we need to offload our best player.
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You can not build around Bruno, he would be the perfect signing to lift a good team to the top, but his character and his play disqualify him to be the main man to build around.
 
Happy to see him go. Been nearly 10 years and we've not had success together, and now with him we've finished in our worst ever league position. Take the hit, get a few different players, and lets just move on.
 
Love Bruno but if we get a big offer we would be silly to turn it down especially now that we don’t have any champions league money to spend.

Could end up being crucial for the club if the funds are used correctly.
 
He being our best player is not debatable. But to say we can’t be better if other players come in is complete nonsense I will never agree with.

For all his qualities, his flaws are one of the reason we are a poor side. Last night was another example. It doesn’t make sense to completely absolve him of any blame.

On another note, he will be 31 at the start of the new season. Hes going to fall off at some point.

There is life without Bruno.
 
I don't think he will go but it feels like last night's result does change the outlook a little re his future.

We aren't going anywhere fast so even though he's our most important player, I don't think you can dismiss a sale out of hand if a ludicrous bid comes. That said, if the proceeds ended up funding transfers for Amorim's flawed system I'd rather keep him.
 
WhatIsLove said:
Happy to see him go. Been nearly 10 years and we've not had success together, and now with him we've finished in our worst ever league position. Take the hit, get a few different players, and lets just move on.
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Without him, we would have been in a proper relegation battle probably, he was our best player by far this season.
 
Yeah I think it's time to cash in now whilst we can still get a decent offer for him.

We aren't winning anything in the next few years and he'll be too old to make an impact by the time we look half decent again.

If there's a big Saudi offer on the table we'd be foolish not to take it.
 
Mickeza said:
What’s considerably worse than 16th? I’m willing to bet lots of money that if we sell Bruno we will finish higher than 16th next season. I love Bruno but a team sitting 16th in the league can’t be turning down 80m plus offers for 31 year olds.
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We will very likely finish a lot better than 16th with Bruno next season too.
 
Mickeza said:
Not playing this system unless the team is gutted. If we have the money to do that without selling Bruno then great.
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The attack needs to be gutted and then I think we need one midfielder.

We can apparently get Cunha and Delap without worrying about Europe, and then the outgoings fund the rest. I think offloading Garnacho as a big ticket item together with some fees from a combination of Sancho/Antony/Rashford can fund us Cunha and Osimhen with a CM, let alone Delap.
 
Dannn411 said:
"Carried" us to 16th going on 17th. Amazing. Give him the Ballon D'or. The level of delusion in here is astounding.
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He's the only one though. Most of the rest of them have been fecking abysmal, you can't do it on your own but without him we would have been far worse. Not sure the same can be said for a single other player in our team.
 
V.O. said:
We've seen a Casemiro and Ugarte midfield put under pressure by high pressing PL sides and the results weren't pretty. We were shit, but it doesn't mean every team selection decision was automatically wrong.
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well spurs were not pressing high or attacking. They had what 27% of the ball or so?
we could have played ugarte and casa, pushed Bruno and Amad upfront. that meant casa would have played a bit further ahead and he is a much better creator that being given credit to.
 
shabin_d_great said:
well spurs were not pressing high or attacking. They had what 27% of the ball or so?
we could have played ugarte and casa, pushed Bruno and Amad upfront. that meant casa would have played a bit further ahead and he is a much better creator that being given credit to.
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Well yeah, after they got their scabby goal they sat back, which is usually the point at which we'd move Bruno back into midfield to affect the game more anyway.

Casemiro and Ugarte facing a low block in the second half would have made even less sense than them trying to deal with the press at the start of the game.
 
V.O. said:
We've seen a Casemiro and Ugarte midfield put under pressure by high pressing PL sides and the results weren't pretty. We were shit, but it doesn't mean every team selection decision was automatically wrong.
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Kind of damned either way because it's not like Bruno is particularly press resistant, he needs space and receivers to move the ball on. But he didn't help matters last night with his abject passing.
 
Ish said:
Ouch, that’s insanely terrible, even more so from his “deeper” role. Not sure what happened to him yesterday - but he lost his head and composure. Amorim playing him in that deeper role also didn’t help at all.
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The prematch expectations messages from the fans got into his head and he let it get to him
 
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