New York Times: Bruno Fernandes and the Long Game

[SomeRandomPerson]

Rory Smith of the New York Times has written a piece essentially pondering the same question most of this forum has for months: 'Bruno Fernandes is so good. How did Manchester United manage to sign him uncontested?'.

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I think it's a really interesting piece and I recommend reading the whole thing, though I'll add some bits I found particularly interesting -

On early promise at the Boavista academy:

“The way he is now is the way he always was,” Martelinho said, casting his mind back to the two years he spent working with Fernandes in the academy at Boavista. “He always played with a lot of ambition, always on the front foot, never playing a pass backward, always trying to get into the penalty area. He needed more experience, but everything you see now was there then.”

On how Fernandes ended up at Boavista instead of Porto, Sporting or Benfica:

Fernandes had the chance to sign for at least one of them. Born in Maia, not far from Porto, he had been spotted by both Porto and Boavista while playing in a youth tournament. Both offered him a place in their academy. He chose Boavista, apparently, because it volunteered to send a minibus to take him to training, and neither of his parents could drive.

It is a version of the story that his former coach Martelinho, for one, disputes. “I think he believed he could get into the first team more easily at Boavista,” he said. “I made the same choice when I was a player, and for the same reason. It is a smaller club, so it is easier to play.”

On how he ended up at Novara in Serie B:

When a Portuguese agent named Miguel Pinho got in touch with Giaretta in 2012 to recommend a teenage midfielder at Boavista, he might easily have disregarded it. His job involved tracking hundreds of players across much of Europe. He had never heard of Pinho, and he had never heard of Bruno Fernandes.

On the phone, Pinho seemed a “serious” sort of person, Giaretta said, so he did not dismiss the idea as nothing more than an agent’s pitch. He traveled to the north of Portugal to watch the 17-year-old Fernandes in an academy game.

Bruno always had great mentality:

“My first impression was good, but not exceptional,” Giaretta said. “You could see the technical quality. His decision-making was better than average. He was light on his feet. But he wasn’t by far the best player on the pitch or anything.” Meeting Fernandes swayed him.

“You could see, straightaway, that you were in front of a grown-up,” he said. Giaretta decided to recommend that Novara move to sign the teenager.

Bruno always had great mentality Redux ft. Francesco Guidolin (manager at Udinese when they signed Bruno):

Guidolin had not seen much of Fernandes at Novara. When Fernandes arrived at Udinese, Guidolin was “curious” to see what this teenager with the unusual career path was like. “We went into training camp before the season,” Guidolin said. “Playing in Serie B and playing in Serie A are different things, but straightaway you could see that he was ready.”

Indeed, Guidolin felt that, perhaps, Fernandes’s early exposure to senior soccer — even at a lower level — had been in his interest. “A year in Serie B is a more complete experience than arriving straight from the youth system,” he said of players who move to Italy. “You could see that he had more certainty, took more responsibility, than most players his age.”

Thoughts? On the question of football failing to recognize talent if it is in the wrong place, do you think big clubs are often too snobbish in how they recruit talent? Is this forum too easily dismissive of talent in 'non-traditional' places? Do please read the whole piece, even if it means clicking on to the Fake News, Failing New York Times

 

[horsechoker]

There seems to be one that goes under the radar, the nearest comparison I can make is N'Golo Kante who was signed from the French 2nd Division and then became a pivotal part of two title-winning sides.

Perhaps there is too much emphasis on players proving themselves at a particular level before the big boys will go near them. Moreover, things like mentality might go unnoticed with the focus being on talent.

 

[Vidyoyo]

It's a hard question to answer because I'm not privy to the ins and outs of Portuguese youth recruitment, nor watched him at any level except Sporting.

It could suggest that the big boys of Portugal (Porto, Sporting, Benfica) were too invested elsewhere. I know they have a huge interest in pursuing South American talent so it might be that this one just slipped under the radar as they were looking at other players. Obviously they missed a trick not getting him in their youth teams but, as the article suggests, he didn't stand out at youth level compared to other players (or so it seems).

In terms of around the world, yeah I doubt clubs were looking at Novara expecting top talent. Though it seems the recruitment corrected itself when he moved to Udinese. One can question why he left after only one year for Sampdoria but Serie A often throws these transfer curveballs. Perhaps Udinese had another player they thought would eventually be better, or perhaps they really needed the cash right then and there? He was still young then (22?).

Either way, I think Bruno's personality may have been a reason he didn't leave Sporting sooner. He was clearly a leader there and it suited us perfectly because we needed a talisman figure. It's possible scouts knew this and maybe other clubs didn't want to rock the boat by having Bruno disrupt their star team. I think that could have been a factor at, say, City and perhaps Pool who already had a glut of quality midfielders. Sucks for them obvz.

 

[wolvored]

I think a lot of things factor in. The league they play in. The quality of the opposition in that league. Will they be able to match the stats from there in the Premier? For every Bruno there have been loads of players good in other leagues that couldnt cut it here.
We bought Ole from Molde who scored regular and was a success here. We then bought a player Ole was managing at Molde and recommended, Biran Diouf. He looked the bollocks, but failed in the Premier. Then you have Haaland from the same club.
When a player is going to cost £5 mill its still a lot of money, but a much better risk to take than when a player is £45 mill. We were 'lucky' in the fact the team was so poor at that time, something had to be done, and it was a risk worth taking with Fernandes and fortunately it worked out. We wasnt prepared to take the risk pre season with Bruno and he could have ended up at Spurs, who also declined.

 

[Apokalips]

He went to Udinese and Sampdoria, both pretty well known clubs, and failed to light it up. That probably led to a few clubs being unsure on whether or not he would make it at a big club.

