"I want collective awards more than anything," Bruno Fernandes said this week. He'll take the individual one for now — but the gap between what he's achieved and what he actually wants tells you everything about where Manchester United still stand.
Fernandes is the Premier League Player of the Season, becoming the first United player to claim the award since Nemanja Vidić in 2010-11. He's also taken the Football Writers' Association Player of the Year and is the frontrunner for the PFA prize. A full sweep of individual honours in a season where United finished third. Make of that what you will.
Record numbers, but not a record season
The numbers are genuinely remarkable. Fernandes equalled the Premier League record for most assists in a single season — a mark that earns him this recognition and cements his status as the best creative midfielder in the division right now. The Football Writers don't hand that award out lightly, and neither does the fan vote that drives the Player of the Season.
But Vidić's United won the league and reached the Champions League final that year. Fernandes's vintage finished third. The assists record flatters a team that couldn't convert individual brilliance into silverware, which should concern anyone backing United to close the gap on Liverpool and City next season.
That gap matters for more than pride. This award has been owned by those two clubs for most of the past decade. N'Golo Kanté in 2016-17 was the last winner from outside the Liverpool-City axis. Fernandes breaking through is a signal — but United would need considerably more than one transcendent playmaker to genuinely threaten that duopoly in the table.
The award's eclectic history
The fan-voted nature of this prize has always produced a slightly unconventional list. Some winners arrived from clubs that were falling apart around them.
- Juninho Paulista (1996-97): 20 direct goal contributions for a Middlesbrough side that was relegated that same season.
- Kevin Phillips (1999-00): 30 Premier League goals and the European Golden Shoe for a Sunderland team that had been in the Championship the year before.
- Fernandes (2020-21): Premier League assist record for a United side that finished third without winning a trophy.
Individual brilliance detached from collective success is practically a tradition here.
For context on sustained dominance: Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player to win it in back-to-back seasons, doing so in 2006-07 and 2007-08 during United's peak Ferguson years. Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah have split four of the last eight awards between them. No one has ever won it three times.
Fernandes has one. Whether he adds to it depends on whether United can build something around him — or whether he remains the most talented player on a team that keeps finishing just short.
