Manchester United have finally added their first player this January window, and it is in fact the guy everyone thought it would be: Sporting CP midfielder Bruno Fernandes.
The Spaniard was potentially set to move to United in the summer, but for whatever reason, MUFC just didn’t make it happen. Here in the winter window, the Fernandes ‘will or won’t he’ transfer saga was tedious to say the least! It’s on, it’s off, it’s on, it’s off- it got so protracted that even Jose Mourinho went out of his way to make a snarky remark about it. Well, who’s laughing now, Jose? The club sent out official confirmation a few hours ago,
Manchester United is delighted to announce it has reached agreement with Sporting Clube de Portugal for the transfer of Bruno Fernandes.
The deal is subject to a medical and the agreement of personal terms.
A further announcement will be made in due course. pic.twitter.com/6bDVHszxL1
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 29, 2020
As you can see from above, the deal is still not finalized, and there are some Ts to cross and Is to dot, but finally, the breakthrough for Old Trafford on this one is here. So what is all going to cost MUFC?
Sporting posted that specifics of the deal include an initial €55 million payment with €25m in add-ons. It breaks down like this: €5m related to individual appearances, €5m hinging on United’s achievements and €15m subject to Fernandes’ individual accolades. So that’s 80 million Euro, potentially.
Given how the buying club is United, and this is their position group of strongest need, and they’re injury ravaged in the unit (Paul Pogba, Scott McTominay) on top of it, the figure sounds about right.
Anyway, welcome to the club Bruno Fernandes and welcome to the January transfer window Manchester United.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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