I think it could be a somewhat similar situation with a player like Aubameyang who didn't make it at Milan as a youngster and ended up at Arsenal, as opposed to a better team, after impressing at Dortmund. Another somewhat similar signing is Liverpool having a free run at Salah, who did not impress at Chelsea and had many thinking Liverpool were making a mistake expecting him to be so good.

 

[11101]

I think Bruno is a bit of a case of mentality trumping ability, which is always going to be harder to spot.

In the nicest possible way, his actual technical ability does not tie with how good he has been for us. Undoubtedly he's a good technical footballer, but on ability alone you wouldn't guess he would be the best (most productive) player in the Premier League since he arrived. The reason he has been so good is because of his desire and mentality, whereas scouts at youth level are more focused on looking for the kids with the best technical ability.

It's also much safer to purchase a player on ability rather than mentality, especially when that player is playing in an average league, hadn't done brilliantly at other clubs and just happened to have a strong personality. Let's not forget that mentality goes both ways, this is the same guy who laid into his own teammates on occasion at Sporting and has already started it a bit here too. I'm sure teams knew about that and were put off by it. It's a bit like when we bought Cantona, he'd fallen out with everybody and everything up to that point and nobody wanted him. Who knew it was all going to click in Manchester.

 

[Vidyoyo]

I think Bruno is a bit of a case of mentality trumping ability, which is always going to be harder to spot.

In the nicest possible way, his actual technical ability does not tie with how good he has been for us. Undoubtedly he's a good technical footballer, but on ability alone you wouldn't guess he would be the best (most productive) player in the Premier League since he arrived. The reason he has been so good is because of his desire and mentality, whereas scouts at youth level are more focused on looking for the kids with the best technical ability.

It's also much safer to purchase a player on ability rather than mentality, especially when that player is playing in an average league, hadn't done brilliantly at other clubs and just happened to have a strong personality. Let's not forget that goes both ways, this is the same guy who laid into his own teammates on occasion at Sporting and has already started it a bit here too. I'm sure teams knew about that and were put off by it. It's a bit like when we bought Cantona, he'd fallen out with everybody and everything up to that point and nobody wanted him. Who knew it was all going to click in Manchester.

Yep, feels like there's a lot of truth here. It seems like a big factor at youth level judging by the people who are absolutely adamant a player will make it at the top level but then they don't. Sure they're athletic as hell, technically great, but I imagine the number one reason they fall behind is because they lack the necessary mental cutting edge, which as you say is hard to spot. Adnan Januzaj springs to mind.

 

[harms]

Eight years later, Fernandes would cost Manchester United $97 million

 

[Adam-Utd]

Yep, feels like there's a lot of truth here. It seems like a big factor at youth level judging by the people who are absolutely adamant a player will make it at the top level but then they don't. Sure they're athletic as hell, technically great, but I imagine the number one reason they fall behind is because they lack the necessary mental cutting edge, which as you say is hard to spot. Adnan Januzaj springs to mind.

It's also something that can't really be trained or improved.

If you've got no will power or determination to succeed, chances are you won't.

You can train technique, speed and power but you can't make somebody fight harder or run more when the going gets tough.

People like Bruno have that and that's what makes them invaluable. Same with Keane I guess, there have been "better" players in the world, but match it to their desire and work ethic and it becomes a real weapon.

 

[vanrooney]

yes thats sad for the nyt.

 

[Oranges038]

He went out of his way to work hard and get the oppurtunity to get a move to a top club. He still works as hard if not harder than he ever has. This lad has he right mentality and I think that's made a big difference to him, you can see he loves the game and has such a desire to win.

 

[VorZakone]

Fake news!

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Rory Smith of the New York Times has written a piece essentially pondering the same question most of this forum has for months: 'Bruno Fernandes is so good. How did Manchester United manage to sign him uncontested?'.

Tweet

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I think it's a really interesting piece and I recommend reading the whole thing, though I'll add some bits I found particularly interesting -

On early promise at the Boavista academy:


On how Fernandes ended up at Boavista instead of Porto, Sporting or Benfica:


On how he ended up at Novara in Serie B:



Bruno always had great mentality:


Bruno always had great mentality Redux ft. Francesco Guidolin (manager at Udinese when they signed Bruno):


Thoughts? On the question of football failing to recognize talent if it is in the wrong place, do you think big clubs are often too snobbish in how they recruit talent? Is this forum too easily dismissive of talent in 'non-traditional' places? Do please read the whole piece, even if it means clicking on to the Fake News, Failing New York Times

thanks for posting.

every transfer is a risk, and frankly you don’t know how a player is going to turn out. It’s easy to look back in retrospect and say why didn’t anyone buy else buy him? It’s risk.

He was being touted around for more than £60m the summer before we bought him. There were very few clubs that could afford that, and it’s a big amount of money.

as an example from a different league (and time), for every RVN you get a Kezman. Both great records at the same club. One went onto be one of the greatest strikers in the PL, one didn’t.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

There seems to be one that goes under the radar, the nearest comparison I can make is N'Golo Kante who was signed from the French 2nd Division and then became a pivotal part of two title-winning sides.

Perhaps there is too much emphasis on players proving themselves at a particular level before the big boys will go near them. Moreover, things like mentality might go unnoticed with the focus being on talent.

Kante is an interesting one, but not one I think belongs in this discussion. He was a punt at £6m. A true unearthed gem - but one I bet most clubs were completely unaware of. Bruno on the other hand had a relatively big profile, and I’m sure given his numbers, the majority of top clubs would have looked at him prior to him signing for us.

 

[balaks]

Lots of clubs were interested in him but nobody felt he was worth the money being demanded. At least that is certainly the case for Spurs who had been tracking him for a long time. He has been a fantastic signing for you guys and looks an absolute bargain now of course.