Rui Faria on the Bernardo Silva Transfer That Slipped Away from Manchester United
Rui Faria reveals the Manchester United transfer that never was: Bernardo Silva in 2017
Manchester United’s summer of change is being played out against a backdrop of what-ifs, and few are sharper than the one Rui Faria has just dragged back into the light.
The former United assistant has revealed he pushed for the signing of Bernardo Silva in 2017 – only to watch the Portuguese playmaker cross the city and build a glittering legacy at Manchester City instead.
The transfer that slipped through United’s fingers
Faria, Jose Mourinho’s long-time lieutenant and closest confidant across 17 years and six clubs, arrived at Old Trafford in 2016 as part of the Portuguese coach’s inner circle. By the following year, he had a clear idea of the player he believed could transform United’s attack.
That player was a 22-year-old Bernardo Silva.
Speaking to AS, Faria explained that he urged United to move for the then-rising Portugal star in 2017. The club tried, he said, but the deal never came together. City moved decisively. The rest of the story has been written in sky blue.
Silva joined Pep Guardiola’s side and became one of the defining figures of their era. Six Premier League titles, a Champions League crown in 2023, and a reputation as one of the most intelligent and technically gifted midfielders of his generation. All of it built a few miles from Old Trafford, in a parallel universe United once had the chance to shape.
“Their city rivals” got the player Faria had earmarked for United. The regret is obvious between the lines.
From Manchester to Madrid
This summer, that chapter finally closed for City. Silva left the Etihad at the end of his contract after nine hugely successful years and has now joined Real Madrid as a free agent.
For Faria, who always believed in the player’s ceiling, the move to the Bernabeu feels like a delayed vindication of his original vision. He described Silva as “a fantastic player” with “tremendous technical ability, a great understanding of the game, and exceptional intelligence,” convinced that, if fit, he can be a game-changer for Madrid.
There is another twist. Mourinho, now back at Real Madrid for a second spell after his first tenure from 2010 to 2013, will finally coach the man he missed out on at United. Faria, analysing that return in his AS interview, made it clear he feels Mourinho should never have left Madrid the first time. Now, the Portuguese coach has been handed a new kind of reunion: not with an old player, but with a long-desired one.
Together, Mourinho and Bernardo Silva will go after the La Liga title, with the Bernabeu expecting nothing less than a return to domestic dominance.
United’s new era, and an old reminder
Across the city, United are preparing for a very different kind of season. Michael Carrick, now heading into his first full campaign as head coach at Old Trafford after guiding the club to a third-place finish in the Premier League last term, is tasked with closing the gap on Arsenal and a reshaped City side.
The landscape around him is shifting. City must navigate life without Guardiola, without Bernardo Silva, and potentially without Rodri when the competitive action resumes. United, under new Ineos influence and with a fanbase demanding smarter recruitment, are trying to plot a route back to the top.
Faria’s revelation about 2017 lands as both a curiosity and a warning. United had the right idea once. They just didn’t get it done.
The man behind the missed move
Faria himself spent exactly two years at United, from Mourinho’s arrival in 2016 until the end of the 2017/18 season. After nearly two decades alongside Mourinho, he stepped away to spend more time with his family, ending one of the longest-running coaching partnerships in modern football.
He resurfaced briefly in 2019 as manager of Al-Duhail in Saudi Arabia, then moved into a more analytical role. Today, he works as a technical observer for UEFA, filing reports on Champions League matches and studying the very kind of elite players he once tried to bring to Old Trafford.
As United reshape their squad again and supporters debate who should be next through the door, Faria’s story hangs in the air. Once, they could have built around Bernardo Silva. This time, with the stakes just as high and the margin for error just as small, can they afford to let the next one slip away?
