It’s easy to forget that Manchester United were a team going nowhere before the arrival of Bruno Fernandes, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was in a slump in his first full season in charge.
In Fernandes’ last game before signing for £56m at the end of January 2020, United lost 2-0 at home to Burnley, their 12th Premier League defeat since Solskjaer became permanent manager in March last year. They won just 11 times during that time.
At the end of the 2019/20 season, following disruption due to the coronavirus, the Red Devils finished third with a win over Leicester City on the final day, with Fernandes scoring 20 goals and assists in all competitions in his first 20 games for the club alone.
The Portuguese genius has been and continues to be a difference maker from the start, but now may be the time to lighten the creative burden on him.
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Old Trafford have long relied heavily on Fernandes creatively, and the 31-year-old is arguably at his peak, having provided a record-breaking 21 assists this season at the weekend.
With so much attention focused on the captain’s heroic performance, the struggles of those around him have been obscured, and no player even comes close to the top level in terms of assists.
Actually, how many do you think the second place player got? Just four, courtesy of Patrick Dawg. The gulf in that sector between Fernandes and the rest is seismic.
Manchester United – PL 25/26 assists | |
|---|---|
player | assist |
Fernandez | twenty one |
i go to sleep | 4 |
Amado | 3 |
share | 3 |
Mbeumo | 3 |
Casemiro | 2 |
Cunha | 2 |
Maguire | 2 |
Mainu | 2 |
But all that could change with the arrival of a new player, with Italy’s Tuttosport suggesting talks have been held to sign Fernandes’ compatriot Afonso Moreira via United.
According to reports, INEOS have made inquiries about signing the 21-year-old, despite facing rival interest from clubs in Germany and Italy.
Lyon, his current club, sold Rayan Cherki to Manchester City in a similar bargain last summer amid ongoing financial problems, and will be able to cash in with a transfer fee of just 25 million euros (approximately 2.1 billion yen).
Why Moreira could be Manchester United’s other Fernandes
It’s no surprise that Matheus Cunha, Brian Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesco all scored in double figures in the league, with Fernandes registering back-to-back assists following a string of marquee signings last summer.
Cunha and Mbeumo will need to do more creatively, but they both registered just five assists, with Amad contributing just three on the final day, his first of 2026.
That may be where Moreira makes a difference, with the youngster enjoying an impressive individual campaign in France after arriving from Portugal last summer.
The promising playmaker, who grew up at Fernandes’ former club Sporting CP, can play across the front line, but is usually deployed on the left, allowing his creative talents to flourish in that wide role.
In total, he finished the 2025/26 season with four goals and seven assists in Ligue 1, while creating 10 “big chances” and averaging 1.2 key passes per game.
For context, Fernandes led the way with 33 ‘big chances’ created, but again, the gulf between him and the rest of the players at United was wide, with Amad second with just seven.
Moreira may not yet be at the level of his compatriot, but he may be closer to Fernandes in a creative sense than anyone currently at Old Trafford.
Moreira, who was previously hailed as “one of the most talented players of his generation” by scout Jacek Kulig, impressed in European competition in 2025/26, scoring four goals and assisting in just seven games in the Europa League, despite starting just three games.
This is all the more remarkable considering he only had a small taste of senior football before this season, spending much of his time with Sporting’s ‘B’ team.
Either way, he appears to be a new Portuguese superstar in the mold of Fernandes, and United and INEOS could sign a bargain deal this summer.
Indeed, the player handed his debut by Ruben Amorim in Lisbon could shine in Manchester as the latest player to have links with Sporting.
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