Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has been told to leave the Premier League giants as a “natural separation” could be coming soon.

Fernandes has been criticised at times this season, with his attitude often questioned by pundits and the wider media.

However, the Man Utd captain has been one of their stronger performers in a disastrous season as they sit 14th in our Premier League form table.

The Portugal international is likely one of the only Man Utd players safe as most of their squad are at risk of being sold in the summer as part of a mass overhaul sanctioned by head coach Ruben Amorim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recruitment team.

The 30-year-0ld is under contract until 2027 and would attract interest from several European giants if he pursued a transfer.

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Former Chelsea and England midfielder Joe Cole thinks Fernandes should leave Man Utd as his exit would “benefit both”.

“I think there could be a natural separation for Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United. He’s a brilliant footballer,” Cole said.

“He’s not a perfect footballer like Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes or Kevin De Bruyne but he’s a brilliant footballer who has been absolutely fantastic for Manchester United during the most difficult period the club has had in 40 years.

“He can more than hold his head up with what he’s achieved in Manchester, but I think he deserves to play in a better team. It’ll be a nice separation point for the club, and it will benefit both.”

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Earlier this week, Roy Keane blasted Fernandes in an extraordinary outburst and Amorim has since hit back at the club legend, claiming his “opinion” on the experienced midfielder is “more important”.

“I heard about that. I have a different opinion,” Amorim responded.

“Bruno is really important for us and the club. He is playing well in a difficult context. He wants always the responsibility.

“I know sometimes as a captain he does things with his arms but most of all it is a lot of frustration for this year and the last year. He wants to win and sometimes it is hard to deal with that frustration.

“Everyone has an opinion. Roy Keane has big standards from his time at the club and it is normal to have an opinion. I have an opposite opinion and I think my opinion is more important than Roy Keane’s because I am the coach.”

Manchester United and the FA Cup are among five saviours of the 2024/25 run-in with the Premier League title and relegation picture settled in February.

The 24/25 campaign has been the most unpredictable and entertaining for some time, with Arne Slot’s brilliant Liverpool usurping struggling pair Manchester City and Arsenal as the runaway Premier League leaders.

The dichotomy of Liverpool being good and City/Arsenal being bad has made for a one-sided title race, and a long-awaited 20th triumph is already near certain for the Anfield faithful.

The relegation picture has also been disappointing; the woes suffered by the dire promoted three made Man Utd and Tottenham Hostpur’s fears of the bottom three more fleeting than their disastrous season warrant.

Wolves – largely thanks to Matheus Cunha – are gradually widening the gap to the bottom three, and it’s hard to see the five-point margin being overturned in the remaining 11 matches.

This remarkable campaign is somewhat damaged by the Premier League title and relegation situation being settled before March, but there are five intriguing narratives to ensure this run-in could still be an all-timer…

A wild Champions League race
The ongoing dip suffered by *most* of the Big Six has opened the door for the rest of the division to smash open a previously closed shop as eight teams battle over three Champions League spots between third and fifth.

Arsenal’s negligence in the transfer market has ended their title hopes, but the second spot *should* be theirs as they sit five points clear of shock Champions League candidates Nottingham Forest in third.

Then there are only six points separating Forest and tenth-placed Aston Villa, which is groundbreaking really. This race for Europe will include a boatload of six-pointers and a potentially breathless final day as the contenders swap positions by the minute. Strap us in.

READ: Premier League winners and losers: Liverpool crowned champions, all eyes now on European scramble

Journey to Enzo Maresca and/or Ange Postecoglou sack
Champions-in-waiting Liverpool have also benefited from the severe decline suffered by Chelsea since the pre-David Moyes era draw at Everton on December 22.

From having a game in hand to move to the top of the league, Chelsea have dropped to fifth and are looking over their shoulders with previously lauded Maresca coming under increasing scrutiny.

