Manchester United's Missed Opportunity: Bernardo Silva's Journey
Manchester United’s summer is already one of upheaval. A new hierarchy, a new direction, Michael Carrick preparing for his first full season in charge and trying to close the gap on Arsenal and a reshaped Manchester City.
And in the middle of all that change comes a reminder of an opportunity they passed up at the very start of this era.
Rui Faria, Jose Mourinho’s long-time lieutenant, has revealed he pushed hard for United to sign Bernardo Silva back in 2017. United said no. City said yes. The rest has shaped a decade of English football.
The Recommendation United Ignored
Faria followed Mourinho to Old Trafford in 2016, the latest stop in a partnership that had already stretched across 17 years and six clubs, including two spells at Chelsea. He knew what Mourinho’s teams needed. He knew the type of player who could tilt a title race.
In a new interview with AS, Faria lifted the lid on a pivotal conversation from that time.
“Bernardo Silva is a fantastic player. I remember recommending him to Manchester United in 2017, when he was 22,” Faria said. “We tried, but it wasn’t possible, and he ended up at their city rivals.”
United hesitated. City didn’t.
Silva crossed the city divide without ever having worn red, signing for Pep Guardiola and walking into a side built to dominate.
Nine Years of What Might Have Been
From that point, the story wrote itself in sky blue.
Silva became one of the defining players of the Guardiola era, a creative and tactical fulcrum in a team that relentlessly collected trophies. Over nine seasons at the Etihad, he won six Premier League titles and sat at the heart of the side that finally conquered Europe with the Champions League triumph in 2023.
Every derby, every title race, every moment when Silva drifted between the lines and cut United apart, carried a quiet subtext: he could have been doing this at Old Trafford.
Faria never doubted what United had missed. “If he’s fit, he can be a game-changer for Real Madrid,” he said, outlining why he had pushed so hard seven years earlier. “He’s a player with tremendous technical ability, a great understanding of the game, and exceptional intelligence.”
Those are the qualities United have been searching for in their attacking structure ever since. City had them in-house.
From Manchester to Madrid
This summer, the cycle turned again.
Silva left City after his medal-laden stay, departing as one of the most decorated and influential players in the club’s modern history. He did so as a free agent, choosing Real Madrid as his next stage.
For Faria, now watching from a different vantage point, there is a sense of completion. The man who once tried to bring Silva to Manchester will now see him reunited with Mourinho in Spain, after the Portuguese coach’s return to the Bernabeu.
Mourinho, who first coached Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013, is back in a job Faria believes he should never have left. This time, he has the playmaker his staff once identified for United.
Together, they will chase La Liga and attempt to restore domestic supremacy to the Bernabeu with a player Faria always believed could transform a side at the highest level.
Faria’s Path Since Old Trafford
Faria’s own journey has taken a quieter turn.
He spent exactly two years at United under Mourinho, leaving at the end of the 2017/18 season. After 17 years alongside his mentor, he stepped away to spend more time with his family, ending one of the longest and most successful assistant-manager partnerships in modern football.
In 2019, he took on a brief managerial role with Al-Duhail in Saudi Arabia, a short spell that hinted at a possible future in the dugout but did not evolve into a long-term project.
Today, Faria works as a technical observer for UEFA, analysing Champions League matches and filing detailed reports on the continent’s elite. He now watches the game from the stands, not the touchline, but his eye for talent clearly hasn’t dimmed.
United’s Present, Framed by a Past Decision
As Carrick prepares for his first full season at Old Trafford, the landscape around him is shifting.
City will start the new campaign without Guardiola, without Silva and possibly without Rodri. The champions are changing shape. Arsenal are pushing hard. United, coming off a third-place finish last term, sense an opening.
The question is what they do with it.
Supporters debate signings, with names like Youri Tielemans being tipped by some as potential catalysts for a title challenge. The club’s Ineos-led structure is under pressure to get the remaining weeks of the transfer window right. Every decision feels loaded.
Faria’s revelation about Bernardo Silva lands as more than just a nostalgic anecdote. It is a reminder of what a single transfer call can mean across a decade: one player, one summer, one “no” that turns into nine years of watching him dominate for a rival.
United cannot change 2017. They can only decide whether this summer will be remembered the same way.
