Bruno Fernandes is a one-man football team – does he deserve more credit?

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It was Sir Alex Ferguson who talked about “foggy memories” when it came to football, nostalgia and how it worked against some of the players who were trying to emulate Manchester United’s old glories.

“I do it myself,” the most successful manager in British football history explained, shortly before retiring in 2013 with a 13th Premier League title. ”People say that this is not as good as the teams of the past, but sometimes there are foggy recollections of teams of the past.”

We all do it to some degree, no matter who we support. Our heroes are our heroes and, in football, nostalgia has always been the file that smooths out the rough edges from the good old days. But it is worth keeping this in mind when the subject turns to Bruno Fernandes, as it often does, and the not entirely straightforward challenge of trying to understand where he sits among the great and good who have worn the club’s colours.

Not that high, if you listen to Roy Keane, a truly great ex-United captain who uses his role as a television pundit to speak about Fernandes at times with a look of near-revulsion on his face.

And, yes, there are plenty of others who have questioned Fernandes during his five and a half seasons at the club. Is he exceptionally talented? Of course. But can he be irritatingly petulant? Absolutely. Not your usual United captain, perhaps? Not if you remember Keane or Bryan Robson or various others who have worn that armband with distinction.

Would Fernandes get into a best-ever United XI? Not unless you were being exceedingly generous (or downright silly). At a club with United’s history, he probably would not have the credentials to get into a second-best XI. Or even a third or fourth.

(Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Ultimately, though, there is a whole raft of statistics — or you could just back what you see with your eyes — to make it clear why the modern-day United should be grateful to have him.

And Ferguson is right: people do have foggy memories when it comes to their favourite players from the past.

Contrary to what you might have heard, Eric Cantona did not sprinkle his precious magic across every football pitch. Ryan Giggs, brilliant though he was, had plenty of occasions when he could not beat his man or find a cross. Paul Scholes? What a player, what a joy to watch, but don’t assume he was exceptional every single time he wore that shirt. And the same goes for Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and pretty much all the former United players who will be remembered, deservedly, as genuine greats.

When Arthur Hopcraft, one of the doyens of British sports writing, wrote his 1968 book, The Football Man, he devoted an entire chapter to Bobby Charlton. He called it ‘Eulogy’ and those of us who are too young to have seen Charlton in action might imagine that a player with his level of status and achievement — a 1966 World Cup winner with England, no less — never had a bad game or a period when his form was questioned by Hopcraft and his press-box colleagues. But, of course, he did.

“He is the player who may disappoint sometimes with a ragged, off-form performance, and yet over the years stays clear and bright in the memory,” writes Hopcraft.

“The persistent complaint I have heard made against Charlton, the one which keeps him out of the lists when some people name the handful of the world’s greatest players, is that he avoids the fury of the game, that where the hacking and elbowing are fiercest, Charlton is not to be found. But this is like dismissing Dickens from the world’s great literature because he never went to gaol for throwing bricks at politicians.”

Not even the likes of Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney were exceptional in every game (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

What all these players have in common, unlike Fernandes, is that they belonged to brilliant United teams who lived up to Charlton’s expression, at the age of 21, that playing football at Old Trafford was like walking on stage in a theatre of dreams.

Fernandes, in stark contrast, has given his best years to a club enduring their worst years.

Ruben Amorim’s side are 16th in a 20-club league and, with one game of their domestic campaign to go, the 20-time English champions have not even reached 40 points, which was once regarded as the safety mark that would ensure a club avoided dropping through the trapdoor into the second tier.

It is United’s worst performance since they were last relegated in 1974 and, with that kind of backdrop, it is hard to think Fernandes will be remembered in future years as a bona fide club legend. Respect? Yes. Affection? Of course. But legend? That feels like too much of a stretch, perhaps, when the whole of football is rubbernecking in United’s direction.

The paradox is that this could also be the man who lifts the Europa League trophy on Wednesday, to go with the FA Cup he helped United win last season and the League Cup from the year before that.

(Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

This is one of the strange things about United: the post-Ferguson years have brought more indignities, lows and cheek-reddening embarrassments than they would care to remember. Yet if they beat Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao, it will be the second time they have won the Europa League in eight years and, astonishingly, their sixth major trophy in a decade. What’s been a grim period for United would be, for most clubs, a golden one.

Fernandes has been there since January 2020 and, to give him his due, there have been five separate seasons, including the current one, when he has finished with double figures for both goals and assists — something no other United player in the Premier League era has done more than once.

His 27 goals make him the third-highest scorer in the Europa League since it replaced the old UEFA Cup in 2009, three behind Radamel Falcao and seven short of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. And who has its third-most assists with 24? That would be the wearer of United’s No 8 shirt, too.

Very good, you might think, but what about the Champions League? Remember the times when United, with all their haughty ambitions, used to look down on the clunky Thursday-Sunday routine of Europe’s second-tier competition?

Many of us do. Is it fair, though, to hold that against Fernandes when the evidence suggests he has been let down by his surroundings?

Fernandes has played for United during a particularly difficult period for the club (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Did you know he features in the top 10 of the list of footballers who have covered the most distance in the Premier League this season? Or that he had some of the best statistics across Europe’s top five domestic leagues for tackles, interceptions and winning back the ball?

To say he does not understand what hard graft means, or that he does not put in a captain’s shift, is simply not backed up by the numbers.

So why so much beef? Well, the most legitimate criticism is that, positionally, he can be indisciplined, too often nowhere to be seen on the many occasions when opponents take advantage of the big, open spaces that appear in United’s midfield. His habits of arm-flapping and always chattering away in the referee’s ear can rile everyone. There are also times when he does make the wrong choice or loses the ball in positions that leave his team vulnerable.

Others might argue it is a form of bravery that he backs himself to make the kind of decisive passes that, in another era, had Ferguson referring to Cantona as “the can-opener”, slicing open opposition defences.

Would Fernandes get into Liverpool’s current team? It is a good debate and, yes, the chances are he probably would. Manchester City’s? They would love to have a player with his ability to help fill the void left by Kevin De Bruyne’s imminent departure. Fernandes is, in short, a terrific footballer: the only player besides Ronaldo and David De Gea to win United’s player-of-the-season award (established in 1988) four times.

It is not difficult, therefore, to understand why the people at the top of the club do not want to contemplate the idea that Fernandes might be tempted by the mega-riches on offer in Saudi Arabia.

The links with current Saudi champions Al Hilal are genuine, and that should be the real concern for everyone at Old Trafford — not whether Fernandes is overrated, underrated or secretly wants to scrape his studs down Keane’s shins.

Fernandes will turn 31 in September and it was inevitable that at some stage he would come to the attention of a club, or clubs, from the Saudi Pro League.

Yet the bottom line here is that United are one win away from entering next season’s Champions League, albeit through the back door, and everyone associated with the club should hope that would be enough for the Portugal international to bat away any thoughts of leaving. Because, can you imagine where this once-mighty football club would be without him?

(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

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