Manchester United star rejected ‘astronomical offer’ in January before Erik ten Hag FFP admission

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes reportedly rejected an ‘astronomical offer’ from Saudi Arabia in the January transfer window.

Fernandes, 29, received the chance to join Al-Hilal last month but turned the lucrative offer down out of loyalty to Manchester United.

That’s according to Record, who added that the Portuguese midfielder turned down the ‘pharaonic proposal’ to stay at Old Trafford.

Fernandes ‘responded negatively’ to the proposal from Jorge Jesus’ side, believing that he still has things to achieve in a United shirt.

However, Al-Hital have not stopped in their pursuit of the midfielder and will come back at the end of the season and into the summer, when a new offer will be sent out to see if they can lure the midfielder away from United.

Fernandes joined United just over four years ago from Sporting Lisbon and has now played 215 fixtures for the club.

This news follows the comments from Erik ten Hag on the financial fair play issues within the Premier League.

The United boss admitted that he was unable to bring in an additional forward last month because of the financial rules.

“I think it is no secret that we wanted a striker. With the injury to Anthony Martial, we really needed a back-up there. But it was not possible and we had to watch the FFP rules,” he said.

The manager then explained how the club have to sell good players in order to make space for the FFP rules, which is not the ideal way to build a team as he says.

“There are some disadvantages with FFP [Financial Fair Play]. To make space for FFP, you have to sell players and that is actually hard, you have to sell good players. I don’t think this is the way you build a team.”