Bruno Fernandes has forged his reputation as one of Europe’s top attacking midfielders at Manchester United, boasting the reputation of the club’s best signing since Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2013 retirement. But his captaincy credentials have regularly come under fire, and he didn’t help his side of the debate on Saturday.
Fernandes had been walking on thin ice in recent games, a single booking away from a one-game suspension in the Premier League.
He had accumulated four yellow cards ahead of the humiliating 3-0 humbling against AFC Bournemouth, mostly for arguing with the referee.
And the 29-year-old’s temper got the better of him at Old Trafford on Saturday, entering Peter Bankes’ book for bickering in the 84th minute when the game was long gone.
Fernandes unleashed his frustrations on Bankes, fully well knowing he would miss United’s next domestic game, Sunday’s trip to Anfield to face Liverpool.
The absurd incident returned the captaincy debate under the microscope and wouldn’t have impressed incoming investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Many supporters have accused Fernandes of purposely getting booked to avoid playing against an opposition who have beaten United 4-2, 5-0, 4-0 and 7-0 in their last five meetings.
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His performance in last season’s seven-goal embarrassment on Merseyside was particularly the focus of mass criticism.
Among his critics was Sir Jim, who has aimed shade at Fernandes in his new book, Grit, Rigour & Humour: The Ineos Story.
The 71-year-old revisited his travels, including a trip around the Pacific, during which he witnessed a Cook Islands native “carted off in the back of a pick-up with a broken leg” in a local rugby match.
Sir Jim noted that he “felt the ground tremble every time a Cook Islander smashed into another” before adding a jibe about his boyhood football team.