Tuesday night’s visit of Southampton provided welcome respite for Maresca and Chelsea, but their over-reliance on Cole Palmer has been exposed with the England international’s dealing with an uncharacteristic poor run of form.

Maresca is among the favourites to be the next Premier League manager sacked, but Postecoglou is ahead of the Chelsea boss in the odds as Spurs sit alongside Man Utd in the bottom half.

Tottenham’s highly publicised injury woes were a justified caveat for their struggles. Still, Postecoglou did himself no favours with his early-season trophy declaration, and his baffling team selection for the loss against Man City has raised fresh doubts about his future.

It may prove too late in the season for the pre-summer sacking of Postecoglou/Maresca, but Chelsea and Tottenham’s respective performances during the run-in could be defining with the current trend leaning towards at least one head coach losing their job in the coming months.

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Manchester United’s crisis
There have also been whispers regarding the potential exit of Ruben Amorim, which is surely unthinkable given Man Utd’s strapped budget and the ‘eye-watering’ fee it would cost INEOS to sack him.

Amorim is only partly to blame for United’s worsened demise post-Erik ten Hag. He may already regret taking INEOS up on their mid-season ultimatum as he’s perhaps bitten off more than he can chew, given the magnitude of the job facing him at Old Trafford.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe inherited a basket case; this has been made more severe by his poor key decision-making in his first year post-takeover as he’s gone from hero to villain about as quickly as Patrick Dorgu has earned pre-flop status following his £25m January transfer.

Amorim joined Man Utd brimming with optimism and has the charisma Ten Hag lacked in spades, but he may soon look just as tired as his predecessor while desperately trying to steady the sinking Old Trafford ship with their recent work in the transfer market not giving us confidence that this summer’s necessary rebuild will bear fruit.

Before then, Amorim’s Man Utd are tasked with salvaging something from this season with a potential saving grace in a cup competition required with an embarrassing bottom-half Premier League finish looking increasingly likely…

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Wide open FA Cup
It could be deja vu at Man Utd with the floundering Premier League giants once again leaning on the FA Cup for some semblance of positivity.

Thankfully for United, this year’s FA Cup is wide open heading into this weekend’s fifth round with the Red Devils and Man City the only remaining Big Six sides in the competition.

Carabao Cup finalists Newcastle United have the distant hope of a double as they are with Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest in surely getting giddy at a huge opportunity to end their trophy drought or win their first trophy.

Man Utd and Man City are certainly beatable and these outsiders will fancy their chances against any side remaining in this season’s FA Cup. So the competition could culminate with two competitors who really give a sh*t, which would make for a nice change.

The Goodison Park farewell
Everton’s Goodison Park farewell year is proving to be a season of two halves as another relegation near-miss was on the cards under former boss Sean Dyche.

Unsatisfied with depressing mediocrity in the final year at Goodison, The Friedkin Group took a risk and tapped into fan nostalgia by re-appointing Moyes in a decision that’s gone better than anyone imagined it could.

Concerns remain regarding the shelf life of Moyes as a similar model to pragmatic former boss Dyche, but the club legend is getting much more out of Everton’s limited squad than his predecessor; they are pretty much safe after four wins and three draws in their last nine matches.

This enables the Toffees faithful to enjoy their five remaining games at Goodison Park – against West Ham, Arsenal, Man City, Ipswich Town and Southampton – without the looming threat of relegation and given the state of each upcoming opponent, it would not be overly surprising if Everton extend their current four-match unbeaten home Premier League to nine to bid an emotional goodbye to their beloved ground with a flourish.

Man Utd legend Gary Neville insists that the Glazer family are to blame after their “absolute s****fest” has led to the current “mess” under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

The Red Devils are having a nightmare season with Ruben Amorim’s side currently 14th in the Premier League table after beating Ipswich Town 3-2 on Wednesday.

Man Utd recruited around £180m worth of players in the summer transfer window while Erik ten Hag was still at the club before changing manager at the end of October after a poor run of results.

