Ruben Amorim stresses importance of keeping Bruno Fernandes at Manchester United

Ruben Amorim stressed the importance of keeping key building block Bruno Fernandes as Manchester United look to make summer improvements within their financial restrictions.

The 30-year-old was a rare shining light in United’s worst league season since suffering relegation in 1973-74, which was compounded by last week’s Europa League final loss to fellow strugglers Tottenham.

United missed out on silverware and valuable Champions League qualification with the damaging defeat in Bilbao, leading Fernandes to admit the club could end up cashing in on him.

Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia are keen to sign the Portugal international, whose head coach underlined the skipper’s vital role at Old Trafford.

“You can see by the performance, you can see by the leadership, the passion that he has for the game, so he’s really important,” Amorim said.

“You could see that in the last game [Sunday’s 2-0 win against Aston Villa]. I felt that the team was without pressure and they performed quite well, everybody wants the ball.

“But we had some difficult moments and in those difficult moments you can see that Bruno is the guy that takes that responsibility.

“He should be because he’s the captain, he’s experienced, so he’s really important for us, and really important for what we want to build with this team.”

Amorim, who was speaking at the start of United’s whistlestop post-season trip to Asia, will attempt to shape this side in his image this summer.

The PA news agency understands the club’s move for Wolves star Matheus Cunha is progressing, while there is interest in Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo and Ipswich striker Liam Delap among others.

But summer business has been made harder by the lack of Champions League football, meaning United missed out on an estimated £100million.

“Omar (Berrada, chief executive) can explain (the ramifications) better than me, but I think we always prepared two plans – one with Champions League, one without Champions League,” Amorim said in Malaysia.

“Without Champions League, we also don’t need a big squad. We can control the squad in a better way.

“Then we have a plan that is to bring some new players, of course, but our big plan is to improve the team that we have, it’s to improve our academy because I think that is the future. It was the past, so it can be the future.

“It’s not going to change so much because we have the fair play financial rules. We are not allowed to do much in this summer, even with Champions League, so we are prepared for that.

“Important thing is to stick together, like I said on Sunday. We are going to struggle, it’s not going to be everything right away, but I have the feeling and I see the team improving, so that is the most important thing.”

Amorim feels those improvements can be accelerated by extra time on the training ground next season, when United will be without European football for the first time since 2014-15.

“I have to say that for us not to be in the Champions League could be an advantage to perform well, to perform better, to prepare better the games, to build that core that we need for the future,” he added.

“I think it’s a good thing for us to take advantage (of) not to have European games.”