Bruno Fernandes has become the first Manchester United player to publicly address the recent comments made by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Earlier this week, the British billionaire made headlines when he admitted that some players at Old Trafford are simply “not good enough”, while some are “probably overpaid” amid their recent struggles.
United currently sit 14th in the Premier League with nine wins from a possible 28 games, and although their form in the Europa League has impressed, Ratcliffe delivered a scathing assessment of their squad this week.
Speaking to the BBC, he name-checked the likes of Casemiro, Antony and Jadon Sancho as players his regime had “inherited”.
“If you look at the players we are buying this summer – that we didn’t buy – we’re buying Antony, we’re buying Casemiro, we’re buying [Andre] Onana, we’re buying [Rasmus] Hojlund, we’re buying [Jadon] Sancho,” Ratcliffe said.
“These are all things from the past, whether we like it or not, we’ve inherited those things and have to sort that out. For Sancho, who now plays for Chelsea and we pay half his wages, we’re paying £17m to buy him in the summer.”
After the word “overpaid” was brought up in conversation, Ratcliffe made an admission that would soon make its way to the Manchester United dressing room.
“Some are not good enough, some are probably overpaid,” he admitted. “But for us to mould a squad, that we are fully responsible for, and accountable for, will take time. We’ve got this period where we will move from the past to the future and we are in the middle of that period.”
“There are some great players in the squad as we know,” Ratcliffe added. “The captain is a fabulous footballer. We definitely need Bruno [Fernandes]. Without him it would be really tough.”
United captain Fernandes has since admitted it was “not nice” for the dressing room to hear Ratcliffe’s “not good enough” claim.
Speaking after he scored a hat-trick in the club’s 4-1 win over Real Sociedad on Thursday night, the Portuguese midfielder made his feelings clear.
Fernandes has been United’s standout performer this season. Image credit: Getty
“It’s not nice to hear certain things obviously,” he said. “I don’t think that any player likes to hear criticism or things that are talked about you, that you’re not good enough or you’re overpaid or whatever.”
Fernandes added: “Everyone has their own contract. The club agrees to do the contracts at the time you come here or at the time you do a new contract or whatever and it’s about yourself proving that you can be important for the club.”
The 30-year-old also revealed that he turned down an offer to leave United last summer.
“I sat with the club because I had an offer to leave,” said Fernandes. “We talked about the possibility of me leaving the club or staying. They said what they wanted from me. I just asked if they still see me as part of the future of the club or not. I spoke at the time with (Erik) Ten Hag also.
“He was very clear with me, the club was very clear with me, that they thought I would be a big part of this rebuild. I thought that we could be successful.”
