Manchester United could have paid £50million less for Bruno Fernandes had they waited until the summer transfer window, says Sporting Lisbon president Frederico Varandas.
Fernandes joined United from Sporting for £68m in January, having been on the Premier League club's radar for some time. But the coronavirus pandemic has hit football's finances hard, and it is widely expected that clubs won't be able to afford the big-money transfers that have been commonplace in recent years.
And now Varandas has admitted that Sporting might have had to part with Fernandes for as little as £17m had they held onto their captain until the end of the season. "The crisis caused by Covid-19 harms the European football industry in general," Varandas told