‘I left Man Utd without even speaking to the manager – he made me feel unloved’

 Andreas Pereira confessed that he deliberately avoided speaking with Erik ten Hag before leaving Manchester United to avoid being persuaded to stay. The Brazilian midfielder, currently starring at Palmeiras, made the switch from PSV's youth setup for the opportunity to work under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

At that time, Ten Hag served as assistant manager at the Dutch club and made considerable efforts to keep the promising youngster. Pereira ultimately made the move to Old Trafford in 2014 and made his senior bow that same year in a League Cup clash against MK Dons.

Despite an eight-year association with Manchester, the midfielder managed just 75 appearances and had loan spells at four separate clubs. Following his final temporary stint at Flamengo in 2021, Pereira felt it was time for a fresh start and was poised to join Fulham for approximately £10million.

However, the midfielder chose to ignore then-United manager Ten Hag due to a previous encounter with the boss at his former youth club. Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents, the Brazilian confessed he felt unwanted during his Manchester tenure.

Pereira said: "This was when I came back to England [after my loan]. Erik ten Hag, he worked at PSV when I was 16 years old.

"Before leaving for United, the [PSV] president and Erik ten Hag came to speak to me and my dad and said, 'Look everything is set up for you at PSV, if you stay here you're going to play in the first team.' But I'd just been to United and spoke with Fergie. I was like, 'I'm going to United.'

"That's why I didn't want to speak to Erik because I knew him and I knew that, at the time, it was always a conversation, like, 'Andreas, stay here. You're not going to play every game, maybe one game in every three, you'll be around the squad.' That's not what I wanted, I wanted to play."

Reflecting on his choice to leave Old Trafford, the now 29-year-old said: "Leaving United, you're like, 'Am I really going to do this? Am I sure?' In the end, you're never 100 per cent sure, really. Sometimes you think stay and have another go. Other times, you have to leave.

"I wanted to play, after Covid, I wanted to play. I was going crazy, wanting to play in the Premier League. I wanted to show that I was good enough, I was very close to joining [Everton] and suddenly my father called me and said, 'Andreas, you never played in Brazil, you're Brazilian.'

"I wanted to play in Brazil and want to feel loved. I didn't feel the love that I thought I should get. I wanted to feel loved by my own people, play close to my family and enjoy football. Everyone at United said, 'You're crazy, you'll stay in Brazil, you'll never come back to Europe.'"

These days, Pereira plays his football in his homeland of Brazil and has featured 20 times this season for Palmeiras - scoring two goals and providing one assist