£80m star now dreaming of signing for Man Utd

The season is done and dusted and for Manchester United, they can look back favourably on how things have ended.

That hasn’t always been the case for the Red Devils but with new permanent manager Michael Carrick at the helm, greater days are on the horizon.

Bruno Fernandes has been crowned the Premier League’s Player of the Season, United have Champions League football again and they could be on the verge of a few new signings if reports are to be believed.

That happens to be in the midfield department with Carrick craving a couple of additions with Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte set to leave.

The latest on Man United’s midfield hunt

All of the chatter in recent days surrounds Brazilian midfielder Ederson. It was report a couple of weeks ago now that the Atalanta star had already agreed personal terms over a move to Old Trafford, and it would appear that groundwork has been important in closing out a deal.

The latest on that move is that club to club talks are underway between United and the Serie A club, with discussions being described as ‘positive’.

It really does feel as though this move is a goer but Carrick and Co need a second midfielder. Loose reports in Italy on Saturday claimed they were also close to an agreement for Sandro Tonali, but that one certainly feels less likely at this moment in time.

So where could Jason Wilcox look next? Well, West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes is a player on the club’s radar and like Ederson, he has been looking for an escape route out of his current club.

The Hammers look set to be relegated on Sunday afternoon, a factor that could speed up any potential move for Fernandes. United want him and he has an £80m valuation, meaning he will not be cheap to extra from east London.

That said, they have been boosted by the midfielder’s feelings on a switch. According to a report from RoundTableFernandes sees United as a ‘dream move’.

It’s noted that he is very open to heading to Old Trafford and that personal terms are not expected to be an issue.

How Fernandes compares to Ederson

The general consensus this summer is that United will sign one cheaper midfielder in the form of Ederson and then head for a more expensive option in the form of someone like Fernandes or their number one target, Elliot Anderson.

In the shape of Ederson, they would be getting a proven product, someone described as the “strongest defensive midfielder in the world” by Italian content creator Damiano Coccia.

He’s got a fine toolkit, notably ranking among the finest 13% of midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues this season for ground duels won per 90 minutes. He’s a forward thinking player too, sitting in the best 14% of midfielders for progressive carries per 90 with 1.57.

However, there is a sense that the 26-year-old has already reached his peak.

In Fernandes, however, this is a player with an enormous ceiling. He’s already dominating in the Premier League, boasting crucial experience of English football, and his potential is vast.

This is a player who possesses an all-around game that matches perhaps the greatest midfielder in the league right now; Declan Rice.

Defined as ‘ground eaters’, players who recover the ball extaordinarily well and can carry possession, the two best players in the Premier League during the 2025/26 campaign in that regard are Rice and Fernandes.

No other players have a higher ratio of progressive carry distance to turnover per carry. For those wondering what on earth that means, it’s essentially defined by how much forward ground a player gains via dribbling before losing the ball.

This season, Ederson has made just 0.64 successful dribbles per 90 to Fernandes’ 0.86, a statistic that supports the previous statement.

The above can also be quanitified by ball recoveries. In that regard, the West Ham star has made 6.42 per 90 this term in comparison to the Brazilian’s 5.92.

On the face of it, Ederson looks like a better replacement for Casemiro. He’s a big duel winner, winning 2.29 ground duels per 90 to Fernandes’ 1.55. Yet, the Irons midfield star would give Carrick a totally different dynamic from the middle of the park, someone with far more energy and carrying ability than Casemiro has ever had at Old Trafford.

The pairing are very different players but that’s what makes them such an interesting proposition. In reality Ederson and Fernandes could both join but with comparisons to Rice no doubt boosting the latter’s profile, you only need to look at what the England international has done at the Emirates Stadium to realise what a player with his attributes can do for a team chasing titles.

Already hailed by football writer Joost van der Leij as a “superstar“, Fernandes would be a phenomenal signing, someone who at the age of just 21 could dazzle from the middle of the park for United for the next decade. Ederson is the floor raiser but the West Ham midfielder is the ceiling raiser.