Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes has launched a blistering response to criticism from former club captain Roy Keane, accusing the Irishman of spreading lies about his comments during a recent interview.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Keane had taken aim at Fernandes for allegedly prioritising assists over shooting in a Premier League match, claiming the Portuguese star said he deliberately passed instead of shooting to break the league's single-season assist record.
However, Fernandes has now revealed that the comments attributed to him were false, and he even asked former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Keane's phone number to confront him directly.
Fernandes told Steven Bartlett: "I don't mind criticism. I always take criticism from everyone and never reply to anyone whatsoever. People have an opinion, they think it's good, bad or whatever. What I don't like is when people lie about things, and in this case, what you said about Roy Keane, basically, what he said is a lie."
The United captain emphasised that his actual words were captured on record, contradicting Keane's version of events. "Luckily for me everything is on record, imagine if it wasn't, then people will think Bruno is always the guy going for the assist," he added.
Fernandes continued: "I even asked Ole his number to text him to have a word with him, to say 'I don't mind the criticism, I don't like when people lie about the things that I say' because this goes over the top of the things I think are acceptable."
Keane had previously expressed his frustration on the podcast, saying: "When you're the captain of a club and you're supposed to be driving the club forward, do not be getting bogged down by just your role in the team, just assists."
The former United midfielder added: "What I heard at United at the weekend, honestly, I was raging with it. The whole chat about his assists... Everyone, the players were [talking about it], the game was about his assists. That's the whole thing."
Keane also criticised Fernandes's post-match interview, in which the Portuguese midfielder reportedly said: "A few times, I probably should have... shot but I made the passes." Keane responded: "Wow. How can your mindset be not to win the match but be about an individual record?"
Fernandes's response makes clear that he feels Keane misrepresented his words, and he is determined to set the record straight.
