What can you expect from Bruno’s podcast?
Having recorded over 50 episodes of UTD Podcast, there’s not much that could shock co-presenters Sam Homewood and Helen Evans, but even they were blown away by the upcoming episode featuring Bruno Fernandes.
“Sometimes when we have guests on you have to coax them in, warm them up a bit a little, but not Bruno,” explains Sam.
“Straight away, Bruno was in. His answers were really long and really interesting. He knows everything he says is going to be a headline so he could easily been quiet, but he wasn’t at all. It was really good.
UTD Podcast: The story of Bruno and Uno
Whether it’s playing card games with his daughter or a fun family game of bingo, our no.18 always wants to win…
“We were supposed to do it in the afternoon and there were lots of internet problems so he said: ‘don’t worry, we’ll do it when I get home’. So he got home, put his daughter to bed and gave us a call back.
“We could hear stuff happening in the background during the call. At one point he got up and we thought maybe he’s at home and done for the day, but he just got his charger and we kept going. It was great.”
On a similar theme, Helen adds: “I don’t want to say it was a surprise, because we’d all heard him talk before. He’s a great talker and he’s very confident, but we [Sam, Helen and David May] just all thought it surpassed what we expected it to be, in terms of his personality: his enthusiasm, the way he answered questions and his competitiveness.
“Everything just shone through and it just showed that he really is a star. He was very charismatic as well, with the way he spoke.
“I got a feel for his drive, ambition and competitiveness. That was clear to see from the start. I think he said in part of the podcast about how [Cristiano] Ronaldo was one of his favourite players, and you can see a similar mentality. You could see that within him.
“The competitiveness… talking about wanting to beat his daughter at Uno was brilliant - we were laughing our heads off! It’s just a real insight into someone. They were my main takes from it: a winning mentality, competitiveness, a real family man and a leader.”
“We changed the format,” Sam reveals. “We have a bit of a format where we talk chronologically with the player from their upbringing, when they first got into football, who encouraged them, their first clubs, how they got scouted, how they ended up at United, and sort of follow that.
“But because of his answers being so good, we just abandoned that and just asked everything and anything we could think of without following much of a traditional journey. We knew we only had a limited amount of time and because his answers were so good, we wanted to ask something that could elicit those good stories that he was telling us. When we finished I thought: this might be the best one we’ve ever done.
Agreeing, Helen says: “I would say he’s in the top five podcasts so far. All the players we’ve had on have been fantastic, but Bruno was very honest and very open. I think what you see on the pitch is him off the pitch. I mentioned him being a leader and you can see that when he’s on the pitch, so I wasn’t surprised. The way he speaks, you can tell that is within him.”
The Bruno Fernandes episode of UTD Podcast will be available to download or stream here from 17:00 GMT on Monday.
You can also check out the previous episodes via manutd.com/podcast.