Man United owe modern great Bruno Fernandes a major trophy | OneFootball

As “I was there” moments go, Patrick Dorgu heading home a corner to put Manchester United’s ahead at Brighton and Hove Albion on the last day of the season wasn’t the most illustrious.

For United it was a match utterly without jeopardy, third place already secured through the relentless late-season form which won Michael Carrick the permanent role. But for one man it was a chance to make history, a chance duly seized.

Bruno achievement

For the peerless Bruno Fernandes, fresh from being crowned Premier League Player of the Season, Dorgu’s header represented the pinnacle of a season of relentless, often thankless graft.

Dorgu’s goal may have snagged Fernandes the Premier League record for assists made in a single season, but it also feels like vindication for a football visionary cruelly shackled to one of the most dysfunctional outfits in the sport.

The mood at United may be rosy right now, the club piloted back to the Champions League by their overachieving new boss, but zoom out to view the past six and a half years as one seething mass and the colour drains, the clouds form.

Difficult time to be a red

Fernandes may have won three trophies with the club since joining in January 2020 – an FA Cup, a Carabao Cup and a Europa League – but he has also played for four permanent managers and a ragtag group of interims and caretakers.

A player of his calibre can reasonably expect to be contesting top honours as part of a cutting-edge project – and yet here he still is, buffeted from Solskjaer to Carrick via Ten Hag and Amorim, his love for the club plain and unblemished.

Last summer there seemed a real possibility of his departure, and the fact that he would willingly even be sold if that was what United needed most from him is almost heartbreaking.

One of the true greats of his generation deserves more from his employer, for whom he strains every sinew even in dead-rubber matches to drag to the closest thing to success they can manage.

Complete numbers

That final-day assist – awarded despite suspicions of an own goal – nudged his total assists for the club just past his goals scored, 108 to 107. His return of 215 goal involvements in 327 games is remarkable, and their parity indicates quite how complete a creative force he is.

In his first full season at the club he scored 28 goals; this season it was 22 assists in all competitions. Whatever United need, however deep a hole they’ve dug for themselves, the Portuguese finds something from somewhere. Where they would be without him, had his move to Tottenham Hotspur come off, doesn’t bear thinking about.

Modern legend

The general lack of quality around him since his arrival from Sporting is a statement of fact. Twenty-one Premier League assists is a record, but the mind boggles at the thought of Fernandes at the heart of a world class outfit like United’s crosstown rivals.

The United captain created 133 chances this season – the next best was Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai on 75, a quite astonishing statistic that shows just how productive Fernandes is. His achievement this season gets even more extraordinary considering his first assist came in October, and that he played a deeper role under Amorim until he was replaced in January.

This season has rightfully foregrounded Fernandes, and the individual accolades he is gathering are long overdue. His name is finally etched into the Premier League history books but nowhere near as deeply as it is in United’s, where he has been unquestionably the best player of his generation.

He must be appreciated now as one of the greats, and the least the club can do to repay his unswerving loyalty is challenge for top honours before he leaves.

Featured image Stu Forster via Getty Images

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The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social