BRUNO FERNANDES wants to lead Manchester United into a new era of last-gasp Fergie Time heroics.
And if he does, it will answer the one question which had him stumped after his midweek Europa League late supershow: Whether Red Devils boss Ruben Amorim wears a watch.
In two triumphant decades under Sir Alex Ferguson, even those with only a passing interest in football had no doubt.
Barely a week went by without football’s greatest gaffer very publicly checking his wrist to make a point about stoppage time — and so often it ended with a late goal for United.
There has been precious little of it in the decade since Ferguson’s final farewell — but now playmaker Fernandes has made it his mission to bring them back under the latest man to fill Fergie’s boots.
There have already been murmurings of it in just 16 games with the Portuguese manager in charge — five late-show strikes, in fact.
And after his 92nd-minute goal to beat Scottish giants Rangers made him the latest name on the list — in every respect — Fernandes knew the subject of United’s stoppage-time history was coming.
As a keen student of the club’s past, yes, of course he was well aware of Fergie Time.
But no, there hadn’t been enough of it under Amorim for him to know if his boss even had a watch, never mind had cause to check it in front of any watching official.
Yet as he vowed to turn grand finales from exception to the norm once more, he will not be in the dark for much longer.
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It might not be good for the nerves, but that is part of the deal for any club with pretensions of greatness. And United certainly have plenty of them.
Fernandes, 30, admitted: “I think that, ever since I have been at this club, that has always been a part of things.
“We always talk about Sir Alex’s time, you know, when he looks at his watch and United will grab a goal for sure.
“I don’t know if the manager has a watch to look at, but obviously we need to have that belief and even more like this — because we knew we still had two or three minutes to play.
“So you have to try and go forward to get one because you can only win games where you’re at this club — nothing less is expected of you.
“Of course, we know we are not in the position this club was many, many years ago and have a long, long way to go as a team — but we are on our path.
“We know it won’t be as easy as they made it look, because obviously they had great players in the past at this club and a great manager who led the club to many trophies.
“But we have to make our own way. And as tough as it is, and as difficult as it can be, we are going to fight for this club to try and make it back.”
In fairness, United have come up with the goods in the dying embers of the game more than once this season.
Admittedly, not quite so dramatically as against Rangers — but late enough nonetheless at Manchester City and Liverpool and at home to struggling Southampton in the Premier League.
All thanks to Ivory Coast winger Amad Diallo, as well.
Oh, plus a late winner over Czech side Viktoria Plzen from Danish striker Rasmus Hojlund a fortnight before Christmas.
It’s the games in between that have been the problem, powder-puff defeats to the likes of Wolves, Bournemouth and Brighton.
The last of them finally pushed Amorim over the edge, as the affable gaffer gave way to a steam-coming-out-of-his-ears attack dog.
So furious that he smashed a television on the dressing-room wall and slammed his flops as the worst United team in history.
When the red mist cleared, Amorim relented and admitted maybe he should have taken a breath before sounding off.
Yet far from taking the huff, Fernandes was right behind his fellow countryman.
He added: “I am pretty sure it was in a moment of rage.
“I am Portuguese and I know that pretty quickly the blood comes up, so it’s just in that moment.
“I was here with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, one of the calmest people I’ve met, and he had this sometimes, too.
“As a manager you depend on the results and sometimes you need to have these kinds of words to your players.
“It wasn’t anything out of context — or something we didn’t deserve in the moment.”
The challenge now is to make sure there is no cause for them again…
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