Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is ready to sell Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini this month – but the club want £15million for his signature. Belgium midfielder Fellaini has made over 150 appearances for the Red Devils and won the FA Cup and EFL Cup at Old Trafford since signing from Everton in 2013. The 31-year-old emerged as a key player under former manager Jose Mourinho and was said to be ‘hurt’ after his high-profile sacking last month.
Fellaini has featured in just two of United’s six games under caretaker boss Solskjaer and does not appear to have a long-term future at the Theatre of Dreams. He only signed a new deal with United last summer but the Daily Mirror say the club are ready to cash in and get the Belgium international off their books. AC Milan, Porto and a number of Chinese teams are said to be interested in striking a deal with Fellaini, who United hope to sell for around £15m this month.
During Manchester United’s hard-fought victory over Tottenham on Sunday, club legend Gary Neville suggested Fellaini – along with Romelu Lukaku and Juan Mata – was ill-suited to Solskjaer’s style of football. ‘Looking at what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has done, he’s left out Lukaku, he’s left out Mata most of the time, it’s not a reflection on those two players but they do slow down attacks,’ Neville said on Sky Sports during the game. ‘They can’t move from one box to another quickly, all these players can run, along with the quality they have. Fellaini as well.
They are two players who can potentially add things from the bench but they can’t play at this pace, they can’t make the movements of Martial, Lingard, Rashford, Pogba, they are not capable of doing it, they haven’t got the physical attributes to do it. ‘It [pace] is the basis of every team, you look at Manchester City with Sterling and Sane or Liverpool with Salah and Firmino, every team has to have those players and with the likes of Mata, Lukaku and Fellaini in the team, it was too slow.’ United, who are now level on points with Arsenal, welcome Brighton to Old Trafford this weekend.
