Marouane Fellaini has been a scapegoat epitomising Manchester United’s post-Fergie decline. Now, surplus to requirements, he has made a move to China. On the other hand, the club has just tied up Anthony Martial in a deal until 2024, a symbol of what’s next for United.
See, there’s this thing about Fellaini. When he scores in a semi-final for United, they win the competition.
Such was the case in all three of their trophies – the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup – since Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013. Those three major honours saw United surpass Liverpool as English football’s most successful club.
Ferguson once said, “My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*cking perch.” And so Fellaini, for many a symbol of United’s post-Ferguson failings, has actually played an instrumental role in capping off the 38 major trophies left behind by legendary Scot to officially usurp his biggest rival.
But despite this, and the fact every manager he’s played under swears by him, fans have struggled to warm to Fellaini.
Signed from Everton for £27 million, having just been voted 60th on The Guardian’s ‘The 100 Best Footballers in the World’ list, expectations were high. David Moyes, filling arguably the biggest managerial boots ever left behind, made a statement with Fellaini: ‘This is what the new Man United need.’
The Belgian’s time at Everton had been a great success. In 141 games, Fellaini scored 25 goals and assisted another 14. But by April 2014, he was already included in ‘Worst Buys’ lists and in him, fans found a target for their post-Fergie blues. Moyes left and then came Louis van Gaal, under whom the midfielder showed his versatility, at times employed in an advanced attacking role.
It was also under Van Gaal that he established himself as an impact player. If things weren’t going right for United, send him on.
Then came José Mourinho who, in his debut season, won the League Cup after Fellaini scored in both the semi-final and with a 90+5th-minute winner in the final and the Europa League, where Fellaini once again netted in the semi, sending his side through.
It was under Mourinho that he flourished. Of him, the Portuguese manager said: “Everybody knows Marouane is not Maradona but everyone knows what Marouane is and what he can give. In this moment, especially this season and also last season he did many times what strikers couldn’t do which is score goals in important moments.”
Perhaps even more notably, it was Fellaini who Mourinho turned to when his side were 2-0 down against Newcastle in October last year. Pressure had reached fever-pitch and, subbed on at half-time, Fellaini was able to disrupt Newcastle’s momentum to help United come back and win 3-2.
One month later came United’s biggest scalp of this season when they beat Juventus 2-1 at the Turin stadium, with both Mourinho and Max Allegri singling out Fellaini as the difference in their post-match interviews.
All of which bought Mourinho time, but not an awful lot.
And so under new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Fellaini has only had three minutes of Premier League playing time. Having signed a two-year deal last summer to take his contract up to 2020, it’s telling that he’s hardly had a look-in under the new boss. It’s not just that Solskjær doesn’t want him. The club are saying whoever comes next won’t either, and so Fellaini has moved to play for Shandong Luneng.
On the flip side is the story of Anthony Martial who, as Mourinho’s chances of survival at United dwindled, began to shine. Solskjær has been experimenting with formations and positions where Martial has featured both out wide and in a more central attacking role.
Putting pen to paper today in a five-year deal reported to be worth £250,000 per week, Solskjær is looking ahead: “For a young man, he has a good footballing brain. When coupled with his exceptional talent, that makes for a player with an exciting future ahead of him.”
Seen by many as emblematic of the post-Fergie decline, it’s the young blood such as Martial and Marcus Rashford who usher in the next phase.
These are players who combine the speed and technical ability in attack on which United’s tactical traditions are based.
Fellaini, meanwhile, leaves an individual ever unable to satisfy the Old Trafford faithful precisely because he lacked those qualities.
Yet there was another of United’s, and Ferguson’s, traditions the Belgian was able to help uphold, and there are three more pieces of silverware in the club’s trophy cabinet to prove it.
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