Is Bruno Fernandes irreplaceable at Man United?
Talk of the Devils: The Athletic FC's Manchester United show
The Athletic
4.6 • 771 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bruno Fernandes' interview with Portuguese TV's Canal 11 (run by the national football federation) caused some consternation at Manchester United this week. How dramatic were his claims, translation and context allowing, and is it time to consider a life without Bruno?
He'll be as important as he's ever been over the next few weeks with Amad and Mbeumo's goal threat heading to AFCON. Their departure wasn't as tricky as that of Noussair Mazraoui, but all three will be a big miss for a team that is consistently inconsistent, especially when it comes to holding onto a lead.
Villa Park will be the venue for United's next big test; they are very good... or are they, Mark Critchley? Either way, it should be a feisty encounter... although probably not quite as feisty as that of United's women when they face Atletico Madrid in the UWCL play-off round (note: the draw took place after this conversation was recorded).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FFC. |
| 0:19.1 | This is Talk of the Devils, Athletic Show, dedicated to Manchester United. |
| 0:23.0 | Coming up today, we discussed Bruno Fernandez's latest comments about exactly what happened with him staying at Manchester United last summer. |
| 0:31.1 | Lots to unpack there. |
| 0:32.6 | We'll have a look at United with AFCON now affecting their selection as they head towards an Aston Villa game |
| 0:39.4 | where their record is really good and that's both Aston Villa's recent record but also |
| 0:44.5 | Manchester United's head-to-head record against our position. We always like a trip to Villa |
| 0:49.2 | Park. Let's hope the weekend is exactly the same. Let's say hello to everyone. |
| 0:56.3 | First up, Carl, Andy Critch, how we doing? |
| 0:56.7 | You okay? |
| 0:59.8 | All good, thank you very much. |
| 1:05.8 | That was a lovely silent nod collection that I was presented with there. Perfect for the audio format. |
| 1:07.9 | Yeah, it's great. |
| 1:08.9 | I mean, it works for YouTube, I suppose, so that's good. Let's get straight |
| 1:12.9 | into it. So we recorded our last episode on Tuesday shortly before these quotes began circulating |
| 1:20.7 | from Bruno Fernandez. Critch, it took a little bit of investigating to work out what he'd said, who he'd said it to, |
| 1:29.5 | and actually the accuracy of some of the quotes that were being put out as well. |
| 1:32.9 | Can you explain first? |
| 1:34.6 | Yeah, so this interview went live on a Portuguese television channel called Canal 11 at about 1045 on Monday night. |
| 1:46.2 | So really not that long whatsoever after the final whistle sounded at Old |
| 1:50.3 | traffic after the Bournemouth game. |
| 1:52.1 | The quotes over here in England only really started to come out the following morning. |
... |
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