Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes could have been turning out for a different Premier League club, he has revealed!
The Portugal international sealed a £47 million move to Old Trafford in the January transfer window, per BBC Sport, and has been in excellent form since his switch.
Fernandes has made a total of nine appearances for United thus far, scoring three goals and registering four assists, per Transfermarkt.
But he has now revealed that he could well have moved to Tottenham Hotspur instead.
Indeed, speaking on Instagram Live, as transcribed by The Manchester Evening News, he said that Spurs had expressed their interest first when Mauricio Pochettino was still in charge.
He claimed, though, that his former club Sporting Lisbon were not keen to sell, and subsequently the deal fell through.
He said: “The first club that was close to signing me was Tottenham.
"With Pochettino…But I don’t know maybe they thought the amount Sporting wanted was too much so in that moment Sporting decide they don’t want to sell.
"Tottenham came in the summer but Manchester [United] was in January. Maybe Tottenham came again in January but when I knew Manchester was interested I just wanted to talk to Manchester.
"Manchester was my dream team in England so I am happy because I have the chance to go to a team that I always [dreamed about] you know.
"At that time [last summer] it was Tottenham that was closer to me. There was other teams from France, one team from the Spanish league but for me when I talked the first team was Manchester."
GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…
This is something of a sliding doors moment.
Fernandes could well have become a cornerstone of Pochettino’s new-look Spurs, if he’d completed his move to the club last summer.
Instead, they signed Giovani Lo Celso on an initial loan deal and he then picked up an injury while playing for Argentina; he played just eight times in the league under the former Spurs boss, completing the 90 minutes only once, in his final game in charge against Sheffield United.
Perhaps a deal for Fernandes would have seen Lo Celso stay with Real Betis and it may well have saved Pochettino’s job if he had hit the ground running in north London as he has done in Manchester.
We’ll never know, but Spurs certainly tried.