"When we struggled the most, I stayed present" - Bruno Fernandes claims he rejected multiple chances to leave Manchester United

Bruno Fernandes has revealed that he had the opportunity to leave Manchester United twice but chose to stay because he believes in the club’s abilities to win trophies.

The Portuguese midfielder hit the headlines earlier this week after accusing Manchester United of wanting to sell him in the summer. However, he insisted that he decided to stay because of his love for the club.

“When I came to the club, apart from loving being here and loving the club, I think my loyalty was like in the toughest periods I had the club, and I could have left two times,” he told the Rio Ferdinand Presents Podcast.

“The club said, ‘No, we need you.’ And I said, Okay, you gave me something. I will give you something. Obviously, I think the time at the club has not been as I wanted because, obviously, I wanted to lift trophies, and I haven't lift as many as I should and I could.

Fernandes doubled down on his loyalty to Manchester United, saying he opted to remain at the club even during their most turbulent periods. He continued:

“But at the same time, I think everything I've done for the club in a certain way was still very important and not taking nothing away from other players that were here and everything. I think when we struggled the most, I stayed present to the club, and I think everyone at the club, I hope is aware of that because the chances I had were very good.

Fernandes also opined that he could have won more trophies if he had left Old Trafford and that the narrative surrounding his career would have been different.

“So, I'm very aware that I could have done a different path. I could have gone in a different way and probably winning more trophies and people talking about me in a different way because I've had trophies into my cabinet. So nowadays people talk more like you are a better player or a worse player if you win or you lose trophies,” he said.

Bruno Fernandes reveals Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s impact on his game at Manchester United

In the same episode, Bruno Fernandes credited former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the motivation behind his risk-taking style of play at the club. Fernandes joined United from Sporting CP in 2020 for a reported fee of €65 million under Solskjaer’s tenure.

Fernandes revealed that Norwegian manager told him to ‘take risks,’ believing it was one of the reasons the club signed him.

“When I came to the club and obviously, I had Ole as a manager that was a player for the club and the first thing he said to me was ‘I want to get on the ball. I want you to take risks. The Bruno at Sporting, I want to see it here.’ So in my head was ‘okay brought me because they saw something in me that will be fitting into this club. So, I can’t change. I just can improve that’. And obviously you have to know when taking the risks and when is the best time to take that risk,” he said.

Over his five years at Manchester United, Fernandes has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. To date, he has scored 103 goals and provided 93 assists in 307 appearances for the club.