Michael Carrick has confirmed “fully committed” Bruno Fernandes will remain Manchester United captain.
The 32-year-old was left on the bench as the Red Devils’ winless run extended to an eighth match in all competitions with Sunday’s humiliating 3-0 Old Trafford defeat to Bournemouth.
Carrick overlooked Fernandes four days on from the skipper surprisingly taking aim at the under-fire head coach’s set-up in the 4-1 loss at Champions League upstarts Como.
The pair held clear-the-air talks after the club decided to stick with the United head coach for Saturday’s trip to Chelsea, where Carrick confirmed the playmaker will remain skipper.
“There’s no decision to be made on that,” he said before nodding when asked to confirm Fernandes remained captain.
“Listen, we’re clear with the situation of the team, and as a football club at the moment.
“He’s an important player for this group. He has been and he will be.
“Between us, we’ve got to make a difference, and we’ve got to push things in a good direction, so he’s fully committed to this football club, he’s fully committed to making things better.
“It doesn’t change for me. He’s the one that’s kind of led the team so well for many a game and many a year, and he’ll continue to do that.”
Bruno Fernandes is set to return to the team this weekend
An engaged, in-form Fernandes will be key to United’s chances of turning around what has been their worst start to a league campaign since 1986.
Kobbie Mainoo could also be involved at Chelsea having returned to training this week after an unspecified issue, but Benjamin Sesko is set to be ruled out for the remainder of the year.
The 23-year-old was lied low by a shin problem in the summer, and the issue had flared up again for United’s only out-and-out striker.
It’s understood Sesko will be sidelined until January and head coach Carrick said: “Unfortunately, Ben looks like he’s going to be out for a period of time.
“We’re still not clear of exactly how long but it’s going to be a longer period of time.
“It was the process and, as I said to you before, we had to go through the process, there’s a bit of a healing process for the injury to see how it would react and what direction to go with that.
“So, even now, we’re still working through it but, yeah, it’s unfortunate.
“Obviously, first and foremost, for Ben, for the kind of period that he’s had and tried to get through it, going through this again.
“And for us to not have him available, is obviously a blow, but we’ll try to get him back as quick as we can.”
Manchester United slumped to another loss against Bournemouth last weekend
Meanwhile ex-United captain Gary Neville has told the Glazers “enough is enough” and to sell their stake in the club.
The Glazers, who took control of the club in a controversial takeover in 2005, remain majority owners after selling a minority stake to Jim Ratcliffe in 2024 and Neville has urged them to leave United completely.
“There’s £1.2bn of debt in that football club, they’re hamstrung in some ways,” Neville said on The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast.
“They’ve spent an absolute fortune on players, just under Man City in the last 15 years, £1.4bn on players, they’re second in the spending, but a lot of it’s the never-never.
“They have to sell now, they have to sell. I’m sorry, the time has come.
“They have sub-contracted the football department out to Ineos, they are trying to run the football department, they have had three years of struggling and it looks like this year is going to be a struggle.
“The Glazer family over in America, in Tampa, they’re very popular over there, they go to every game, apparently, I hear, they go to all the NFL games. They’ve hardly been to Old Trafford in 20-odd years.
“My point is, they have to sell now, enough is enough, the club is in debt, you’ve not spent a penny on the stadium, you’re now trying to borrow £2bn for a stadium you don’t know how you’re going to borrow.
“You’ve got a failure of 13, 14 years on the football side, you’ve subbed it out to somebody else, which is ridiculous, and not took responsibility. It is now at a point where they have to sell.
“Enough is enough, they have to sell the whole the club. The fans have had enough. They have to go now.”
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