Man Utd need to re-sign the one player saving them from RELEGATION

Muhammad Butt

27 Feb 2025 08:10 CST
6 min read

Bruno Fernandes holding up Man Utd and Old Trafford — © IMAGO

Bruno Fernandes is the only thing keeping Man Utd from being relegated, and his contract is due to expire in just over two years.

Man Utd have their captain contracted until 30 June 2027, so they are approaching the two year window where they need to start getting a deal done or risk losing him for free.

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And given that Fernandes is pretty much the only reason United aren't thick in the mire of this season's relegation dogfight, that's not a thought worth contemplating.

At first this may seem ridiculous given that Fernandes signed a new contract in the summer of 2024, and that his current deal supposedly as an option to extend it for an extra year until 2028.

But you have to consider how diabolical the mood is at Man Utd right now, how badly the vibes around the team are. They're 14th in the table!

Having the captain walking into the last two years of his deal (as he was in summer 2024) is not something United to countenance then and even less so now as uncertainty ripples around the squad, the ownership and even the support staff at the club.

With Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS cutting costs all over the Man Utd support staff (despite them earning a fraction of what some of the first-team men's squad earns) United will need a pick-me-up this coming summer.

© IMAGO - Sir Jim Ratcliffe's cost cutting is hindering Ruben Amorim's squad building.

New transfers seem unlikely, given how close United's nose is pressed up against PSR restrictions. The club was unable to sign Patrick Dorgu in January until they had let Marcus Rashford go and it is rumoured they won't have much to spend at all in the summer without significant sales.

Renewing the captain would be a morale boost and provide certainty for the club. Instead of two years and maybe an additional one, they could tie Bruno down until 2029 for certain, and spread the captain's wages out even further over that half decade, ensuring the skipper still earns his money but with less of a hit to the club's balance sheet.

Or United could roll the dice and let Bruno enter the endgame of his contract with everything at the club up in the air.

Liverpool spotlight contract uncertainty

Liverpool have shown this season the pros and cons of letting deals run into their final year. The performances of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, guiding the Reds to a 13 point lead atop the Premier League, are for certain motivated in part by those players working their hardest to secure lucrative new contracts.

But the flipside is, with no agreement signed, they are both able to walk away from Liverpool for free in just a little over three months time.

© IMAGO - Mohamed Salah has been directly involved in more goals (42) by himself than Man Utd (33) as a club.

And then there's Trent Alexander-Arnold who is looking less connected to Liverpool and seems almost likely to leave as Real Madrid have spent all season openly courting his arrival for free in summer 2025.

Man Utd will want to avoid any such drama with their captain. They recently tied Amad Diallo down until 2030, showcasing the ability to forward plan. And while Amad being 22 years-old is probably the reason he got a longer renewal than the 30 year-old Bruno, the Portuguese is by far the better player.

In fact it's not an exaggeration to say Bruno Fernandes is one of the very best players in the Premier League.

Bruno Fernandes is one of the best

In 2024/25, Bruno Fernandes has 6 goals and 7 assists for a total of 13 G+A. This is not that impressive, but you have to consider the quality of the team he's playing in.

Manchester United are terrible.

And yet according to FBRef, Bruno Fernandes has 129 shot creating actions so far this season, second-only to Cole Palmer's 145. He also has made 59 tackles this season, placing him 20th in the Premier League. And he has 1,091 carries, which is seventh along all players.

The only players who can keep pace with Bruno across these metrics are Moises Caicedo and Bruno Guimaraes; a player who moved for €100 million, and a player who has been priced out of a move because Newcastle refuse to sell him for less than €100 million.

And even then, while Caicedo and Guimaraes can compete for tackles (78 for Caicedo and 57 for Guimaraes) and carries (1,059 and 1,049), neither is close to Fernandes when it comes to shot creating actions, where they have 73 and 88 respectively.

© IMAGO - Bruno Fernandes is one of the very best players in the Premier League this season.

In essence Bruno Fernandes is a box-to-box midfield dynamo who produces and creates like like a world-class winger or attacking midfielder.

Manchester United genuinely would have lost at home to Ipswich were it not for Fernandes' set-pieces driving them back into the game. He set-up the own goal, his corner caused the chaos that led to the equaliser, and then he set-up the winner.

This just a few days after his stunning free-kick got United back into the game against Everton before his free-kick caused chaos and allowed the ball to fall to Manuel Ugarte who smashed in the equaliser.

And that's just the last week!

No one wants to admit it because he's a bit whiny and because Man Utd, as a team, are awful right now. But Bruno Fernandes is a genius.

He's comfortably one of the best players in the Premier League and, with Amad Diallo and Lisandro Martinez out for the rest of the season with injury, Bruno is the only thing keeping the mighty Manchester United from falling into the relegation dogfight.

And United need to sign him to a new contract as soon as they possibly can. Get his future tied to the club and then build around his genius in the next transfer window.