Sir Jim Ratcliffe slams Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes
Tom Weber
- Updated: 11 Dec 2023 16:11 GMT
- 3 min read
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has aimed a dig at Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes in a new book.
The INEOS chief is on the verge of becoming a minority stakeholder in the Red Devils, acquiring a 25 per cent stake and sporting control after a lengthy, year-long saga that is still not officially resolved after yet another delay. Ratcliffe is set to shake things up at Old Trafford and he won't settle for the mediocrity of years past - and this season.
Erik ten Hag's men have lost a whopping 11 of their 23 games this term after being on the wrong side of a 3-0 demolition job by Bournemouth on home soil at the weekend. The result once again ramped the pressure up, particularly on Ten Hag but also on Man Utd's playing squad.
The club's transfer policy has often come under intense scrutiny especially when it comes to signings like that of Antony for €95 million; the Brazilian still does not have a single goal contribution to his name this term. Even someone like new club captain Bruno Fernandes, who has undoubtedly been a great servant to the Red Devils, is increasingly coming under fire.
Ratcliffe slams Bruno
The captain got himself booked for dissent against Bournemouth and will thus miss Man Utd's crucial derby clash with Liverpool due to yellow card accumulation. It once again called into question Ten Hag's decision to strip Harry Maguire of the captaincy and reignited a conversation that has often cropped up this season.
Some believe that Fernandes, though a great player, is not captain material and those voices will have been vindicated during the Bournemouth clash. Even Ratcliffe couldn't help himself and aimed a dig at the Portuguese in his new book Grit, Rigour & Humour: the Ineos Story.
It is ironic that Fernandes will miss the clash with Liverpool because it is precisely this fixture for which Ratcliffe criticised the captain. During last season's historic 7-0 drubbing suffered at the hands of the Reds, Fernandes went down holding his face in agony after a blow...to the chest.
Recalling a trip to the Pacific, Britain's richest man wrote how he "felt the ground tremble every time a Cook Islander smashed into another in a local rugby match" which led to one player being "carted off in the back of a pick-up with a broken leg," yet his reaction was "a far cry from Bruno Fernandes clutching his untouched face in the Liverpool debacle recently."
