Rui Faria Reveals Manchester United's Missed Opportunity with Bernardo Silva

Manchester United are braced for a summer of upheaval. New faces, big exits, a fresh hierarchy, and a first full season with Michael Carrick in the dugout. Across town, the landscape is shifting too. Pep Guardiola has gone, Bernardo Silva has gone, and even Rodri’s future is uncertain as Manchester City prepare to defend their crown without some of the pillars that defined an era.

And in the middle of all that change, a quiet revelation from a man who once sat at the heart of United’s planning: Rui Faria says Bernardo Silva should have been wearing red long before he ever became a City great.

“We tried, but it wasn’t possible”

Faria, Jose Mourinho’s long-time lieutenant, followed him to Old Trafford in 2016, just as he had to Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid and back to Chelsea again. Seventeen years, six clubs, one of the most enduring partnerships in modern football.

Speaking to AS about Mourinho’s return to Real Madrid, Faria lifted the lid on a sliding-doors moment from United’s 2017 transfer window.

“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. If he’s fit, he can be a game-changer for Real Madrid. He’s a player with tremendous technical ability, a great understanding of the game, and exceptional intelligence.”

United passed. City didn’t hesitate. The rest of the story has played out in plain sight.

Silva crossed the city divide that summer and went on to become one of the defining players of Guardiola’s reign. Six Premier League titles, a Champions League triumph in 2023, and a catalogue of big-game performances that turned tight contests in City’s favour. The kind of influence United have been desperately trying to recapture in their own midfield and attacking lines.

This summer, he walked away from the Etihad at the end of a glittering spell and, as a free agent, chose Real Madrid. Mourinho, now back at the Bernabeu, finally has the player Faria once wanted to bring to Manchester.

Mourinho and Silva reunited in Madrid

Faria has no doubt about the significance of that reunion. In his eyes, Mourinho should never have left Real Madrid after his first spell between 2010 and 2013. Now he returns to a club that has just added one of Europe’s most complete attacking midfielders without paying a fee.

Mourinho and Silva will go after La Liga together, at a time when Real Madrid’s domestic dominance is being tested and the squad is evolving again. For Mourinho, it is a chance to work with a player he missed out on in England. For Silva, it is the next chapter after conquering England with City.

The irony is hard to miss. The player Faria once saw as a perfect fit for Old Trafford will now try to bring the Spanish title back to the Bernabeu instead.

United’s what-if and Carrick’s reality

At Old Trafford, the question lingers. What if United had moved when Faria pushed for Silva in 2017? How different might their last decade have looked with a technically gifted, tactically intelligent, big-game specialist at the heart of their attack?

Instead, United watched Silva torment them in derby after derby, while their own recruitment lurched from one reset to another.

Now the club stands at another crossroads. Carrick’s first full season as head coach comes with a clear brief: close the gap on Arsenal and City after a third-place finish last term. The squad will change again as Ineos shape their first complete transfer window.

If supporters were handed the reins, the message to Ineos would be blunt: avoid the next Bernardo Silva moment. Don’t let the player who transforms your rivals slip through your fingers.

Faria’s journey after Old Trafford

Faria’s time at United was brief but intense. He spent exactly two years at the club, working under Mourinho from 2016 until the end of the 2017/18 season. When that campaign closed, he walked away, choosing to end his 17-year run alongside Mourinho to spend more time with his family.

A short spell followed in 2019 as manager of Al-Duhail in Saudi Arabia, a rare step into the spotlight after years in the shadows as an assistant.

Now he operates at a different vantage point. As a technical observer for UEFA, he studies Champions League matches and files detailed reports, watching the very level where Bernardo Silva has shone and where he will now try to thrive in white.

From that seat, Faria has the luxury of perspective. He can see the patterns, the missed chances, the careers that hinged on a decision in one summer window.

United, once again in the middle of a rebuild, cannot afford to look back in a few years and wonder which superstar they let slip away this time.