Erik ten Hag has set high standards at Manchester United this season, but Bruno Fernandes might be even more demanding. After watching his team beat Chelsea 4-1 to add a top-four finish to the Carabao Cup, Ten Hag declared his first year at Old Trafford as a success. Fernandes, though, disagrees. And he won’t change his mind even if United beat Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday and lift the FA Cup (10 a.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+).
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“For this club, a successful season is winning the league, winning the Champions League, winning big trophies because the past of this club, the history of this club, is big,” says Fernandes in an interview with ESPN. “The big target in the league is winning it. It was a good season but not a successful one because success is winning. We are now building something we see can be special in the future.”
The target, ultimately, is City. They have won the Premier League title in five of the last six years and reached two of the last three Champions League finals. It’s a level of dominance United used to enjoy under Sir Alex Ferguson and hope, one day, to achieve again. There are some at Old Trafford who choose to shy away from the comparisons with their city rivals, but not Fernandes. “We want to win the league and that’s what they did this season,” he says.
“I think it’s good for everyone to see that even when you’re not 100 percent but the team needs you that you try your best to be there,” he says. “Sometimes it’s not possible. Obviously, in the Tottenham game and the games after that, I was still a little bit painful but I could deal with the pain so I try to carry on. It was not the best shape to play but I could still help the team and the manager thought it was better for me to help the team than not so I did everything that I could.”
He says he also owes a debt of gratitude to his wife, Ana, and his mum and dad for his impressive fitness record. “I like to get my nap time and my wife respects that and takes care of the kids for that hour and a half, an hour, so I can have that more rest,” he says. “Because I think that’s important for me to keep me fit, in the best shape possible. I think it’s all those bits together, and obviously the way my mum and dad made me. They made sure that I was always fit and fit enough to play football.
“Sometimes even Casemiro is joking with me and says ‘you know, you just run for every game and you can play every game because your weight is nothing that’s why.'”
Fernandes’ relentless energy in midfield will be key if United are going to upset the odds and beat City on Saturday. But even if he gets his hands on the FA Cup at Wembley, you still won’t get him to say that the season has been a success. A step forward, yes. But not a success. “We understand that we’re still not at that level to go for more this season,” he concludes. “That’s why we didn’t go further in the league with more points, winning more games.
“But we did understand that we did the right steps, we’re still learning. We can be successful in the future. I think if we win the FA Cup, it will give us a little bit more belief that we can go into the next season and aim for bigger targets. Next season we will have learned so we need to do it better.”
Fernandes, like Ten Hag, will always want more.
