Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini was forced into an embarrassing climbdown this week as he attempted a meek retraction of the quotes leaked to the international press while he was away with the Belgian national team. However, just how important is he to David Moyes’ side this coming campaign and their future ambitions?
The 24-year-old has been a rip-roaring success at Goodison Park since moving to the club back in 2008 from Standard Liege for a fee of £15m. The size of the fee has rather bizarrely been used in the past in an attempt to criticise Moyes’ ability to handle big money and as a stick to beat him with should he ever be in the running for the Manchester United hot-seat after Sir Alex Ferguson bows out of the game.
However, could those very same people honestly argue that Fellaini isn’t a better player now than the one who first stepped through the door four years ago? Would Everton not see a significant return on their £15m investment if he were to be sold in the future? Could they deny that he is a Champions League calibre of player in terms of ability?
The fact that he’s been seriously linked with the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United in recent times should demonstrate how far he has come, but how key is he to this current Everton side?
His goalscoring performance in the opening game of the season at home to Manchester United was absolutely magnificent, as he dominated Michael Carrick in a makeshift centre-back role, providing drive, energy and no end of problems at set-pieces (something he should do a lot more of by the way considering his size.) It was an exceptional individual performance and will probably go down as one of the better ones across the entire league throughout the course of the whole season. Up against Aston Villa next, he was in similarly lively form, even if he disappointed during the side’s 2-0 defeat against Steve Clarke’s West Brom side who are enjoying their own solid start to the new season.
Upon moving to England, Fellaini always argued that his best position was just behind a lone striker, but due to the nature of his size he was used as a limited holding midfield player initially – you suspect if he were to make a move to a bigger club that this is the role that he would come to occupy for them too.
Against Manchester United at Old Trafford last term, in tandem with striker Nikica Jelavic, with whom he has struck up a wonderful partnership in recent months, they tore the home side’s back four apart during the blistering 4-4 draw in what proved to be a title-defining game and two crucial points dropped for Ferguson’s side.
It’s not just that Fellaini is versatile and can play a number of roles through the middle, his range of passing can be both neat and tidy and expansive, he possesses great vision and is no slouch in the air or the tackle either. What he may lack in pace, his sheer size more than helps to combat and he is quickly developing into one of the top flight’s star midfielders and a big fish in relatively small pond much in the same way fellow countryman Moussa Dembele was at Fulham before securing a move to Tottenham.
Fellaini told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad: “I am just starting my fifth season at Everton. This will be one of my last. I have seen everything. In January or at the end of the season I will turn to another club or championship.”
This was quickly followed by the non-retraction retraction: “I was very surprised to read in some newspapers that I will leave Everton very soon and perhaps next January. Let me remind you that I am very happy in Liverpool and our start of the championship was good. Kevin Mirallas and some other good players joined us to make a better squad. So with Everton, I am ready to play all the season and to reach our goals of this season.”
It really avoids the big question of whether he would depart at the end of this season, with Everton rarely selling off their prized assets mid-season, but in need of a big sale every summer, such is their flawed financial model at the moment, the club may require it come next summer. In all likelihood, if Fellaini keeps up his form, he will be sold at the end of the season; the club know it, the player knows it and if they are honest with themselves, so do the fans. However, I’d bet on it surpassing the £24m Manchester City forked out for Joleon Lescott and closer to the £25m plus add-ons that Manchester United paid for Wayne Rooney; he really is that important to them.
Of course, no player is irreplaceable, and David Moyes has shown this summer when he sold Jack Rodwell, a player that struggled to get into the first-team consistently, to champions Manchester City for £12m that he is willing to forsake individuals for the betterment of the entire squad, going on to sign Kevin Mirallas, Bryan Oviedo and Steven Pienaar permanently as a result.
Fellaini would be a huge miss and his ability to combine power with precision is one that’s rarely seen and why he is coveted and thought of so highly within the game. If Moyes is given the majority of any proceeds from his sale to re-shape the squad, then it may work wonders, but alongside the likes of Darron Gibson, Leon Osman, Pienaar, Steven Naismith and Nikica Jelavic, he plays a pivotal part in the team’s fluid and flowing style of play these days. He’s a hugely important player right now, but as football often teaches us, no one player is ever irreplaceable.
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