Now in the same role at Championship side Watford, Giaretta twice signed a young Fernandes when working in Italy. Having spent eight years in the youth set-up at Boavista in Portugal, the midfielder made his name in Italy, earning his first break into senior football at Novara.
Giaretta moved across to Udinese in 2013 and took the young Fernandes with him, before selling him to Sampdoria in 2016. The Portuguese international is now captain of Manchester United and Giaretta is proud of the role he played in nurturing an &aposamazing player&apos.
I was the only sporting director in Italy who went out and signed this young guy from Portugal for 40,000, Giaretta, told the Watford Observer. When I went from Novara to Udinese, I took Bruno Fernandes with me because it was clear he was an amazing player.
“I think we paid 2.5million for him. A few years later, Bruno Fernandes signed for Manchester United in a deal that, with bonuses, was worth in total 100 million euros.
Sometimes the deals work out. Other times, for many reasons, they dont. Fernandes rock-solid mentality as integral to his rise as his supreme technical ability.
And that is because it is impossible to control all the variables in football. If you think you can then you are silly, because you cannot.
When you watch a player, that is not enough, because you dont know what is in the brain of the player. Once you sign the player and you are working with them, then you know more about what is going on inside the brain of that player. At that point you will start to know if you did well or not.
