Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has refuted suggestions that uncertainty over the future of manager Erik ten Hag is having a negative impact on the team’s performances.
The Portuguese midfielder explained his teammates are capable of focusing on playing matters while the “owners and directors” can take care of the Dutch coach’s future.
Ten Hag’s tenure has come under even closer scrutiny after they after throwing away a three-goal second half lead to stumble through an FA Cup semi-final against Championship Coventry City on penalties.
Fernandes indicated the players are fully aware of what is being discussed within and outside Old Trafford but insisted it is not their concern. “Why should we be worried?” he asked. “It’s not our job to worry about these things that come from someone outside, or inside, or whatever because we have the owners to take care of that and we have the directors and then we, as players, it is about performing on the pitch.
”It (the ten Hag situation) doesn’t have to affect anyone because we have to focus on everything that we can achieve this season. We have still chances to get into Europe via the league. We have to finish as high as possible. That’s the main thing and then we have an FA Cup Final to play.”
Fernandes, a £67million signing from Sporting in January 2020, is already on his fourth United manager having signed for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and played under interim coaches Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick before Erik ten Hag was installed almost exactly two years ago.
And he revealed afterwards it was United technical director Darren Fletcher who gave the players their Wembley inspiration to get over the line against Coventry. Former Scotland midfielder Fletcher won five Premier League titles, a League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League winners’ medal in over a decade as a player at the club.
Fernandes explained: “We had Fletch speaking to us before the game. He was part of one of the best teams of Manchester United in the past years. He told us how he played for us for about 12 years and played at Wembley only three times and won the FA Cup once. And he was probably in the most successful part of the club in the last years. So it shows you how big it is to be in the FA Cup Final and how difficult it is to get there.
“We have to be frustrated with the way that the game ended up against Coventry, but at the same time proud that we did it again to be in the FA Cup Final. Hopefully, we can do it differently than last season (when they lost to Manchester City).”
