The willingness of Man United's bungling bigwigs to cash in on Bruno Fernandes is incredible - brain farts are their modern DNA, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

It's easy to calculate Bruno Fernandes ’s worth to Manchester United . Easier still to see why individuals at a club so preoccupied with financial turnover would make such a spectacular balls-up in their choice of which numbers to value.

His claim that the club were open to selling him in the summer ('United wanted me to leave, I have that in my head. I think they didn't have the courage because Ruben Amorim wanted me here, but from the club's side I felt that, if I left, it wouldn't be so bad') is no great surprise on two fronts. One being that this mindless plot was reported thoroughly at the time. The second is more fundamental - this is United, where bad deeds are rarely preceded by sensible discussions.

Brain farts are their modern DNA. From the Class of '92 to the Classless without a Clue.

How to fix the dire mess of the 2024-25 campaign? Here’s an idea: offload the best player, one of the few guys in a dressing room of drifters and grifters who genuinely cares.

Naturally, United maintain their leadership always wanted him. That this is a misunderstanding or possibly a nuance lost in translation. But it’s been years since they had a functional defence so any PR work to lessen the blow of Fernandes’s explosive words ought to be taken lightly.

Was it wise for him to speak out? Probably not. It will destabilise the club further and serves as another example of a captain whose emotions too often dominate quieter instincts. With it, he has set a fire Ruben Amorim could have done without.

Captain Bruno Fernandes has revealed that the Manchester United hierarchy were open to selling him last summer

United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been looking for ways to cut costs since Ineos have been at the club but selling Bruno would have been madness

His motives are currently unclear. Were they the words of a 31-year-old who wants out? It would be a more subtle version of the Mo Salah shuffle; more of a signposting to his disgruntlement than a screeching flare in the sky.

But whatever his driver behind those comments, the words throw a brighter light on the ongoing failings of a club forever seeking new ways to overlook the obvious.

If there was even a single element of the club hierarchy minded to cash in during the summer, then the latest version of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s politburo is no smarter than the bungling collective of thinkers that went before it.

Doubtless they were thinking of optimal times to sell an ageing asset. That can be smart. But timing cuts two ways.

Because what message would it have sent to the watching world, and prospective new arrivals, if that horrendous carnation of Manchester United put a balance item ahead of the need to keep their creative and cultural pulse at that moment in their history?

That’s a player who scored eight and made 11 in the Premier League last season. And a club that finished 15th. For an operation that lives almost entirely off its branding, what a nonsense to even consider broadcasting such a line of thinking to their fans and rivals.

Of course, this campaign has proven that life remains in Fernandes’s legs. United took only a point from their three leads against Bournemouth on Monday, but what would that result have looked like without him? He got the assist for 2-1 and scored a belter for 3-3.

Bruno scored a belter for United in the 4-4 draw with Bournemouth. Where would they be without him?

Bruno gives his bombshell interview to a talk show in Portugal. 'United wanted me to leave,' he said, 'I have that in my head'

Against Wolves, he got the goals for 1-0 and 4-1 and the assist for 3-1, and his two assists turned the match against Crystal Palace.

Those are three games he directly shaped in an unbeaten run of four.

On a broader sample, he has more assists than any player in the Premier League this season. In five years, he has even more than Paul Scholes in the history of United and created almost 600 chances – that outweighs anyone across Europe’s top-five divisions by a significant distance and has been achieved at a club resembling a basket case for too long.

If he initiated a split, who would have blamed him? If anyone else had that bright idea, they should be kept away from heavy machinery for life.