Saudi interested in signing Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes

You are watching Backpages Tonight. Welcome back to you and welcome back to the Athletics football correspondent David Ornstein and the Daily Mail's Chief Sports Feature Writer Riyadh al-Samarai. David, come to you with James Ducker's piece in the Telegraph on the front page of the Sports Supplement. Saudi's offer Fernandez £1m a week to leave United. Al-Halal the club in question. Any legs in this story, David, do you think? Well, there's been a long-term interest, Teddy, from the Saudi Pro League in Bruno Fernandez. I think there were proposals last summer before he signed a new contract at United that keeps him there until I think 2027, possibly with an option to extend by 12 months. Al-Halal were, if I remember correctly, in the market for Mo Salah. He obviously decided to sign a new deal at Liverpool. And so perhaps their attention has turned back to Bruno Fernandez, who's been incredible for Manchester United throughout his time at the club and especially in difficult circumstances this season. His goals and assists are right up there with the best players and they'd be lost without him, which is why in their mind he's not going anywhere. They won't want to entertain offers, let alone his departure. If they're going to be shifting players and they will be this summer, quite spectacularly, I imagine they won't want Fernandez to be one of them. They want to build around him, even though he turns 31 this year, his productivity is still there. And the soundings we're getting from these reports are that Bruno Fernandez is not interested in the move as things stand. Now, we don't know if that will change with the sort of numbers that might be proposed and they will become eye-watering, I'm sure, if they really want to go for Bruno Fernandez. But if he wants to stay and continue his career in Europe and Manchester United genuinely have no intent in cashing in on him, regardless of their financial situation, then I imagine it's a story that will end in him remaining at Old Trafford over the summer and into next season. As David says there, Riyadh, especially when you consider he's been playing deep-lying midfield for some of this season in one of the worst Manchester United teams we can remember. 19 goals and 18 assists, is he irreplaceable? And do you expect him maybe to have a little bit of leverage to want some assurances from Ruben Amirim about what the actual plan is? I think he'd be entitled to seek those assurances, even if Al-Hilal weren't putting crazy money on the table. He might fancy joining an upwardly mobile club, but we know what the Saudi league is, we know where they stand compared to Manchester United, so I'd be utterly amazed if he'd even consider this stage in his career when he's 30. But he'd have every right to ask United what their plans are, when is there going to be some coherence in this strategy they've got, when are they going to start bringing in players that are suitable for the Premier League, suitable for Manchester United, and equipped to get them moving forward again. I'd be amazed if he hadn't been having those conversations for the last couple of seasons, to be perfectly honest. But yeah, he has been their standout by a distance. I think we can all have a debate about his captaincy merits in terms of his temperament on the pitch, the way he sometimes behaves. But as a player, he's fantastic, and I think we've already touched on the stats there, 19 goals, 18 assists. In that team, I think you could make an argument in that context for player of the season. It'd be amazing, wouldn't it, if that came about. We'll see what happens with Bruno Fernandes.