Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has revealed that he tried to sign Bruno Fernandes at PSG during his time with the French club, but the Portuguese star chose Manchester United instead.
Fernandes arrived Old Trafford in the summer of 2019 on the back of a £47 million move from Sporting Lisbon.
According to Tuchel, his former sporting director at PSG Antero Henrique had alerted him of the talented 26-year-old midfielder, who he believes ranks among the best players in the world right now.
“With my first sporting director in Paris, Antero Henrique, a Portuguese sporting director, and he knew [Fernandes] very well,” Chelsea boss Tuchel told reporters ahead of Sunday’s match.
“We fought hard to have a connection to him and to bring him to our team. I got made aware of him more in detail, so we watched more and more games about him and followed him and tried to be in touch with him to make it happen.
“Obviously, he decided [to sign for Man Utd] and I was never personally in touch with him, but we tried and he went another way. [It is] bad for us that we have to play against him.”
“The impact he has had since he arrived at Manchester United is indescribable and unbelievable,” Tuchel added.
“To come from Portugal, from a competitive team, a big club but not from the strongest league and stepping in a year to one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League and the strongest league in Europe and to have this kind of impact, I have nothing but the biggest respect for this guy.
“It is outstanding. He is one of the best midfielders in the world, attacking midfielders, and he has a huge, huge impact and to have this as a single person in football, you must be absolutely top level because this is almost impossible.”
Tuchel, whose Chelsea side are now saddled with task of keeping the Portugal international quiet on Sunday at Stamford Bridge continued:
“But he has such a big influence on their game, on their attacking game and that it is a big key to defend against him, to be around him and close to him and he is a key player of Man Utd in a way that is outstanding.”
Fernandes has 22 goals and 13 assists and he has been an ever-present in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s line-up, amassing 2,940 minutes in 38 appearances in all competitions this season.
