Wes Brown snubs Bruno Fernandes as he names Man Utd player of the season

Wes Brown has backed Anthony Martial – not Bruno Fernandes – as Manchester United’s Player of the Year.

The Frenchman finished as the club’s top scorer having bagged 23 times in all competitions.

But his efforts were somewhat overshadowed by the quality of Fernandes who arrived in January and helped spark a huge upturn in form.

The Portuguese international scored eight times and registered seven assists in 14 Premier League outings.

But Brown thinks Martial’s season-long contribution means he edges out Fernandes in the race for the individual accolade.

He told MUTV : “It’s going to be tough but I’m probably just going to go Anthony Martial.

“I thought he stepped up this season and I love it when he smiles because that means he’s scoring! We need to see more of that.

“If Bruno had maybe got here a little bit earlier, it would 100 per cent have been him. I’ll stick with my guns and say Anthony Martial.”

Martial formed one third of a United frontline that also featured Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood.

Between them they scored more than 60 goals as the Red Devils achieved a third place finish.

But their Europa League semi-final defeat to Sevilla highlighted their new to add new faces with Jadon Sancho their No 1 target.

And Brown reckons the the Borussia Dortmund star would be a “perfect” arrival at Old Trafford.

Sign up for the brilliant new Mirror Football newsletter!

From the latest transfer news to the agenda-setting stories, get it all in your email inbox.

Put your email at the top of this article or follow the instructions on this link.

He added: “We’ve got some young, exciting attacking players but Sancho would be another layer of the cake. He’s exciting, he’s young, he can score goals and is good with assists.

“If they can get that done it would be perfect. United can always improve. The defence, midfield; the more competition going on all over the field, the better the team becomes.”