After weeks of transfer shambles – or negotiations, as Ed Woodward will have us believe – Manchester United are finally on the brink of getting their man
Bruno Fernandes is close to sealing a move from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United with a £68million fee now having been agreed between the clubs. That follows United upping their offer to Sporting for Fernandes twice in 24 hours.
Read More: Bruno Fernandes’ cringe-worthy efforts to get Man United move
Here at Power Tower, we’ve been offering odds on Fernandes making the move for weeks. And, in truth, we’ve seen it as a bit of sure thing. In fact, from the very moment we opened the market we saw it as an odds-on shot.
We were as short as 1/7 10 days ago but, as the saying goes, a week is a long time in football. And as Tuesday proved, a day can be just as lengthy.
Fernandes was 3/10 to move to United at the start of play but there appeared to be sure signs a move was on the drift following breaking reports in Spain.
Spanish newspaper Sport – who have no influence or contacts at all at the Nou Camp (ahem) – began reporting that Barcelona had joined the race with Jorge Mendes said to be using the Sporting player to ‘unblock’ a situation with Valencia striker Rodrigo.
Barcelona swooping in to sign Bruno Fernandes. pic.twitter.com/joDj8UlrSw
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) January 28, 2020
The report went that Fernandes would join Barca and immediately go on loan to the Mestalla for the rest of the season. Then, Valencia would allow Rodrigo to go to Barcelona on loan without an option to buy.
Cue a raft of bets in what turned out to be some of the most hectic trading action we’ve seen on transfers for some time. Fernandes was cut from 20/1 to 6/4 to join Valencia as the money piled in.
As for a move to United, that drifted from 3/10 to 21/10 and it looked like Woodward had lost his man. Again. At 3.31pm on Tuesday, we were offering 9/4 on the transfer going through.
Then came the second market move.
Another flurry of bets, a price slash before we took the market offline and suspended betting. It appeared another jolt of info had surged out of Old Trafford and, within hours, the news was confirmed.
Sky Sports were soon reporting that the United executive vice-chairman had reached an agreement with Sporting’s director Hugo Viana which could see United pay an initial fee of 55m euros (£46.56m) plus add-ons for Fernandes, with the deal eventually rising to 80m euros (£67.76m).
We were soon whirring into action producing more markets – this time not on the deal. For that, it appeared, was that.
Instead, it was a whole new Bruno Fernandes set of specials on our site. The midfielder to score 5+ goals this season was installed as a 6/5 shot, he’s 4/1 to score on his debut vs Wolves on Saturday and 50/1 to ever win the Ballon d’Or while at Old Trafford. For the truly optimistic, it’s 100/1 Fernandes scores 100+ goals for the club.
Bruno Fernandes Specials
6/5 – To score 5+ goals in the 2019/20 Premier League season
4/1 – To score against Wolves on Saturday February 1st 2020
6/1 – To score 5+ goals & have 5+ assists in the 2019/20 Premier League season
15/2 – To score 10+ goals in the 2019/20 Premier League season
9/1 – To score 5+ Premier League goals & Man Utd to finish Top 4 in 2019/20
10/1 – To score 50+ Premier League goals for Man Utd
12/1 – To leave Man Utd and join a Serie A club before the start of the 2021/2022 season
20/1 – To score the winning goal in the 2019/20 Europa League final
25/1 – To win PFA player of the year in 2020/21 season
50/1 – To win the Ballon D’or while playing for Man Utd
80/1 – To score 10+ goals & have 10+ assists in the 2019/20 Premier League season
100/1 – To score 100+ Premier League goals for Man Utd