But things have got even worse under Amorim with the Portuguese head coach winning five of 15 Premier League matches since taking over in November.

Ratcliffe has failed to endear himself to fans either with the INEOS chief embarking on a number of cost-cutting measures, including mass redundancies.

It was reported earlier this week that Ratcliffe had even chosen to take away free lunches for staff in the Old Trafford canteen, which could save the club around £1m.

But that is likely to be at the cost of club morale and Neville reckons Ratcliffe’s recent decision-making has been “desperate” and ‘is a culmination of absolute s****fest of management from the Glazers’.

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Neville said on Stick To Football: “About three years ago, I said that United needed to bring money in. It was a car crash waiting to happen.

“The club’s finances are shot, absolutely shot to pieces. The debt, the recruitment’s been reckless, the increase in staff from 600 up to 1,200, which is just unbelievable, the lack of Champions League football, which is £30, 40, 50 million a year, it’s an absolute mess. The club has run out of cash.

“What you now see are desperate decisions. Some of them I think are needed, some are bad. You don’t remove food off people at Old Trafford, you don’t take £40K off the ex-players.

“And to be fair, (the sacking of) Dan Ashworth was a mess, because that’s someone you’ve chased for eight months and you get rid of after three months, that’s a shocker and that’s £4m.

“But this is a culmination of absolute s****fest of management from the Glazers. To the point whereby a £1bn has been paid off in interest, the club has dipped off in terms of performance, cash flow, profit – it’s lost £300m in three years.

“Man United used to be the most profitable football club – in 2018 they had £350m in the bank. from that point on now, I think (Ratcliffe’s) Ineos put in £300m and there’s not much of that left.”

Fellow pundit Ian Wright added on the Glazers: “They’ve come from America and come to the biggest club in the country. At the end of the day, something has to be done.”

Ruben Amorim and Manchester United chief executive Omar Berrada were “divided” on a potential January signing that collapsed, a club president has claimed.

There has been a major overhaul at Man Utd since Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover of the Premier League giants at the start of 2024.

The INEOS chief has overhauled United’s recruitment model as chief executive Berrads, technical director Jason Wilcox and sporting director Dan Ashworth were drafted in.

Ashworth’s stint at Man Utd proved short-lived. Since his exit, Christopher Vivell has become their permanent director of recruitment on a multi-year deal.

There has also been a change in the dugout as Amorim has replaced former head coach Erik ten Hag and has endured a nightmare start at Man Utd, who sit 14th in our Premier League form table.

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Man Utd worked with a limited budget in January as they are already second in our five-year net spend table and needed to offload unwanted talents to raise funds for additions.

Marcus Rashford and Antony were the only players offloaded by Man Utd as they joined Aston Villa and Real Betis on loan.

This meant Patrick Dorgu was the only player brought in for a fee, with Man Utd investing an initial £25m to sign the former Lecce left wing-back.

The Red Devils were also linked with several other potential targets and it’s claimed that they considered a raid on Argentinian side Velez Sarsfield for young centre-back Valentin Gomez.

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The 21-year-old is a left-sided centre-back and was capped eight times for Argentina at the U20 level.

It is claimed that he was targeted as a replacement for Lisandro Martinez, who is currently out of action with a knee injury.

Martinez picked up his injury after the January transfer window closed and Velez Sarsfield president Berlanga claims Gomez’s contract would have been “terminated” to join Man Utd on a free transfer if they stepped up their interest.

However, Berlanga also claims Amorim and United CEO Berrada clashed on the transfer, but he does not say who exactly “said no” to the deal.

“It wasn’t a transfer; it was a termination. Once the player signs the payment commitment, he is free to do what he wants,” Berlanga said.

“Through someone I know, I asked Manchester United to find out if they wanted him because of Licha Martínez’s injury. It was divided between the CEO and the coach, and they said no.”