Director hails ‘amazing’ Manchester United star he once signed for just £2m

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Cristiano Giaretta signed Bruno Fernandes twice when he was working as a sporting director in Italy and the now-Watford chief knew that the Manchester United captain would become an ‘amazing player’. 

A Portugal international he may be, but it was in Italy where Bruno Fernandes made his name. And, for that, he owes Cristiano Giaretta a debt of gratitude, the Watford chief taking a punt on a little-known teenager at Novarra before reuniting with Bruno Fernandes at Udinese in the summer of 2013.

Now the captain of Premier League giants Manchester United, Giaratta is proud of the role he played in Fernandes’ evolution into one of Europe’s finest attack-minded midfielders.

Manchester United ace started out in Serie A

“I was the only sporting director in Italy who went out and signed this young guy from Portugal for 40,000 euros,” Giaretta explains, speaking to the Watford Observer.

“When I went from Novara to Udinese, I took Bruno Fernandes with me because it was clear he was an amazing player. I think we paid 2.5 million euros for him.

“A few years later, Bruno Fernandes signed for Manchester United in a deal that, with bonuses, was worth in total 100 million euros.”

Fernandes played 86 Serie A games for Udinese before taking his game to another level Sporting Lisbon, via a brief stay at Sampdoria.

Bruno Fernandes now a world-class player

“Sometimes the deals work out. Other times, for many reasons, they don’t,” Giaretta adds, Fernandes’ rock-solid mentality as integral to his rise as his supreme technical ability.

“And that is because it is impossible to control all the variables in football. If you think you can then you are silly, because you cannot.

“When you watch a player, that is not enough, because you don’t know what is in the brain of the player. Once you sign the player and you are working with them, then you know more about what is going on inside the brain of that player.

“At that point you will start to know if you did well or not.”

Fernandes inherited the armband from Harry Maguire at Old Trafford this summer, the 29-year-old likely to remain at the forefront of a Sir Jim Ratcliffe-led revolution over the coming seasons.