Manchester United: Bruno Fernandes denies attempting to speak with anti-Glazer protestors outside hotel

Fernandes watched former club Udinese play Juventus in Serie A while shut in Lowry Hotel

Manchester United playmaker Bruno Fernandes (Getty Images)

Bruno Fernandes has denied that he wanted to speak to Manchester United supporters protesting against the Glazer family’s ownership outside the Lowry Hotel on Sunday.

United’s Premier League meeting with Liverpool was postponed due to demonstrations at Old Trafford and the Lowry, where Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad was staying.

The United team bus was prevented from making its way to the ground by a group of around 200 fans who blocked their only exit on Chapel Street in Salford.

Fernandes and his United team-mates were told to stay inside the building while the protest was happening, with some watching the scenes unfold from the hotel’s windows.

Unconfirmed reports on social media suggested that some of United’s senior players like Fernandes and captain Harry Maguire had attempted to speak with a group of fans at the hotel entrance.

Fernandes denied that he had attempted to engage with the fans and had no knowledge of his team-mates wishing to do so either, with the 26-year-old insisting he stayed in his room watching football.

“I was in my room seeing football because [his former club] Udinese was playing against Juve. I never tried to come outside, never tried to go outside.

“We just did what the security said to us: keep in our rooms, stay there, [that] was everything the players did. If someone tried to come out, I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone try to come out, honestly.”

When Fernandes was playing with Sporting Clube Portugal, supporters invaded the club’s training ground and allegedly attacked players, but the United playmaker said Sunday’s events were in no way similar.

“It’s not close from that because what happened at Sporting Clube de Portugal was completely different and something between the fans and the players.

“Here, we have no problems with the fans. The fans they can come closer to us, nothing happens to us. The problems the fans had at Sporting was straight to the players and really different to what happened on Sunday.

“Honestly, I don’t want to compare because I don’t want to remember what happened at Sporting. At Sporting I have just good memories and what passed on Sunday has passed, it’s over for me.”

On the protests, Fernandes added: “The fans have their own word and they think that was the best for them, they did it and we have nothing to say about that, honestly. Our focus is on playing football and doing the best for the club.”