Bruno Fernandes has revealed that Manchester United were willing to sanction his move to Al Hilal in the summer if he had chosen to accept their mega-money offer.
Fernandes is set to make his 300th appearance for United against Brighton at Old Trafford on Saturday. But ahead of the game he's detailed just how close he came to leaving the club during the transfer window.
"I had the conversations with Al Hilal, everyone is aware of that," Fernandes said. "There were also other clubs that tried after Al Hilal, but obviously my answer wouldn't change. From Saudi, also from Europe.
"I had some people talking to me, but we never got into the place where we would be offering on the table or not. The concrete one was from Saudi.
"The manager [Ruben Amorim] spoke with me. He said I was still part of the project. He wanted me to stay. The club said the same.
"I always said that if the club was like 'Bruno, we want to cash in, you are 30 years old. We want to make some money. We don't think you can be part of the future project' or whatever, I would be like, 'OK, I have to find a solution for myself, whatever is best for me and my family' and I will leave.
"Obviously that wasn't the case. I felt that I was still part of the plan."
Fernandes spoke with Amorim, CEO Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox before making his decision. He also spoke with Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays his club football in Saudi Arabia with Al Nassr.
Fernandes was on the post-season tour of Malaysia with United when speculation about a possible move to Al Hilal began to surface.
The Saudi Pro League side were keen to sign a big name ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup and were ready to offer United in the region of £100 million ($133.07m) and hand Fernandes a vastly-improved salary.
"I think the first time I spoke I was already in Malaysia because that was when everything started," Fernandes said. "I had a conversation with Omar and I told him, 'look, this is what is on the table. I know the club might be looking at this in a way.
"'I will be looking at it in a different way so I just want to know from your perspective, from your side, what's the point of view, what you guys want to do. And then from there on, I will do my things.'
"Jason said, like Omar said, we won't say no but obviously we want you to stay at the club. But if you want to go, we won't say that it's not a good offer for us, because it's massive money.
"I spoke with Cristiano about the situation, about Saudi and everything. I wouldn't say what he told me, but we spoke about it."
At the time, United were fresh from the disappointment of losing the Europa League final to Tottenham and missing out on a place in the Champions League.
With Berrada and Wilcox working with a tight budget to sign new players, Fernandes said he would have understood if they had decided to cash in to raise more funds.
"The club's last biggest sale was probably £20m for Daniel James, I'm not very sure," Fernandes said.
"Scott [McTominay] went above that. But to go from that to the big amount that Al Hilal was ... they could offer £80-100m.
"I spoke with the manager. I said, 'look, this is what I have. This is the offer I have on the table. I have to think about if the club says we want you to go because we want to get a different player. We need money to get more players or whatever.' That was not the case from the club.
"The manager said to me, 'no we want more players to help you to become a better team so we don't want you to go, because then if we bring some people and then we lose you, we're still going to lose something'."
Despite choosing to stay at United, there have been suggestions that clubs in Saudi Arabia and Europe could try to sign Fernandes again next summer. The 31-year-old has a contract until 2027 with the option to extend the deal by an extra year.
"At the moment, no one spoke with me about anything," Fernandes said. "If someone told me, 'in the summer, look, we'll come again.' No one told that to me.
"I don't think they [Al Hilal] were very happy for me to reject the offer. I accept that because the offer was very good in terms of salary. Everything was massive for me. It was a huge difference.
"I feel good here. I want to achieve my dreams still, but obviously I can't talk by the side of the club. I've seen a lot of news. I've seen a lot of people talking that I had an agreement to go already next season. If the club has done that agreement, it wasn't made with me.
"I haven't spoken with anyone. My agent also knows how I work, so if he wants to talk to me, it will be after the World Cup. Because until then, I won't speak to anyone."
Fernandes has won the League Cup and the FA Cup in his six years at Old Trafford. He still wants to win the Premier League and the Champions League with United, while also leaving the door open to a potential return to former club Sporting CP in the future.
"If I had a chance to go to play again in Portugal, I would always put Sporting in front of everyone to get the chance to play for them again," he said. "But we feel like home here also. Many times, speaking with my family, we say sometimes the house we have here, it feels more like home than the one we have in Portugal.
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"Everyone knows my aim is to win the Premier League and the Champions League [with United]. If I'm going to do it or not, I'm not going to be able to tell you.
"The first question when I spoke to my wife [in the summer] and I said 'look, we have this offer from Saudi, the first thing she said was, have you achieved everything you wanted to achieve at the club?' Because she knows that I haven't.
"And when I talk about I haven't fulfilled my dreams at the club, it comes a lot from what she said to me. And obviously, I'm not sure, she's not sure I'm going to make it. But if I don't try it, that's for sure I won't make it."