Chris Sutton believes Erik ten Hag should take the armband off Bruno Fernandes and suggested Harry Maguire would be a much better choice to be the Manchester United captain.
The Dutchman handed the captaincy to Fernandes on a temporary basis after dropping the England international last season, before eventually officially stripping Maguire of the captaincy in the summer.
United were comprehensively outclassed by City at Old Trafford with Fernandes again coming under scrutiny for a perceived lack of leadership in the 3-0 defeat to the Premier League champions.
And Sutton, speaking on the latest episode of Mail Sport’s It’s All Kicking Off! podcast with Ian Ladyman, insisted the Portuguese was not captain’s material, a point he first made in August.
‘You look at the great Manchester United captains of the past. [Roy] Keane, [Bryan] Robson, [Steve] Bruce, [Nemanja] Vidic and [Gary] Neville.
Chris Sutton believes Harry Maguire (L) would make a better captain than Bruno Fernandes (R)
Chris Sutton (right) believes ten Hag should take the armband off Fernandes and suggested Maguire would be a much better choice to be the Manchester United captain
‘They’re captains with a bit of clout, a bit of authority. [They are] somebody you want to follow out of the tunnel where you feel you’d run through a wall with him.
‘I never felt the same about Bruno Fernandes. I think he’s petulant.
‘He’s like the talented, spoiled kid down the park when things aren’t going, who then takes his ball home. That’s the way he seems to me.’
When he lost the captaincy in the summer, Maguire revealed he was ‘extremely disappointed’ after ten Hag outlined the reasons for his decision in a conversation with the defender.
Maguire was expected to leave the club after he was stripped of the armband, but a move to West Ham never materialised.
The former Leicester defender has since returned to the starting XI amid an injury crisis and scored the winner as United beat Copenhagen in the Champions League last week.
Maguire started against Jonny Evans on Sunday and Sutton suggested ten Hag’s decision to strip him of the captaincy had backfired.
‘We’ve defended Ten Hag up until now [but] that was on Ten Hag to change the captaincy and for Bruno to come in,’ he said.
‘And there were reasons because Maguire wasn’t gonna play, but I’d much rather stand behind Harry Maguire in the tunnel.
‘I’d rather him leading me out rather than the word Bruno.’
Sutton suggested that Erik ten Hag’s decision to strip Harry Maguire of the captaincy backfired
Roy Keane said that Fernandes’ body language was the ‘opposite to what you want in a captain’
Speaking on Sky Sports on Sunday, former United captain Roy Keane singled out Fernandes saying the Portugal midfielder’s body language was the ‘opposite to what you want in a captain’.
He added: ‘The first thing I would do is take the captaincy off him. I know it’s a big decision but Fernandes is not captain material.
‘He’s a talented player, but what I saw today, he’s whingeing, he’s moaning, he’s throwing his arms up in the air constantly.
‘It really isn’t acceptable. When you’re talking about where do they make changes – board level, managers – I’d start with that because the manager is capable of doing that.
‘Fernandes is a brilliant footballer but he’s the opposite to what you want in a captain.’
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