"The loyal are met with denial": Bruno Fernandes stokes the flames of the crisis with Carrick in a surprise move
An unusual situation for the Portuguese player
Bruno Fernandes has fired an indirect message at manager Michael Carrick and the Manchester United faithful, with the captain's situation at a crossroads.
United's skipper sat as an unused substitute during Sunday's humiliating 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth at Old Trafford.
Carrick made the bold call to drop Fernandes, who had criticised the manager's tactics following last week's 4-1 loss to Como.
It was only the sixth time the 32-year-old Portuguese had started on the bench in a Premier League match since joining United in 2020.
According to The Sun, Fernandes liked a cryptic Instagram post about "loyal" people who are "pushed to the point where they no longer care".
Plenty have read his social media activity as a pointed message given where things stand.
The post shows a giant stone statue holding a boulder set to roll down the hill and destroy a village.
Across the top of the image ran the words: "Don't push the loyal person to the point where they no longer care".
Its opening line read: "The person who keeps everything together is usually the one no one thinks to check on".
The author went on: "Every family, group of friends, and team has that person. The one who always shows up no matter what. The one who listens, fixes, covers mistakes, and carries more than anyone else realises. They don't complain about it; they just keep holding things up because that is their nature."
More followed: "But loyal people are met with denial and everything they do is taken for granted faster than anyone else. Their effort begins to be seen as automatic, and their patience is interpreted as weakness".
The post added: "People pressure them, take from them, and test their patience, assuming they will always stay, until a day comes, and they don't. There won't be a big fight or a dramatic withdrawal; instead they quietly stop caring, stop trying, and give up on it. And everything they were carrying collapses and falls with them".
It signed off: "Most people never realise how much weight someone was carrying until the day they finally let that weight drop".
Fernandes, Manchester United's standout player
Fernandes has been United's standout player for most of his six years at the club, scoring 111 goals in 334 matches and claiming the PFA Player of the Year award last season as United finished third in the Premier League.
The supporters, though, made clear who had provoked their anger after the Bournemouth match, cheering Carrick off the pitch and loudly booing the players.
Carrick now stands on the brink of the sack. Eddie Howe is among the candidates to succeed him.
