The trouble with being a club in a state of such blind desperation as Manchester United is that the centre no longer holds and individuals can begin imagining themselves untouchable and answerable to no one.
We witnessed this deeply unpleasant process on Wednesday night as the vast ego of the deeply divisive, self-promoting Bruno Fernandes revealed itself.
Bruno is very good on tactics, we’re told. An obsessive student of the game, apparently. And this seemingly made him consider it appropriate to mount a vicious attack on his manager in the aftermath of a scandalously poor performance at Como that resulted in a 4-1 Champions League thumping.
Such nights are the ones when you discover who your real men are – the ones you really want in your trenches – and Bruno, stepping forward with a look of faux solemnity on his face and a vial of poison to dispense, told us plenty about himself.
He is so wrapped up in his own delusion of self-importance that he seemingly imagined that his skewering of Michael Carrick’s tactics would not be seen as the disgraceful act of spite it actually was. He is an insult to the title ‘Manchester United captain’.
The break-in at his family home while he was playing Como is horrible and no one wishes that horror on him. But his behaviour on the pitch has become a pattern, hasn’t it? The way he throws his arms up on the field week in, week out gives a permanent impression that he considers himself so vastly superior to the lesser mortals around him, when his own positional indiscipline is so often the problem. It never, ever seems to be his fault.
Bruno Fernandes mounted a vicious attack on his manager in the aftermath of a scandalously poor performance at Como that resulted in a 4-1 Champions League thumping
This has become a pattern with him, hasn’t it? He considers himself so vastly superior to the lesser mortals around him, when his own positional indiscipline is so often the problem
As Jamie Carragher put it in his excellent analysis for CBS on Wednesday night: ‘He runs all over the place like a kid in the school yard for the supporters. They all think he’s working hard but he is not. He is killing the rest of the team by doing it.’
United’s problems are systemic, of course; rooted in the high and mighty Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a man blind to his own gross incompetence. But if there is one founding principle that has kept this great club together through good times and bad down the years, then it is the collective taking precedence over the individual.
Bruno is not the first United captain to be playing in a side which doesn’t win trophies. Bryan Robson found himself in that same position for years and was in the twilight of his career before a title came. Yet we never heard a word against manager or team from him.
Those principles of discipline and collectivism at United have nearly always been self-policed. The morning after Wayne Rooney publicly challenged Sir Alex Ferguson about the club’s signings, in an infamous press release ahead of a Champions League match against Bursaspor in 2010, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville told him he was out of order. Rooney apologised and, though Manchester City were sniffing around, signed a new contract the following day.
When Roy Keane lambasted team-mates in an MUTV interview which was subsequently pulped, Ferguson privately decreed that it was over between him and the club.
Ask the real men of central midfield, like Robson and Graeme Souness, how they’d solve a problem like those facing United on Wednesday night and they will tell you: ‘You worked it out yourself, on the pitch.’ Ferguson said the only player he allowed to challenge his tactics and change them on the field was Robson, though others had that ability to problem-solve.
Carrick has extracted far more from Fernandes than the hapless Ruben Amorim, by restoring him to his rightful position. He lifted last season’s PFA Player of the Year award because of it.
But the best for all concerned would have been for United to have taken £100million from Saudi Arabia for him, which is what the club were waiting for last year, in anticipation of using that money to rebuild. Only when he knew United were willing to let him go did he dig his heels in to stay.
Sir Alex Ferguson (right) said the only player he allowed to challenge his tactics and change them on the field was Bryan Robson (left, celebrating winning the 1990 FA Cup)
When Roy Keane lambasted team-mates in an MUTV interview which was subsequently pulped, Ferguson privately decreed that it was over between him and the club
Amid the insurrection, Michael Carrick has conducted himself precisely as Ferguson would have – not giving the outside world the satisfaction by publicly censuring these players
It remains to be seen if United have the appeal or resources to attract Carlo Ancelotti – the manager who, far more than Fabian Hurzeler or Antonio Conte, has the presence to handle the most difficult job in world football and restore a semblance of the old authority and unity.
But whoever arrives, there can certainly be no place at Old Trafford for Fernandes, a symptom of the canker at the heart of the place, just like Lisandro Martinez, another who deemed it appropriate to trash the club in public.
Amid the insurrection of the past two weeks, Carrick has publicly conducted himself precisely as his old boss Ferguson would have – not giving the outside world the satisfaction or the headlines by publicly censuring these players. But there is no doubt that the old man would have no place for them now, whatever their contribution on the field.
‘I placed discipline above all else and it might have cost us several titles,’ Ferguson reflected from retirement. ‘But if I had to repeat things, I’d do precisely the same, because once you bid farewell to discipline, you say goodbye to success and set the stage for anarchy.’
