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5 months ago
34 Manchester United must decide on the future of Erik ten Hag before cementing plans for the forthcoming summer transfer window.
It was a quiet January window for most clubs, including United. Still, the new co-owners will aim to make a strong impression on supporters by actively pursuing players who will improve the team ahead of next season.
There isn’t a football club that attracts the spotlight as much as Manchester United – hmm, maybe Real Madrid – and that is why we have to deal with so much speculation throughout the summer. Sometimes it can be a struggle to know what to believe.
The new co-owners must get recruitment right first. They will be judged on that because the previous regime couldn’t fix the mess in our recruitment department. United kept signing the wrong players.
United will also need to sell players before they add recruits. One name making the headlines is Bruno Fernandes after Stretty News revealed that Bayern Munich are interested in the Portugal international.
However, the Fernandes to Bayern links have surprised Shaka Hislop.
The former Premier League goalkeeper turned pundit can’t see the United captain joining Vincent Kompany’s side but did highlight that the club have a big decision to make on the 29-year-old.
“Bruno Fernandes and the Bayern Munich thing, I just don’t get it,” Hislop told ESPN. “It just doesn’t fit, for me. From a Bruno Fernandes perspective, he is the star of the show at Old Trafford. He is the kingpin up in the red part of Manchester. He wants to see things built around him.
“From a Manchester United perspective, and we have made a lot about their financial issues, yes a Sir Jim Ratcliffe coming in, maybe inject some cash, but how does that play out with the profit and sustainability regulations? If he is a sellable asset, and there is genuine interest, again I am not 100% certain there is genuine interest from Bayern Munich, then Manchester United might be tempted.
“The aspect to that profit and sustainability is that, with two years left on his contract, he all of a sudden, the longer we go into that, the more the power rests with Bruno Fernandes and his camp, in terms of negotiating. Again, you are already trying to balance the books, increasing the salary of one of your highest-paid players, I am not sure leans into that, either. It’s a little bit of a dangerous game that Bruno Fernandes maybe finds himself in and sees this as taking some control of it.”
It would be a shame to see Fernandes go in the summer. He’s our best player as well as club captain, but selling him could signal how the new co-owners want a complete reshuffle from top to bottom.
The issue is that Fernandes is United’s most influential player by some distance.
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