Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has spoken about the admirable manner in which new signing Bruno Fernandes went about his first few days at Carrington.
Since signing from Sporting CP in January, the Portuguese attacking midfielder has made an instant impact, contributing seven goals and six assists and winning the Premier League Player of the Month award twice prior to Monday's home clash with Southampton.
Fernandes has been praised for his leadership, as well as his chemistry with his fellow midfielder Paul Pogba, since the Premier League restarted, in a period which has seen the Red Devils win five of a possible six games.
Speaking with The High Performance Podcast, Solskjaer revealed that Fernandes had not just made a noticeable first impression on the pitch, but that outside of his scintillating run of form his strong personal qualities have been evident since the beginning of his time at Old Trafford.
"It was off the field as well as in training," Solskjaer recalled of Bruno's professional attitude.
"The first day he was in the club, he shook everyone's hand. He didn’t come in here thinking, 'I'm the big shot. No, he shook absolutely every staff members’ hand'."
He even revealed that Fernandes received a pretty special character reference before coming to the club, from none other than Manchester United legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Through Patrice Evra, I managed to get hold of Cristiano and his recommendation obviously stood him [Fernandes] in good stead," said Solskjaer, revealing that he had been pretty satisfied with the results since.
"He's got the talent of course, you can see the quality is there. And we've seen that for a long time, but then again, he steps up when it matters. He’s delivered crosses, he’s delivered assists, he’s scored goals, he’s took penalties. He's done everything in a short space of time that you'd expect."
Source: 90min
